Quote: Kalemegdan citadel is a rambling stone, brick, and earth fortress that has guarded the confluence of the Sava and Danube Rivers for almost a thousand years.

It’s easily Belgrade’s most impressive historical site and deserves at least a solid half-day of your time in the city. The fortress and its grounds take up enough space for a small town, and the buildings are a fascinating mix of styles. The triangle and star-shaped brick fortifications are typical of Central European baroque fortresses but, higher up the hill, the irregular stone ramparts and round towers clearly show their Ottoman and Balkan origins. This location in the borderlands of empires has helped earn Kalemegdan and Belgrade the dubious honor of being the most fought over (115 battles) and destroyed (40 times) city-settlement in the world.

Since the fortress hill was first settled by Celts in the 3rd century BC the Romans, Huns, Goths, and the Byzantine Empire have been among the many conquerors, and legend has it that the most famous Hun, Attila, is buried within the grounds of the citadel. After being settled by Serbs in the 7th century, and passing through Byzantine, Hungarian, and Bulgarian control, the fortress city became part of the Ottoman Empire. During the 18th century conflicts between the Ottoman and Austro-Hungarian empires, the fortress was rebuilt three times and most of what stands today dates from this time.

Certainly, the approach to the fortress from the land side has a distinctly central European appearance. There’s a wide flat park of formal gardens, statues and a gate tower that wouldn’t look out of place in Vienna itself. Inside this gate is the military museum that displays everything from catapults and cannonballs to weapons seized from the Kosovo Liberation Army and possibly Europe’s best collection of used 1990’s NATO bombs and missiles. Further into the fortress are a clock tower built by the Austrians, an Ottoman building that now serves as Belgrade’s historic monuments office, and a soaring victory monument from the post-WWI Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes.

The things I liked most about the fortress were just rambling around the ramparts and visiting the tiny church of St Petka. At some stage during the morning we were adopted by one of Belgrade’s stray dogs, who proceeded to guide us around the fortress, play at fetching and chasing and somewhat embarrassingly start to snap at anybody that he perceived as threatening. St Petka’s is a beautiful little orthodox chapel close to the highest part of the fortress that we visited partly in an attempt to shake off Mr. Dog. Water coming from the “miraculous spring” within the church was being bottled and sold to the faithful, but we weren’t sure if it was appropriate to use it for secular purposes like hydration and left it to those in the know.

Loyal Mr. Dog was waiting patiently for us when we came out, so if he adopts you during your visit, please give him our greetings!

From journals White city, blue Danube, black heart.