Friday, September 21
We signed up for an organized tour to travel to the province of Vojvodina (voye-vo-DEE-na) where the second largest city in Serbia can be found: Novi Sad. Vojvodina is known as the farm belt of Serbia and produces corn, wheat and grapes for its many wineries.
Novi Sad is a little over 1.5 hours from Belgrade and has a very interesting history…throughout most of the time that Belgrade was occupied by the Ottoman Empire Novi Sad was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. People of many ethnicities and religions found their way to this city and it became a cultural center and the de facto capital of the Serbian people. Even today it bears more resemblance to a Hungarian town than a Serbian city.
Our first stop of the day was to the Novo Hopovo Monastery which sits on the Fruska Gora Mountain in the town of Sremski Karlovci. The monastery, which dates from the 14th century, is run by nuns. It’s a small compound with the main attraction being its church, which is decorated with frescos in the Orthodox style. To help support the monastery the nuns sell wines and honey made from the grapes that they grow and the bees that they raise. The gift shop had a nice selection of items for sale.
(The Novo Hopovo Monastery)
Our next stop was at the Marcus Aurelius Probus Winery. Marcus Aurelius Probus (not the Marcus Aurelius from the movie Gladiator) was a Roman emperor who was born in Serbia. He had his legions plant the first vineyards in that region. This winery is named in his honor. It’s a small family run operation that produces about 17,000 liters per year.
Fun Fact: 18 Roman Emperors were born in Serbia.
Before stopping in for our wine tasting we hit a convenience store to get some food. By now it was after noon and none of us wanted to drink wine on an empty stomach. We tasted seven different wines. The first five were typical wines that most of us had tried before but the last two were special wines that are only produced in this region of Serbia. They are called Bermet.
Bermet typically contains between 16 and 18% alcohol. It’s on the sweet side and is normally served as a dessert wine. Besides its high alcohol content Bermet is flavored with around 20 different herbs and spices. Each family has its own recipe and it’s a carefully guarded secret. Bermet was said to be a favorite of the Hungarian Empress Maria Teresa and was one of the wines found in the wreck of the Titanic.
We started with the red Bermet. It had a deep, rich flavor that was similar to Tawny Port but, because of the herbs and spices, was reminiscent of mulled wine. Most of us liked it very well. This winery also produces a white Bermet which is much less common and was not liked nearly as well. For fun the owner offered us some traditional Serbian Rakia. By now most of us had their fill of alcohol but two of us (one of them was me) had the plum and quince flavors. The Plum flavored variety is traditional and was very good. Neither of us liked the quince very well, although it is also said to be quite popular. We bought a bottle of the red Bermet to take with us. It cost us about $10.00.
Right across the street from the winery was a most interesting church. It’s called the Chapel of Peace and it’s the place where the Treaty of Karlowitz was signed in 1699 between the Habsburg and Ottoman Empires. Unfortunately our schedule did not permit us time to visit the church.
Back on the bus we headed for the Petrovaradin Fortress which sits on the opposite side of the Danube from Novi Sad. The Fortress is perched high on a hill overlooking the region and has been home to settlements since the Paleolithic times. Construction of the fortress started in 1692 and was completed in 1780. It was built primarily to deter the Ottomans from getting to Vienna. The fortress was never conquered but the Ottomans eventually besieged Vienna just the same.
The fortress contains the famous “Drunken Clock”. The long hand tells the hour and the short hand tell the minutes. Why was this done? Fisherman in the river depended on the clock to tell the hour of the day. The small hand was too small to be seen from a distance so the hands were reversed.
(The Drunken Clock)
Our last stop of the day was the center of the old town section of Novi Sad. Our guide walked us through the main pedestrian way and introduced us to the many historical buildings and events that took place there. By now it was 3:30 pm and we joined most of the group for lunch at one of the many restaurants in the square. At 5:30 pm we met our guide for the trip back home.
It was a long day but we had a great time. We really enjoyed getting to know the rest of the people in our group. They came from as far away as Canada, Israel and Abu Dhabi.
(At Lunch with the Group)
Distance walked: 3.9 miles