Singidunum
( today Belgrade ) was founded by the Romans
in the 1st century A.D. It had a strategic importance for the Roman Empire
of which the borders were on the river
Danube at the time. Singidunum was defended
by the Roman legion IV Flaviae which built
a fortified camp on a hill at the confluence
of the rivers Danube and Sava.
In the
period between 378 A.D. and 441 A.D. the Roman camp was being
destroyed in the invasions by the Goths and
the Huns.
The Byzantine
Emperor Justinian rebuilt the Fortress around
535 A.D. In the following centuries it
suffered continuos destruction under
the Avar sieges. The name Belgrade, which
in most Slavic languages means a white
town
or a
white Fortress, was first mentioned in
878 A.D. after the Slavs had settled in the
Balkans at the end of the 7th century.
The Fortress
remained a Byzantine stronghold until the 12th century when it fell in
the hands of a newly emerging Serbian state. At the end of the 13th century
Belgrade became its cultural and commercial center. 132 years after the
Battle of Kosovo in 1521 the Fortress, like most parts of the Serbian state,
was conquered by the Turks and remained under the rule of the Ottoman Empire
until the year 1867 when the Turks withdrew from Belgrade.
The Fortress
suffered further damages during the First and the Second world wars. After
almost two millennia of continuous sieges, battles and conquests the Fortress
is today known as the Kalemegdan fortress. The name derives from
the Arabic and Turkish languages and signifies the Fortress amidst
battlefields.