When we think about Serbia, most of us already know quite a few things. Such as that Tesla was a Serb, that most Serbian last names end with the letters “ić”, and that the No.1 tennis player, Novak Đoković, comes from Serbia… But Serbia is a country that’s never ever short of surprises! Here are some little known facts about Serbia you probably never heard about.
1. Between the 3rd and 4th century, a total of 18 Roman emperors were born on the soil of what is modern-day Serbia. That number accounts for a fifth of all Roman rulers.
2. Those raspberries you’re eating are Serbian! Serbia has been topping the global raspberry export list for several years now. In 2012, almost 95% of the world’s raspberries came from this country.
3. “Vampir” is the most famous Serbian word that is accepted and used across the world. Furthermore, the first vampire wasn’t count Dracula but Petar Blagojević, about whose vampirism was extensively written about in the Austrian press in 1725.
4. In Serbia there is a river called “Year”. But, no, this river is not actually named “Godina” (Serbian for “year”). Its real name is Vrelo, but it got this nickname because of its unique length. Believe it or not, this river is precisely 365 meters long.
5. When people think about clocks we think about the Swiss. They’re wrong! They should be thinking about Serbs. The Serbian clock-making industry is older than the world-famous Swiss one. The Serbs had their own clock at least 200 years before the Swiss did.
6. Serbia has a village made entirely out of stone. Yes, you’ve read it correctly! The stone village of Gostuša, located on the slopes of mt. Stara planina, is the most unusual village in Serbia with houses built exclusively out of stone, mud and natural materials. Time hasn’t damaged them so people still live in them.
7. It also has one rainforest. The Vinatovača rainforest is a special nature reserve with beech trees over 350 years old. In it lumbering is prohibited, picking plants is forbidden and moving of fallen trees. A magical place untouched by human interference..
8. Did you know that the Grand canyon of the Colorado river has a double? In Serbia? The impressive Temštice river canyon whose unusual red cliffs will undoubtedly remind you of the famous Colorado!
9. Serbia once had a French queen! Helen of Anjou was the wife of King Stefan Uroš in whose honour he planted lilacs all along the valley of Ibar. Today some call this place the Valley of Kings, others the Valley of Centuries, and the romantic ones the Valley of Lilacs.
10. In the south of Serbia, near the town of Kuršumlija, lies one of the 8 Serbian Wonders of Nature – the Devil’s Town. Đavolja varoš is known worldwide for its 202 peculiar rock towers created by soil erosion. And as if it weren’t odd enough on its own, this very unusual rock formation also has a twin!
Photo by Dragoljub Zamurovic
11. Europe’s largest gorge is the Đerdap Gorge and it is situated in Eastern Serbia. In Western Serbia, however, stands the second deepest canyon in Europe – the Drina river canyon.
12. The very first video transmission between North America and Europe that took place in 1963 featured “the White Angel” fresco from the Mileševa monastery in Serbia.
13. The capital of Serbia – Belgrade – is one of the largest cities in Southeast Europe. Also Belgrade has been ranked the city with the best nightlife in the world by Lonely Planet. So much for Las Vegas!
14. Serbia has many impressive natural attractions such as the Prerasts of Vratna, Europe’s tallest stone gates. There are 3 of them – the Dry Prerast, the Big Prerast and the Little Prerast which, being 34 metres high, 30 metres long, and 15 metres wide, is actually the tallest one.
15. Apart from Nikola Tesla, who is certainly one of the most important inventors in history, Mihajlo I. Pupin (physicist and physical chemist), Milutin Milanković (mathematician, astronomer, climatologist, geophysicist, civil engineer), Josif Pančić (botanist, doctor, a famous lecturer), Mileva Marić (physicist) and Vuk Stefanović Karadžić (philologist and linguist) are some of the other renowned scientists from Serbia.
16. Have you ever heard about lakes on whose surface islands float? Well, Serbia has those too! The Vlasina and Semeteš lakes are home to this unusual phenomenon.
17. 13 Serbs worked on the NASA’s Apolo project. Also, one of the founders of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration agency was a Serb named Mihajlo Pupin.
18. Three Serbs have won the Pulitzer – Valter Bogdanić, Čarls Simić and Mihajlo Pupin, and Ivo Andrić is the only Nobel Prize winner from Serbia.
19. Serbia’s nature has many mysteries yet unsolved. Such is Mount Rtanj – a 500,000-year-old pyramid. Because of its pyramidal shape, the mystical mt. Rtanj is believed to house a ‘pyramidal’ mothership left behind by aliens thousands of years ago.
20. There’s also the mystery of the Povlen globes whose origin is still under debate. While some claim these huge stone globes scattered on the Povlen hillside are a wonder of nature and that they have healing and miraculous powers, others claim that they were created by aliens. The scientists say are a result of volcanic activity.
21. The “Blooming of the Tisza river” is a phenomenon that can only be seen in Serbia, near Kanjiža. Every year in June a unique, romantic and melancholic dance of life and death takes place on the Tisza river as an insect called Palingenia longicauda performs a 3-hour-long wedding dance to the amazement of spectators.
22. The Church of Saint Sava is the not only the largest Serbian Orthodox church, it is the largest Orthodox place of worship in the Balkans and one of the largest Orthodox churches in the world.
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