Tuesday 12 July 2022

Pecs, Hungary

Pecs, Hungary

We moored at Mohacs and took a coach to Pecs, and just to be difficult, it is pronounced as Paige. It is the 8th largest city in Hungary but has a rich cultural history as it used to be the largest city in medieval times and hosts the country's oldest university and the Ottomans occupied it for 150 years and left some buildings and a mosque.

The cathedral viewed from the west.
Inside the bishop's palace...
...bhis study...
...a waiting room...
......a meeting room...
...and more rooms.
The east wing of the bishop's palace with one tower of the cathedral.
The south side of the cathedral with ts unique design of four towers.

The south wing of the palace.




Sunday 10 July 2022

Novi Sad, Serbia

 Novi Sad, Serbia

The name translates as New Plantation and is the European Capital of Culture for 2022.

                                        

Dawn as we sail towards Novi Sad and we moored during breakfast and then it was an optional walking tour of the city centre.

The library.


One of the many old buildings in Serbia's second largest city.
A municipal building. Many of the older buildings were destroyed or badly damaged during the 1848 revolution. The streets are wide to accommodate the stalls on market day.
The main square with more beautiful buildings.
The town hall, modelled on that in Linz.
The main church, not a cathedral despite Novi Sad being a city as there is no bishop living here. It is in neo Gothic style and completed in the late 19th century.
Another corner of the square.
A former hotel...
...and another hotel.
Just outside of the city is a seminary...
...the side v new of the main building...
...and the front facade of the main building.
The bishops palace.
A school for training teachers and languages. At independence teaching was in German or Hungarian and Serbians spoke Serbian and were generally illiterate so teachers had to write down and learn Serbian whilst also learning to teach.
The town hall.
An Orthodox church.
Inside the church, note that there are no chairs as worshipers stand and there are no musical instruments  and no statues.
A detail of the ceiling.

And then it was a tour of a local winery with samples of wine, honey, cheese and bread.

A view of the fortress on a hill overlooking the river and the town. It is the largest fortress in Europe and covers 112 hectares including ramparts, ravelins and moats but it was hosting a music festival and much of the structure was closed for the festival and so a reason to return in the future.

A former railway bridge support dressed up for the festival to look like a yellow submarine.

And that evening is was captains cocktails.













Saturday 9 July 2022

Golubac Fortress, Serbia

 Golubac Fortress, Serbia 

The first few wind turbines that I had seen.
A navigation hazard towards one side of the river.
The Golubac Fortress as we sailed past.
Our local guide dressed as a local medieval nobleman
The Danube by the fortress and just up river, the Danube is at its widest at 6.5 kilometres but here is the entrance to the Derdap National Park and to the Iron Gates gorge and a stretch place for a border post to control trade and collect taxes and a chain was placed across the river from the fortress to some risk on the far side.
The fortress from the upstream landward side.
The main entrance. It faced 120 attacks but was never captured by force but changed hands several times between Austrians, Hungarians, Serbians and Ottomans.
The inner entrance.
One of the ten towers.
Looking from one tower along the walls to other towers.
Inside were collections of replica medieval clothes...
...of nobles and peasants...
...and royalty.
A medical collection.
An arms collection.

The main road used to go right through the fortress and there are many scrap marks on the gates where vehicles have scratched the stonework but since 2016, there is a diversion through a 135 metres long tunnel to the side of the fortress.







Friday 8 July 2022

Donji Milanovac and Lepensky Vir

Donji Milanovac and Lepensky Vir 


We had a half day sailing...
...and passed the rock relief of Decebalus...
... and the monastery and the large flag of Romania...

...and the pretty house next door with its window boxes.
And then we idled for more than an hour. The Danube is at its narrowest just here at less than 140 metres and we had to wait for two tugs pushing barges to pass before we could enter.
The other commercial vessel. It looks wide here but the German Black Sea and Danube fleets consisting of 220 military and commercial vessels were retreating up the Danube followed by the Soviet fleet. The admiral knew that he could not out run the Soviets and sunk the entire fleet in the Iron Gates Gorge. The Soviets removed 20 ships and after the war, Yugoslavia removed another 20 but there are still 180 sunken ships hampering navigation. There is an EUR25 million project to remove the remaining ships due to be completed in 2026.
And finally we docked at Doni Milanovac to take a coach to see the Lepensky Vir archaeological site, excavated when the Iron Gates Gorge HEP plant was being developed and thought to be the oldest site of Mesolithic settlers in Europe dating back more than 8,000 years.