Editing Belgrade (section)

===Middle Ages===
{{See also|Serbia in the Middle Ages}}
[[File:Bellgrad-Weissenburg 1400.jpg|thumb|left|Belgrade 1400, before ottoman occupation.]]
In 442, the area was ravaged by [[Attila the Hun]].<ref>{{cite book |first1=Gerard |last1=Friell |first2=Stephen |last2=Williams |title=The Rome that Did Not Fall: The Survival of the East in the Fifth Century |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tGLN47tfT4UC&pg=PA67 |year=1999 |publisher=Psychology Press |isbn=978-0-415-15403-1 |page=67 |access-date=19 October 2015 |archive-date=10 June 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160610173616/https://books.google.com/books?id=tGLN47tfT4UC&pg=PA67 |url-status=live }}</ref> In 471, it was taken by [[Theodoric the Great]], king of the Ostrogoths, who continued into Italy.<ref>{{cite book |author=Roy E. H. Mellor |title=Eastern Europe: a geography of the Comecon countries |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uUoeAAAAMAAJ |year=1975 |publisher=Macmillan |page=43 |isbn=9780333173114 |access-date=19 October 2015 |archive-date=8 May 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160508041945/https://books.google.com/books?id=uUoeAAAAMAAJ |url-status=live }}</ref> As the [[Ostrogoths]] left, another Germanic tribe, the [[Gepids]], invaded the city. In 539, it was retaken by the Byzantines.<ref>Procopius, De Bello Gothico, III:34, quoted in Pohl 1997, pp. 89–90</ref> In 577, some 100,000 Slavs poured into [[Thrace]] and [[Illyricum (Roman province)|Illyricum]], pillaging cities and more permanently settling the region.
<ref>{{cite book |last=Bury |first=J. B. |author-link=J. B. Bury |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wDIJNvWb48YC |title=History of the Later Roman Empire from Arcadius to Irene Vol. II |publisher=Cosimo Classics |location=New York |year=2009 |orig-year=1889 |page=117 |isbn=978-1-60520-405-5 |access-date=1 October 2020 |archive-date=4 April 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190404203221/https://books.google.com/books?id=wDIJNvWb48YC |url-status=live }}</ref>

The [[Avars (Carpathians)|Avars]], under [[Bayan I]], conquered the whole region and its new Slavic population by 582.<ref>''Warriors of the Steppe: a military history of Central Asia, 500 B.C. to 1700'', [https://books.google.com/books?id=yVwsxl_OI18C&pg=PA76 p. 76] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160503013333/https://books.google.com/books?id=yVwsxl_OI18C&pg=PA76 |date=3 May 2016 }}</ref> Following Byzantine reconquest, the Byzantine chronicle ''[[De Administrando Imperio]]'' mentions the [[White Serbs]], who had stopped in Belgrade on their way back home, asking the ''[[strategos]]'' for lands; they received provinces in the west, towards the Adriatic, which they would rule as subjects to [[Heraclius]] (610–641).<ref>Bohlau, 1964, ''Slavistische Forschungen, Volume 6'', p. 103. University of California.</ref> In 829, [[Khan Omurtag]] was able to add Singidunum and its environs to the First Bulgarian Empire.<ref>''A Concise History of Bulgaria'', R. J. Crampton, Edition 2, revised, Cambridge University Press, 2005, {{ISBN|1139448234}}, p. 10.</ref><ref>Земя на световен кръстопът, Борис Стоев Чолпанов, Изд. на Българската академия на науките, 1993, стр. 39.</ref> The first record of the name ''Belograd'' appeared on April, 16th, 878, in a Papal missive<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.promacedonia.org/libi/2/gal/2_151.html |title=LIBI, t. II (1960) (2_151.jpg) |publisher=promacedonia.org |access-date=16 July 2015 |archive-date=24 September 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150924124620/http://www.promacedonia.org/libi/2/gal/2_151.html |url-status=live }}</ref> to [[First Bulgarian Empire|Bulgarian ruler]] [[Boris I]]. This name would appear in several variants: ''Alba Bulgarica'' in Latin, ''Griechisch Weissenburg'' in High German, ''Nándorfehérvár'' in Hungarian, and ''Castelbianco'' in Venetian, among other names, all variations of 'white fortress' or '[[Danube Bulgar Khanate|Bulgar]] white fortress'. For about four centuries, the city would become a battleground between the [[Byzantine Empire]], the medieval [[Kingdom of Hungary]], and the [[First Bulgarian Empire|Bulgarian Empire]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.belgradenet.com/belgrade_history_ancient.html |title=The History of Belgrade |publisher=Belgradenet.com |access-date=16 November 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110707223012/http://www.belgradenet.com/belgrade_history_ancient.html |archive-date=7 July 2011 |url-status=dead}}</ref> [[Basil II]] (976–1025) installed a garrison in Belgrade.<ref>''Byzantium in the year 1000'',[https://books.google.com/books?id=CSZQ-VPFKoMC&pg=PA121 p. 121]</ref> The city hosted the armies of the [[First Crusade|First]] and the [[Second Crusade]],<ref name="beligradcom-1934">{{cite web |url=http://www.beligrad.com/history.htm |title=How to Conquer Belgrade – History |publisher=Beligrad.com |date=16 December 1934 |access-date=7 July 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090616085512/http://www.beligrad.com/history.htm |archive-date=16 June 2009 |url-status=dead}}</ref> but, while passing through during the [[Third Crusade]], [[Frederick Barbarossa]] and his 190,000 [[Third Crusade|crusaders]] saw Belgrade in ruins.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.belgradenet.com/belgrade_history.html |title=The History of Belgrade |publisher=Belgradenet.com |access-date=7 July 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090628031001/http://www.belgradenet.com/belgrade_history.html |archive-date=28 June 2009 |url-status=dead}}</ref>
[[File:Panorama i ratna scena zauzimanja Beograda 1521. god.jpg|thumb|right|200px|[[Siege of Belgrade (1521)|Conquest of Belgrade, 1521]], Sultan [[Suleiman the Magnificent]] laid siege to the [[Belgrade Fortress]]]]

