Novi Sad, Serbia - Day 12

Sunday, September 17, 2017

From Belgrade we took a field trip to Novi Sad, the second largest city in Serbia, founded in 1694 when Serb merchants formed a colony across the Danube from a Habsburg fortress.

The old city was a lovely place for a walking tour. Our guide seemed to want to impress us with the diversity of religions represented here with their large physical houses of worship, but that does not really translate to reality. More than 70% are Orthodox Christians, 17% Catholic, 3% Protestant, and less than 1% of everything else. This is consistent with what we have been learning about Serbia.

Case in point. He took us first to a beautiful synagogue where he went into much detail. When it was built in 1909, there was a thriving congregation of 4,000. Now there are only 400 and services are no longer held.

From there we entered the main square which is the best part of a tour here. Today they were having a honey festival.In 1848 there was a revolution and the city was brutally bombed by the Hungarians in the fortress across the river. Ultimately, the city was under the control of the Habsburgs who rebuilt the town. It is a museum of neoclassical and art nouveau architecture from the second half of the 19th century and has been well preserved in spite of numerous conflicts in the region.

From the square, we could see St. Mary's Catholic Church with its 200-ft. spire built in 1894, and the Orthodox Church of St. George. Nearby was the Palace of the Archbishop of Bačka.

While we were touring, we saw this man playing the gusle, a single stringed lute-like instrument from the Dinaric region.

We had some free time so I walked along a pedestrian street. Then I visited nearby Danube Park and headed for the Danube River. I walked across the bridge and got some great views of the Petrovaradin Fortress, sometimes called "the Gibraltar on the Danube." It was built by the Austrians over 88 years, beginning in 1692, with German prisoners of war.

Then we headed to lunch in a small restaurant in a nearby village. While we were there, it poured rain, so much so that the street outside became a river. But it cleared afterward and we headed to our next stop. 

The Fruska Gora mountain area was once home to 35 monasteries, but many were annilated in wars. There are still 16 in use and we visited the 15th century Krusedol Orthodox Monastery.

  It was quite a peaceful setting, with a well preserved church. However the electricity was off so we could not see the frescos inside very well. There are still about 16 monks in residence.

Perhaps the real highlight of the day was a visit to a Beekeeping Museum/Winery (who knew they went together) also in the Fruska Gora area. A winery has been located on this property for 300 years but the Zivanovic family has owned it since 1910. 

He showed us the old underground wine cellar where they turn out 60,000 liters a year. He pointed out that these cellars have a constant microclimate of 12.5 degrees Celsius (about 54 degrees Fahrenheit) with their dirt floors and moldy walls. Due to the natural evaporation of wine from the barrels, mold is created over decades which helps maintain the humidity and temperature. Unlike other alcoholic beverages, wine is still alive when you drink it. 

Then we went to the beekeeping museum which went into great detail about honey production (not the "secret life of bees"). Until the late 1800s, the method for obtaining honey from hives was to kill the bees. This made it rare and expensive, not to mention inhumane. The Museum was a kind of memorial to a man who developed the moveable wooden slats to obtain the honey without killing the insects.

Now it was time for wine tasting -- and honey tasting. We sampled about 8 different wines, both red and white, and the last two wines were medicinal with 27 different herbs infused. All were good.  We also tasted 3 different types of honey.

Then we headed back to the hotel for a substantial dinner at the hotel and to bed.