ZAPADNI BALKAN 27.04.-03.05.2020.

Jugonostalgia – visits to Ljubljana, Zagreb, Belgrade, Skopje, Tirana and Dubrovnik

This trip is for everyone who suffers from “yugonostalgia” and wants to visit the significant cities of the former Yugoslavia, with the focus being on this trip to the Western Balkans.

Ljubljana

Ljubljana (German: Laibach, Italian: Lubiana) is the capital and largest city of Slovenia. The city center of Ljubljana is one of 11 cities in the country.

The town lies on the Ljubljanica River, approximately 10 km from the Sava River. Historians disagree on the source of the name Ljubljana. In the opinion of some, the source should be sought in the word beloved, others believe that it is an old Laburus deity, others claim that the word came from the Latin term for a flood river, alluvian. Some, however, think it comes from the German Laubach – a lukewarm stream.

Zagreb

Zagreb is the capital of the Republic of Croatia, and the largest city in Croatia by population. The wider area of ​​the city has more than one million inhabitants. Historically, the city of Zagreb grew out of two settlements on the neighboring hills, Gradec and Kaptola, which form the core of today's city, its historic center. It is located on the southwestern edge of the Pannonian Plain at an average altitude of 122 m, below the southern slopes of Medvednica, on the left and right banks of the Sava River. The location of the city, which is at the junction of the Alpine, Dinaric, Adriatic and Pannonian regions, enabled Zagreb to become a bridge between the Central European and Adriatic regions.

As the largest and capital city, Zagreb is the cultural, scientific, economic and administrative center of the Republic of Croatia and Zagreb County. Due to its role as the largest traffic center in Croatia, a developed industry with a long tradition and scientific and research institutions, Zagreb is the most developed city in Croatia.

Belgrade

Belgrade, the capital and largest city of Serbia. The first settlements in the wider territory of Belgrade date back to prehistoric Vinca, 4,800 years BC. Belgrade itself was founded by the Celts in the 3rd century BC. e, before it became the Roman settlement of Singidunum. [3] [4] The Slovenian name “Beligrad” was first recorded in 878 AD. Belgrade has been the capital of Serbia since 1405 and was the capital of various South Slavic states from 1918 to 2003, as well as Serbia and Montenegro from 2003 to 2006.

The city lies at the mouth of the Sava River into the Danube in central Serbia, where the Pannonian Plain joins the Balkan Peninsula. It is the largest city in the territory of the former Yugoslavia and in terms of population of the districts in Southeast Europe after Istanbul, Athens and Bucharest.

Skopje

Skopje is in a strategically important position in the central part of the Balkan Peninsula, not far from the main thoroughfare that runs from Western Europe via Belgrade to Thessaloniki, Greece. The city is located in the narrow valley of the Vardar River, which is closed by the mountains of Skopje Montenegro in the north and Vodno in the south. This geographical position also resulted in an elongated shape of the city, extending almost 25 km in the east-west direction (along Vardar) and less than 10 km in the north-south direction.

Climatically, Skopje is also determined by its basin position. Therefore, summers are dry and dry and winters are cold and foggy.

The average altitude of the city is 240 meters.

Tirana

Tirana (Albanian: Tirana, the indefinite form of Tiranë) is the capital and largest city of Albania. The city was founded by Sulejman Pasha in 1614 and became the capital in 1920. Tirana is located in the far south of the Ishëm River Valley, 30 km from the Adriatic Sea. It is the industrial and cultural center of Albania. The largest industries are food, machinery, textile, pharmaceutical and metallurgy. The University of Tirana was founded in 1957. Tirana has its own airport, Nënë Teresa Airports (Mother Teresa Airport).

Dubrovnik

Located on the Adriatic coast, in the far south of Croatia. It is one of the most important cultural and tourist centers in Southeast Europe. It is known for its old town with numerous cultural and sacred monuments.

The popular name for the town under the hill Srđ is also the “pearl of the Adriatic”. Dubrovnik is also the administrative center of the Dubrovnik-Neretva County.

The city of Dubrovnik was founded on maritime trade and trade with the surrounding Balkan countries (Bosnia, Serbia, Dalmatia) during the early Middle Ages and for a long time was the only opponent of the Venetian Republic in the eastern Adriatic. Due to its wealth and skillful diplomatic relations, Dubrovnik developed significantly especially in the 15th and 16th centuries. It was also an important cultural center and the hometown of many significant poets, writers, philologists, painters, mathematicians and physicists.