King [[Stefan Dragutin of Serbia|Stefan Dragutin]] (r. 1276–1282) received Belgrade from his father-in-law, [[Stephen V of Hungary]], in 1284, and it served as the capital of the [[Kingdom of Syrmia]], a vassal state to the Kingdom of Hungary. Dragutin (Hungarian: ''Dragutin István'') is regarded as the first [[List of Serbian monarchs|Serbian king]] to rule over Belgrade.<ref name="beogradrs-4">{{cite web |url=http://www.beograd.rs/cms/view.php?id=201247 |title=History (Medieval Serbian Belgrade) |publisher=Beograd.rs |access-date=10 July 2007 |archive-date=24 September 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140924073223/http://www.beograd.rs/cms/view.php?id=201247 |url-status=live }}</ref>

Following the battles of [[Battle of Maritsa|Maritsa (1371)]] and [[Battle of Kosovo|Kosovo field (1389)]], Moravian Serbia, to Belgrade's south, began to fall to the [[Ottoman Empire]].<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |url=https://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9050991/Battle-of-the-Maritsa-River |title=Battle of Maritsa |encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Britannica |access-date=10 July 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070614084904/https://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9050991/Battle-of-the-Maritsa-River |archive-date=14 June 2007 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite encyclopedia |url=https://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9046112/Battle-of-Kosovo |title=Battle of Kosovo |encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Britannica |access-date=10 July 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070626175037/https://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9046112/Battle-of-Kosovo |archive-date=26 June 2007 |url-status=live}}</ref>

The northern regions of what is now Serbia persisted as the [[Serbian Despotate]], with Belgrade as its capital. The city flourished under [[Stefan Lazarević]], the son of Serbian prince [[Lazar Hrebeljanović]]. Lazarević built a castle with a citadel and towers, of which only the [[Despot Stefan Tower|Despot's tower]] and the west wall remain. He also refortified the city's ancient walls, allowing the Despotate to resist Ottoman conquest for almost 70 years. During this time, Belgrade was a haven for many Balkan peoples fleeing Ottoman rule, and is thought to have had a population ranging between 40,000 and 50,000 people.<ref name="beogradrs-4" />

In 1427, Stefan's successor [[Đurađ Branković]], returning Belgrade to the [[Kingdom of Hungary|Hungarian king]], made [[Smederevo fortress|Smederevo]] his new capital. Even though the Ottomans had captured most of the [[Serbian Despotate]], Belgrade, known as Nándorfehérvár in Hungarian, was [[Siege of Belgrade (1440)|unsuccessfully besieged in 1440]]<ref name="beligradcom-1934"/> and 1456.<ref>{{cite book |last=Ćorović |first=Vladimir |author-link=Vladimir Ćorović |title=Istorija srpskog naroda |url=http://www.rastko.org.rs/rastko-bl/istorija/corovic/istorija/index_l.html |year=1997 |publisher=[[Project Rastko]] |location=Banja Luka / Belgrade |language=sr |chapter=V. Despot Đurađ Branković |chapter-url=http://www.rastko.org.rs/rastko-bl/istorija/corovic/istorija/4_5_l.html |access-date=17 July 2007 |isbn=86-7119-101-X |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130319070121/http://www.rastko.org.rs/rastko-bl/istorija/corovic/istorija/index_l.html |archive-date=19 March 2013}}</ref> As the city presented an obstacle to the Ottoman advance into Hungary and further, over 100,000 Ottoman soldiers<ref name="belgradenetcom">{{cite web |url=http://www.belgradenet.com/belgrade_history_middle_ages.html |title=The History of Belgrade |publisher=Belgradenet.com |access-date=7 July 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081230032249/http://www.belgradenet.com/belgrade_history_middle_ages.html |archive-date=30 December 2008 |url-status=dead}}</ref> [[Siege of Belgrade (1456)|besieged it in 1456]], in which the Christian army led by the Hungarian General [[John Hunyadi]] successfully defended it.<ref>{{cite web |last=Kovach |first=Tom R. |url=http://www.historynet.com/magazines/military_history/3030796.html |title=Ottoman-Hungarian Wars: Siege of Belgrade in 1456 |work=Military History |access-date=10 July 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070626184935/http://www.historynet.com/magazines/military_history/3030796.html |archive-date=26 June 2007 |url-status=dead}}</ref> The ''[[noon bell]]'' ordered by [[Pope Callixtus III]] commemorates the victory throughout the Christian world to this day, which is now a cultural symbol of [[Hungary]].<ref name="beligradcom-1934"/><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.mek.oszk.hu/02000/02085/02085.htm |title=Hungary: A Brief History |publisher=Mek.oszk.hu |access-date=16 November 2010 |archive-date=24 October 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181024132929/http://mek.oszk.hu/02000/02085/02085.htm |url-status=live }}</ref>