Sremski Karlovci

Introduction

Sremski Karlovci was the spiritual and cultural capital of the Serbs under Habsburg rule. With fewer than ten thousand inhabitants, it holds the most complete Baroque townscape in Vojvodina. It was first recorded in 1308 as the fortress of Karom under Hungarian rule. After the great Serb migration of 1690 it became the refuge and administrative centre for Serbs in Habsburg territory. On 26 January 1699 the Christian alliance and the Ottoman Empire signed the Treaty of Karlowitz here, ending the Great Turkish War, and the Chapel of Peace was built on the site in 1817. It long remained the spiritual core of the Serbs: the Metropolitanate of Karlovci was raised to a patriarchate in 1848, and the Serbian Orthodox patriarch sat here until the seat moved to Belgrade in 1920. On 1 November 1791 the first Serbian grammar school opened here, followed in 1794 by the oldest Serbian Orthodox seminary. The May Assembly of 1848 was also convened here. The centre gathers around Trg Branka Radicevic, and the whole historic district is only two or three streets wide, with ochre, terracotta and cream facades forming a Baroque skyline. The Cathedral of St Nicholas was begun in 1758 and completed in 1762, its twin towers dominating the square and holding paintings by Paja Jovanovic and the relics of St Arsenije; next door stands the Roman Catholic Church of the Holy Trinity of 1768, built on the site of a Benedictine basilica. Two churches facing each other across a street is the everyday evidence of this town's compound identity. The Four Lions fountain was erected in 1799 for the town's first water supply and restored in 2007. Local legend says anyone who drinks from it will return to Karlovci and marry here, which is why it has always been the meeting point on the square. Around it stand the Town Hall of 1811 and the oldest pharmacy in Vojvodina. The wine is better known than the town. Vine growing on the slopes of Fruška Gora goes back to Roman times, and more than twenty wineries are now registered. Bermet is a spiced fortified dessert wine at 15 to 18 degrees, made with twenty to twenty-seven herbs and spices, produced only here, with each wine family keeping its own recipe. It is said to have been on the Titanic's wine list; that cannot be verified and is more likely a marketing story, but the wine itself is genuinely good. Book tastings in advance. Most wineries are not open to walk-ins and turning up unannounced often finds a shut door; booking through the town tourist centre or the winery's own site is the reliable route. The best plan pairs this with Novi Sad in one day: Petrovaradin Fortress and Freedom Square in the morning, then out to Karlovci in the afternoon, with a Bermet tasting at a cellar before heading back for dinner. Add the Fruška Gora monasteries and you have the full Vojvodina day.

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