Novi Sad is the capital of the autonomous province of Vojvodina. It lies about 80 km Nort-West of Belgrade but also on the banks of the Danube and the geography of the area is a very flat plain with few if any mountains. The Austrian influence on the building styles are much more pronounced and it has a very different feel to it than Belgrade. I actually felt like I was in Europe!
We decided to take the train to Novi Sad as it is not something we do often and it was not expensive at all. The tickets were 840 din there and back which works out at about R80 (that is for two tickets). The train ride took about an hour and a half and was actually quite pleasant. It was wonderful to see the countryside and as we both were still rather sleepy (train left at 8:20 so we got up at around 6) the rocking of the train was rather soothingzzzzzzz...
When we arrived at Novi Sad we found out that even fewer people spoke English here than in Belgrade but by now we have picked up on a few words and could sort of figure out what people were trying to say. Strange how one communicates even when you can't understand each other's words. We took the bus into Novi Sad Centar. Climbing off the bus we saw this wonderful red sign with the golden "M" on it and as we were both rather hungry decided to go and visit a friendly clown called Ronald. We also bought a Novi Sad map at the news stand next to the bus stop and over a lovely meal we decided where we want to go and what rout we would take.
Trg Slobode, the Pertovaradin Fortress and the Newlywed arch were on our itinerary and after we had good sustenance we walked over to Trg Slobode which was very close by.On the square (Trg Slobode) one can see a huge statue of some important person looking very serious (Svetozar Miletića one of the mayor of Novi Sad a long time ago) and right behind it the beautiful City Hall. It was when I saw the buildings around the square that I finaly felt that I was truly in a foreign Europein country. There is no mistaking the Austrian influence here. Another interesting building on the square is called the iron man building as it has a suit of armor bluilt into the facade.
And of course a town square is not a town square without a church.
Opposite the town hall is the Catholic parish church with the Name of Mary which is often referred to as the "Cathedral". But as the bishop's cathedra (chair) is actually in Subotica (another city in Vojvodina) it is not a cathedral. It has however, the most interesting roof tiling and looks a lot like a cathedral.The Petrovaradin Fortress lies on the opposite side of the Danube river and is connected to Novi Sad with a Bridge. The Fortress, although now only a district of Novi Sad, was built before the town developed and it has quite an interesting history.
The key to it's existence is a high rock above the Danube form which you can easily control the river traffic. It was therefore inhabited form ancient times. During Roman rule a settlement and fort named Cusum stood here safeguarding the frontier of the Roman empire (which was the Danube). In the 11th and 12th centuries a castle with the name of Petrikon stood on the high rock above the Danube while the Turks and the Hungarians fought over this area. The Hungarians won and the castle and monestry 
beneath it was donated to the Cistercian monastic order. The Hungarians called the castle Petervarad (Peter's castle) which is also the source of the Serbian name. In 1526 the castle did fall into Turkish hands but was to far from their borders for it to be more than a port on the Danube. That changed when the Austrians defeated the Turks in 1688 and soon realized it potential. They developed it to be the strongest defense against the Turks with its pinnacle in the time of Maria Theresa.The town of Novi Sad developed on the other side of the Danube because non-catholics were not tolerated inside the fortress. Most merchants were jewish, serbian or greek and therefore the town developed quite a bit especially when Belgrade fell into Turkish hands.
The Fortress is well preserved except for graffiti on some of the historical buildings and is being renovated at present. There is a lot of potential for tourism but it seems as in Belgrade that Serbia is slowly recovering form decades of war and tourism is still developing slowly.
Our last stop before we returned to the station was the newlywed arch. Seeing that we are practically still newlyweds we decided that it has to be a place visited.By this time we were both quite tired so we decided to try and catch the 15:47 train back to Belgrade. Seeing that it was already 15:10 this casued a litlle bit of a dash to the station. But in the end we had a very lovely day and enjoyed it tremendously.
Click here for more photos of Novi Sad
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