Serbia
Novi Sad
Novi Sad: A Danube Fortress and the Old Town Across the River
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Good to know
Where Ships Tie Up
River ships tie up at pontoons along the Danube on the city side, and your cruise line will tell you which one. Petrovaradin Fortress stands on the opposite bank, and the pedestrian streets of the old center are a short walk inland.
- Novi Sad is the second-largest city in Serbia and the capital of the autonomous province of Vojvodina. The city proper had about 260,000 people in the 2022 census.
- The currency is the Serbian dinar. Euros are sometimes accepted, but prices are often higher when you pay in them.
- Visitors must carry their passport at all times for identification.
Novi Sad on Your Own
Novi Sad is flat and its center is compact, so a day on foot works well: the embankment, the old town and, across the bridge, the fortress. Leave the most time for Petrovaradin, which takes a climb once you have crossed the river.
- Along the river: The promenade beside the Danube runs for about 5 km. Near its middle, a small square holds the memorial to the victims of the 1942 raid, with a view across to the fortress.
- The old town: Zmaj Jovina and Dunavska are the main pedestrian streets. Zmaj Jovina leads into Freedom Square (Trg slobode), with the Town Hall on one side and the Name of Mary Church, which locals call the cathedral, on the other.
- Across to the fortress: Walk over the Varadin Bridge, or take city bus 3 from the center and get off at the first stop after the bridge. The upper fortress has a museum, restaurants and wide views back over the city.
- Buses: City bus tickets are bought from the driver, in cash.
- Taxis: Use one of the established taxi companies rather than an unaffiliated car, which may charge several times the normal fare.
- Getting back on time: All-aboard is usually about 30 minutes before sailing, and your ship posts the exact time. A ship will not wait for passengers touring on their own.
Food and Wine
Cooking in Novi Sad mixes Serbian, Hungarian and Austrian traditions, so a lunch might be fish stew, stuffed cabbage or a strudel. Wines from Fruška Gora, the hills facing the city across the Danube, are the local choice.
- Local dishes: Look for riblji paprikaš (a spicy fish stew), rinflajš (boiled beef with vegetables and sauces), sarma and goulash.
- Futog cabbage: The village of Futog, just outside the city, is known for the cabbage traditionally used for sarma.
- Something quick: The Index sandwich is a Novi Sad invention, first made for university students. Bakeries everywhere sell burek and other pastries.
- Sweet things: Štrudla, gibanica, krofne and kuglof are traditional favorites.
- Riverside restaurants: Traditional restaurants by the Danube, called čarde, serve local dishes, often with tamburica music.
- Wine: The Fruška Gora wines served with local dishes include Riesling, Semillon and Bermet.
Tipping in Serbia
A service charge is already included in Serbian bills, so a tip is never an obligation. Even so, rounding up or adding a little in a sit-down restaurant is common.
- Restaurants: Leaving 10 to 15 percent or rounding up is common at table-service restaurants, but not at fast-food counters.
- Bars and taxis: Tips are also accepted, usually by rounding up.
- Currency: Prices are in Serbian dinars. Euros are accepted in some places, but prices are often higher.
Culture and Local Life
Novi Sad was long the cultural center of the Serbs in the Habsburg lands and was nicknamed the Serbian Athens. Today it is a university city whose center holds an Orthodox cathedral, a large Catholic church and a synagogue.
- Matica srpska: The oldest Serbian cultural and scientific institution moved here from Budapest in 1864. Its library holds more than 3.5 million volumes, and its picture gallery was founded in 1847.
- Theater: The Serbian National Theater, founded in Novi Sad in 1861, is one of the oldest professional theaters among the South Slavs.
- The reversed clock: On the fortress clock tower the large hand shows the hours and the small hand the minutes, so that boatmen on the Danube could read the time from far away.
- Several faiths: The Orthodox Church of St. George is the seat of the Eparchy of Bačka. The Catholic Name of Mary Church on Freedom Square was built in the 1890s, and the synagogue is used today for concerts because of its acoustics.
- Danube Park: The park in the center, laid out in 1895 on a former marshy arm of the river, is protected as a natural monument.
History
People lived on the rock at Petrovaradin long before there was a city, and the Romans built a fort there. Novi Sad itself began in 1694 as a settlement of Serbs on the opposite bank, and grew into a free royal city under the Habsburgs.
- Roman Cusum: The Romans built a fortress called Cusum on the rock where Petrovaradin now stands.
- 1526, Ottoman rule: The medieval fortress fell after a two-week siege, and the region stayed under Ottoman rule until 1687.
- 1692, a new fortress: The Habsburgs laid the cornerstone of the present fortress in 1692. Its tunnels and countermine galleries run for some 16 km underground.
- 1694, the Serb town: Barred from living in Petrovaradin because of their Orthodox faith, Serbs founded a new settlement across the river.
- August 5, 1716: Prince Eugene of Savoy defeated the Ottoman army at Petrovaradin.
- February 1, 1748: Empress Maria Theresa made the town a free royal city, and it took the name Novi Sad, "new plantation", along with Latin, Hungarian and German forms of the same name.
- 1849: During the revolution, guns at the fortress bombarded the city. Its population fell from 17,332 in 1843 to 7,182 in 1850.
- January 1942: Hungarian occupation forces killed more than 1,000 of the city's residents, mostly Serbs and Jews, in what is remembered as the Raid.
- 1999: NATO bombing destroyed all three of the city's Danube bridges.
- To learn more ashore: The Museum of Vojvodina on Dunavska Street covers the region from prehistory to the 20th century.
Novi Sad with Children
Novi Sad is flat, green and easy to walk with children, and the fortress gives older ones walls, tunnels and a strange clock. In summer the city also has a public beach on the Danube.
- Younger children: Danube Park in the center has a lake with ducks. In summer, Štrand is a public beach on the Danube, popular with locals.
- School age: Cross to Petrovaradin and find the clock with the backward hands, then walk the walls and look down on the river and the city.
- Teenagers: Walk the promenade to the memorial for the victims of the 1942 Raid, then on to Freedom Square. Point out the bridges on the way: all three were destroyed in 1999.
- A rainy-day plan: The Pozorište mladih, Vojvodina's first puppet theater, stages shows for children.
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