Serbia, landlocked country in the west-central Balkans. For most of the 20th century, it was a part of Yugoslavia.

Serbia

The capital of Serbia is Belgrade (Beograd), a cosmopolitan city at the confluence of the Danube and Sava rivers; Stari Grad, Belgrade’s old town, is dominated by an ancient fortress called the Kalemegdan and includes well-preserved examples of medieval architecture and some of eastern Europe’s most-renowned restaurants. Serbia’s second city, Novi Sad, lies upstream on the Danube; a cultural and educational centre, it resembles the university towns of nearby Hungary in many respects.

Yugoslavia, 1919–92

The historical boundaries of Yugoslavia from 1919 to 1992.

Beginning in the 1920s, Serbia was an integral part of Yugoslavia (meaning “Land of the South Slavs”), which included the modern countries of Serbia, Croatia, Slovenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, North Macedonia, and Montenegro. Long ruled in turn by the Ottoman Empire and Austria-Hungary, these component nations combined in 1918 to form an independent federation known as the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes. In 1929 that federation was formally constituted as Yugoslavia. Serbia was the dominant part in this multiethnic union, though after World War II the nonaligned communist government of Josip Broz Tito accorded some measure of autonomy to the constituent republics and attempted to balance contending interests by dividing national administrative responsibilities (e.g., for intelligence and defense) along ethnic lines.

One major dialectal division which covers the entire Serbian and Croatian territory is based on which modern day vowel is pronounced in place of the old vowel jat’. There are three variants, but on the Serbian territory only two are found; these dialects are known as Ekavian and Ijekavian (the third variant, Ikavian, is found only in Croatia). The most widely spoken of these dialects is Ekavian, which forms the basis for standard Serbian.

Ekavian is spoken in most of Serbia, with its cultural center in Belgrade, and Ijekavian is spoken in western Serbia, Montenegro, and Bosnia and Hercegovina as well as parts of Croatia.

Another dialect group found is the Torlak group in the eastern part of Serbia, which is distinguished by a gradual loss of case endings as one moves eastward toward Macedonia and Bulgaria.

In recent decades, Serbia has built a name for itself as a top international destination for those wanting to enjoy great entertainment. Belgrade has a rich music scene, with something for everyone’s taste – from traditional Serbian music in the bohemian Skadarlija street, to Serbian and international pop hits played on floating river clubs on the Sava and the Danube to night clubs with a wide variety of electronic music.Lovers of classical music can choose between the classical guitar festival and concerts by the Belgrade Philharmonic Orchestra. There is also BEMUS, Belgrade Music Festival, which has brought some of the world’s best orchestras to Belgrade, including the New York Philharmonic, the Berlin Philharmonic, the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra and the Munich Philharmonic, as well as renowned conductors, soloists and ballet companies.
Every April, visitors to Novi Sad can enjoy concerts played by master performers of classical music from Serbia and abroad at the NOMUS International Music Festival.
With fun guaranteed and with a wide and diverse offering of music festivals that cater to every taste, all you have to do is pick one that best fits your musical tastes.

Serbia’s peasant traditions continue to exert a substantial influence on the arts, and traditional handicrafts such as the making of opanci (leather sandals) are valued as links to the past. Moreover, a significant part of contemporary Serbian painting is based on traditions developed in Serbian church frescoes and icon painting. But while folk music remains popular, particularly in rural areas, the country’s vibrant culture is heavily influenced by trends from western Europe and North America. Western rock music, in particular, has a substantial following, and Serbian performers such as Fish Soup and Djordje Balaševic have used rock to make political statements. The modern Slavic music known as turbofolk, a fixture of cafés in Serbia’s larger cities, combines the electric instruments of rock with traditional folk rhythms. Among the republic’s most popular turbofolk singers is Svetlana Čeča. Clubs in Belgrade and other cities offer performances by musicians working in a variety of genres, including heavy metal, reggae, punk, hip-hop, and even country and western.

The best-known Serbian writer of the 20th century was undoubtedly Ivo Andrić, who won a Nobel Prize for Literature in 1961, mostly on the basis of his novel Na Drini čuprija (1945; The Bridge on the Drina, 1959). Dobrica Čosić, another prominent writer and nationalist, served as the federal government’s president in the 1990s. Among more-contemporary writers, novelists Vuk Drasković, Milorad Pavić, Vladimir Arsenijević, Mileta Prodanović, and Borislav Pekić have attracted considerable attention. Poetry has been a particularly honoured form of literary expression, rewarded in the past by handsome prizes and official positions; Desanka Maksimović, Oskar Davico, Jovan Ducić, and Vasko Popa are among the most highly regarded poets in the latter part of the 20th century.

The Serbian Parliament's adoption of an extensive bilateral trade agreement with China in October, though largely overlooked amidst global events, carries significant implications for the nation's economic and strategic trajectory. Covering a diverse array of products, including weaponry, the agreement entails a gradual reduction in tariffs over a 15-year period, with particular attention drawn to the provisions regarding armaments. These clauses offer Serbia increasingly favorable terms for procuring Chinese-made military equipment, potentially deepening the country's strategic partnership with China while raising concerns about its alignment with European interests. Criticism from both the United States and the European Union underscores broader apprehensions about Serbia's growing ties with China, prompting calls for proactive measures to promote European investments and integration, thus mitigating risks of heightened Chinese influence in the region and safeguarding European interests in the Western Balkans.