The morning after our visit to Belgrade we docked at Golubac Fortress, built at the widest point of the Danube as the river flows into a pass of the Carpathian Mountains.
The fortress today houses an impressive museum with impressive artifacts like
Miroslav's Gospel, the oldest surviving manuscript in Serbian Cyrillic dating back to the late 12th century. The original document is actually housed at the
National Museum of Serbia in Belgrade. The version on display at Golubac is
a high-quality facsimile, and I'll confess that it had me fooled.
The fortress features permanent exhibitions that include medieval banners, heraldic emblems, and chivalric displays.
The stone structure rising up straight from the rocky cliffs is definitely imposing.
The fortress' strategic value is obvious, as its position allowed easy control over all roads and waterways connecting the east and the west.
A cannon tower was added when
the Ottomans controlled the fortress in the late 15th century.
I love how the fortress rises right from the river. This six-story tower defended the place.
The courtyard of the fortress does have a more ancient, ruined feel. I'm not sure why this part has been left in more of its original state, but I dig it. The sprinkling of 500-year-old cannonballs strewn about is a nice touch.
If the spot where our cruise ship docked is the same place that visiting (or attacking) ships had to dock back in the day, it seems like another solid strategic choice. You could wreak a lot of destruction on an invading force before they even got to the fortress.
I would love to play a massive game of
Capture the Flag here. Walking around the ramparts and towers was wonderful;
running around them seems like it would be an absolute blast.
A little frame-within-a-frame view of the cannon tower.
The cannonballs caught my attention up close, as well. Not traditional garden decor, but they work here.
I'm just now realizing how many of my shots include cannonballs. Here they're honestly secondary to the little boat mooring, but they do seem to be pretty intentionally placed here.
I didn't do much "nature" photography on this trip, and I'm not sure this little man-made pond really counts. But it was at least a bit of greenery. And it did have a sign warning about the presence of venomous snakes.
The Ottoman influence was a recurring theme throughout trip. The farther east we traveled, the longer the Ottomans had held sway over the region.
Mahmud Pasha, who conquered Golubac Fortress in 1458, also
built a bathhouse (or hammam) on the grounds which visitors could also explore.
Golubac was the place on our trip that most exceeded my expectations. I didn't do much research on the fortress beforehand, expecting fairly nondescript ruins. The renovations and exhibits really added a lot to the overall experience!
