Belgrade, the Serbian capital, one of the oldest cities of Europe and the “City of the Future of Southern Europe”, according to a 2006 poll by the Financial Times, has announced its candidacy for the title of European Capital of Culture 2020.             

CITY OF THE FUTURE

CONSTANTINOPLE ON THE RIVERS
Belgrade has an exceptional geographic and hydro-geographic position at the confluence of two large international rivers, the Sava and the Danube, and along traditional routes between Central Europe and the Middle East. Belgrade’s geographical coordinates are marked on the city’s main pedestrian street of Knez Mihailova. The city is located 116.75 metres above sea level and marks the 1,170th kilometre of the Danube, as measured from its source in Schwarzwald Mountain (Black Forest). Many found its silhouette from the rivers and the relation of water and land reminiscent of a riverside version of Constantinople. Despot Stefan Lazarevi, who declared Belgrade his capital in 1397, compared it with Zion, according to records of his biographer, Constantine the Philosopher.
- This city was truly on seven hills. For the highest hill of Belgrade and the most beautiful, similar to Zion, was the image of holy Jerusalem..., wrote, among other things, Constantine the Philosopher. In one chapter of Hamam Balkania, by contemporary Serbian writer Vladislav Bajac, Mimar Sinan - the greatest builder of the Golden Age of the Ottoman Empire - explains to Mehmed Pasha Sokolovic:...I’ve compared the positions of Belgrade and Istanbul on various maps, namely their parts known under the names of Kalemegdan and the Golden Horn, and here is what I have concluded: Belgrade has the Sava on one side and the Danube on the other, while Istanbul has the Black Sea on one side and the Marmara on the other. It does not change a thing. Water is water. After all, what’s important about it is its width and depth.
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www.beograd2020.com