Crossing Europe– from West to East – Spring 2014 (part three)
- by anna
- 7 June, 2014
Day Six: – Smedrevo, Serbia
The walls of the fortress
Today we need to go on the Budapest orbital road, which always in the past had meant large delays, road repairs and many frustrations. See how thing go today! The driving conditions are not good, but we make adequate progress. The closer we get to Serbia, the worse the weather gets!
Now the rain is very heavy, the visibility poor, many of the fields on both sides of the road are completely submerged in water. As we pass Belgrade, we notice that at the bottom of the many hills a lot of water is gathered and Police cars are parked diagonally on the sloped roads to prevent vehicles going down. Later we heard on the TV news that schools – both Primary and Secondary were closed for two days due to the atrocious weather conditions.
We found our hotel –interestingly named Car and with some frustration brought our luggage inside – it appears that there is no entrance to the hotel from the car-park – one needs to go around in the rain with the luggage to the front door to enter the hotel. 
Having deposited our luggage, with umbrellas in hand, we departed to the centre of town in search of Smedrevo Fortress. I was particularly interested in it, as in the book I am writing at the moment – The European Favorites of the Ottoman Sultans – one of those favorites is Mara Brankovitch, who married Sultan Murad II. I wanted to see the Brankovitch capital, where she had lived prior to her marriage.
When we found the fortress, we were very impress – it was enormous! It was shaped in a triangular form, with 25 towers, over 20 meters high! There were also 10 battlements, whose walls were 4 meters thick. It was positioned strategically at the confluence of the river Jezava and the Danube.
Despite the fact that there was a settlement here from the time of Tsar Samuil and Basil II, the town came to prominence, when it was built by Djurad (George) Brankovitch – between 1428 and 1430. After the death of Prince Stefan Lazarevitch – the previous ruler of Serbia in 1427, George Brankovitch, described at the time as a tall, handsome man, became the ruler of Moravian Serbia, Kosovo, Rashka and a large part of Zeta. Beyazid I allowed George and his brother to take back the lands their father owned against payment in the period of 1398 -1402. During Beyazid’s fight with Timur, George fought on the Ottoman side and after the death of Stefan Lazarevitch, the Council of Nobles, held in Srebrenitza in 1427, elected him a Lord of Serbia. His Despot title was sent to him by a messenger from Byzantium 1429. 
George was considered by his generation to be the most affluent ruler in Europe – he had a large income from both his gold and silver mines in Novo Burdo and his vast estates in Hungary, the expenses for which were paid by the Hungarian Kingdom.
George was married to the Byzantine princess, Eirene Cantacuzene, – the daughter of Demetrius Cantacuzenos – the Ruler of Peloponnesus and a granddaughter of Emperor John VI Cantacuzenos. She was named Jerina by the Serbs and was involved with the Smedrevo building project, led by her brother – George Cantacuzenus – a scholar, builder and a military leader. He wanted the fortress to resemble the fort of Constatinople and used
The moat of the castle
skillfully the 11 hectares of land to build one of the largest medieval fortresses in Europe. It consisted of Small Town – the Court buildings, which were completed by 1430 and where the Brankovitch family lived and Large town – where the officials and the army lived and worked, completed 10 years later. In 1435 the relics of St Luke the Apostle and Evangelist were brought here.
The betrothal of Maria Mara Brankovitch, George’s elder daughter, who at the time would have been between 15 -19 years old to the thirty six years old Ottoman Sultan Murad II may have taken place as early as 1431 in Smedrevo. Mara would become Murad II’s sixth wife. The match was of mutual interest to both monarchs – George was concerned by the increased Ottoman raids on Serbian territory and the possibility of their taking over the whole of Serbia. Murad wanted to ensure support for his boundary with Hungary on the river Danube.
Mali Grad
Sultan Murad sent a “Nymphagogus” (bride escort) to the Serbian court, called Saritzias, who was received by the Serbian court with ceremonial splendor. He escorted not only Maria Mara, but also two of her young brothers – Gregory and Stephan who were accompanying her, alongside over one hundred retainers and servants. The marriage ceremony took place in the Ottoman capital Edirne on the 4th of September 1435.
The fortress was fought over many times, conquered and liberated, badly damaged by the times. Smedrevo was captured and finally taken by the Ottomans in 1459 and the Serbian state disappeared. George Brankovitch, whose Despotate of Serbia had crumbled, had to ask Hungarian Queen for asylum and was forced to move to his estates in Hungary. The legend suggests, that when he was made Lord of Tokay, he planted vines from Smedrevo, from which 
the famous Tokay wine originated.
We walked around, climbed stairs and took pictures in the heavy rain until our shoes, sacks and clothes were completely wet. A decision was taken to go and find a restaurant and have an early supper. Decided on one of the most central restaurant – The Grand Kavarna and sat down. The staff behaved as if foreign tourists were a novelty – quite amazed that anyone might want to have a vegetarian meal! We had a small slivovitza each to chase the coming colds and ordered food and salads – I had to have fried eggs.
A greater problem emerged with the wine – I insisted we wanted to have a local dry wine, and the waiter told me that all the white wines were sweet, which I could not believe. Three other waiters got involved and after 20 minutes of them showing me bottles and checking them, we settled on a (“suvo”) dry rosé, called Jelena (like George Brankovitch’s wife). Then the water could not open the bottle – Chris had to show him how to do it!
After the meal we took taxi and I told the driver to take us to Hotel Car. “There is no such hotel in the town”, said he. Then after some time, he said “You don’t mean Hotel Tsar, do you? I was very 
amused – the difference is immense – Car pronounced as Tsar, means King in English!
The hotel was close to the centre and its main disadvantage, as I mentioned before, was the lack of connection between the hotel and the car-park. The towels looked as if they had seen a better day, despite the fact they were clean. The room was pleasant and convenient. On the next morning we discovered that coffee was not included in the breakfast menu and had to be paid for separately.
The Smedrevo ramparts
Day Seven and Eight: Sofia, Bulgaria
The only hotel we booked directly ourselves was The Metropolitan in Sofia. They were so heavily booked on that day, that the only place they could find for us was one of the Presidential Apartments on the 10th floor. Apparently, it was the one in which Pamela Anderson resided, during her stay in Sofia, some time ago. Luxury and space are not bad things – we had a large sitting-room at our disposal, capable of taking whole Government meetings, an office with a presidential desk, a bedroom with a bath, containing a Jacuzzi and a shower and another shower/toilet. Impressive art work decorated the flat; the views of Sofia from above were stunning. The new carpets were very well chosen. Also, the breakfast in the Metropolitan is always far superior than any other hotel we had been to in the last few years!
We managed to meet with a few friends, saw two exhibitions, looked at the new historical remains, opened to the public in the centre of Sofia and had a lovely lunch in “The Savage Restaurant”. In the afternoon we re-discovered how good Pirotska Street, starting just in front of the Central Hali, was for shopping!
In the evening we were invited to a dinner party, where two other “international couples” were also guests. Assembled by our wonderful host Tony Georgieff – the editor of Vagabond Magazine, the stimulating company was enjoyed by all.
Day Nine: Burgas –we reached our final destination!