Serbia

The land of Serbia has been inhabited since deep antiquity, home to the prehistoric Vinca culture and later a Roman province that produced several emperors. In the Middle Ages a Serbian kingdom and then empire rose to dominate much of the Balkans, reaching its height in the fourteenth century before the Ottoman conquest, marked in national memory by the Battle of Kosovo in 1389. After centuries under Ottoman rule, Serbia regained independence through revolution in the nineteenth century and went on to play a central part in the founding of Yugoslavia.

Serbia is varied in landscape, with the flat, exceptionally fertile plains of Vojvodina in the north giving way to rolling hills and, in the south and east, mountains and river gorges. The Danube and its tributaries, the Sava and the Morava, water the land and have long served as routes of trade and travel. The dramatic Iron Gates gorge, where the Danube cuts through the mountains on the border with Romania, is one of the great natural features of Europe.

The flag of Serbia has three horizontal bands of red, blue, and white, the pan-Slavic colours, with the national coat of arms set toward the hoist. The shield bears a white double-headed eagle, a symbol of Serbian statehood inherited from the Byzantine world, above a cross flanked by four shapes often read as firesteels. The flag connects modern Serbia to its medieval kingdom and to the wider family of Slavic and Orthodox nations.

The great majority of Serbs belong to the Serbian Orthodox Church, an Eastern Orthodox faith that has been bound up with Serbian national identity for centuries and helped preserve a sense of nationhood through long periods of foreign rule. The church's monasteries, many of them medieval masterpieces filled with frescoes, are among the country's greatest cultural treasures. Religious tradition, festivals, and the family patron saint celebration remain important features of Serbian life.

Serbian cuisine is hearty and meat-rich, sharing much with the wider Balkans. Grilled meats are central, above all cevapi, small grilled rolls of minced meat, and various skewers and cutlets, often accompanied by ajvar, a relish of roasted red peppers. Hearty stews, fresh cheeses, and bread feature widely, and meals are frequently rounded off with rakija, a strong fruit brandy. Food is closely tied to a culture of generous hospitality.

Agriculture is an important part of Serbia's economy, centred on the rich black soil of the Vojvodina plain in the north, one of the most fertile regions in Europe. Farmers there grow abundant maize, wheat, sugar beet, and sunflowers, and the country is a notable producer of fruit, including being among the world's leading exporters of raspberries. Serbia also has a long winemaking tradition and produces plums in great quantity for both eating and brandy.

The medieval Serbian empire and the Battle of Kosovo, the long Ottoman period, and the revolution that restored independence shaped the nation's identity. In the twentieth century Serbia was at the centre of the creation of Yugoslavia, the South Slav state, and at the centre of its violent breakup in the 1990s, a series of conflicts that reshaped the Balkans. Serbia today is the largest of the states that emerged from the former Yugoslavia.

Serbia has a population of around 6.6 million people, the great majority ethnic Serbs, a South Slavic and Orthodox Christian people, alongside minorities including Hungarians in the north. Like much of the region, the country faces population decline through low birth rates and emigration. Most Serbians live in towns and cities, above all the lively capital, Belgrade, one of the oldest and largest cities in the Balkans, set at the confluence of the Sava and the Danube.