Where to Stay in Smederevo, Central Serbia

What is Smederevo known for?

On the south bank of the great river east of Belgrade, it was the last capital of medieval Serbia, and it keeps the vast triangular fortress that its despot built on the water, the towers and walls that guarded the old realm, the vineyards of the grape country around, and the wide brown Danube running past. The great fortress rises by the river. The vineyards roll inland.

What are the main landmarks in Smederevo?

The Smederevo Fortress is the great sight of the Danube. The vast triangular castle of stone, its two dozen towers and long walls standing on the riverbank, spreads by the water, the emblem of the city, above the Danube. Vines cover the slopes around.

The vineyards of the grape country climb the hills behind the town, while the old churches, the river quays, and the town museum mark the country around Smederevo.

What is the history of Smederevo?

Smederevo was the last capital of medieval Serbia. As the Ottomans pressed in from the south, the Serbian despot moved his seat here to the Danube in the fifteenth century, and raised a huge fortress on the riverbank to hold the shrinking realm. The fortress rose in haste.

In a few short years the labour of the whole land raised the great triangular castle of towers and walls, one of the largest lowland fortresses in Europe. The realm fell to the Turks. Despite its walls Smederevo was taken by the Ottomans, and with its fall the medieval Serbian state came to its end, and the town passed under Turkish rule for centuries.

The vineyards kept the town. Through the long years Smederevo lived by the vines of its slopes and the trade of the Danube, and it grew again as the grape and river city of the Serbian north. The great fortress still guards the river.

Smederevo keeps its fortress and its vineyards on the Danube.

Where is Smederevo?

Smederevo lies in the north of Serbia, on the south bank of the Danube east of Belgrade. The city stands where the great river runs along a plain of vineyards and orchards, at the edge of the fertile Šumadija hills, with the wide Danube to the north and low green slopes rising south. Wide water runs to the east.

The vineyards roll over the hills.

What is the climate of Smederevo?

Smederevo sits in a temperate continental belt beside the Danube. Warm summers and cold winters cross the Danube plain, with rain through the year and snow in the winter, warmed a little by the great river. The summer ripens the grapes.

Winter brings snow to the plain.

How do you get to Smederevo?

Smederevo lies on the Danube, on the road and rail east of Belgrade. Roads and trains run to it down the river from Belgrade across the plain, and boats work the Danube. Lanes ring the old fortress.

Belgrade lies west up the river.