BELGRADE, bel-gr5d' (Serv. Beograd, from bet, white -f- grad, city, fortress; in Ger. senbury, same meaning, anciently Sin/lir/mm(0. The capital of Servia, situated at the confluence of the rivers Save and Danube (Map: Turkey in Europe, C 2). It consists of half a dozen dis tinct quarters. The famous old fortress occu pies in part the level ground at the junction of the two rivers, and in part is built on a hill about 150 feet high. The appearance of Belgrade has been greatly modernized during the last dec ades. One section, known as the English Quar ter, has handsome villas and gardens. There are large business houses and hotels, and a number of banks. Hundreds of cabs, as well as a tramway and an electric railway, afford easy means of communication between the different parts of the city. The King's Palace, the Metropolitan Cathedral, the residence of the Metropolitan, the National Theatre, and the public offices are the principal buildings. One of the old mosques is in a good state of preservation. The city has three parks, one of which contains a menagerie and the other an obelisk commemorating the eman cipation of the Servians from Turkish rule. At the head of the educational institutions is a royal college with faculties of philosophy, juris prudence, and engineering. Belgrade is the seat
of the Royal Servian Academy of Sciences, to which belongs the National Library, with about 100,000 volumes. The industries of the town are not important, but its commerce is extensive, it being the great entrep5t of the trade between Austria-Hungary and Servia, and the outlet of the products of the kingdom. It exports the raw products of Servia and imports largely man ufactured products. The population of Belgrade is increasing rapidly; in 1884 there were 26•600 inhabitants; in 1890. 54.500; in 1895, 59,100; in 1900, 09,097. At the close of the Middle Ages Belgrade was a frontier fortress of Hungary, and in the Turkish wars was a key to that king dom. It was stormed in 1521 by the Turks, who had attempted to capture the town in 1456, and bad been repulsed with great loss by John Hun yady and a crusading force. Thrice taken for Austria—in 1088 by the Elector of Bavaria, in 1717 by Prince Eugene (after a brilliant victory over the Turks), and in 1789 by General Loudon —it was restored each time, by treaty. to the Turks. Though Servia became practically inde pendent in the early part of the Nineteenth Cen tury, the Turkish garrison was not withdrawn till 1807.