Danube in Serbia – Experience it with the Camping Club Serbia
- Written by Portal Editor
At the invitation of the Camping Club Serbia, we drove from Belgrade along back roads above the Danube to a campsite near Smederevo, where we planned to attend the club's annual meeting.
When we arrived, numerous club members were already present and had already prepared refreshments for those arriving. In addition to the delicious food, there were many conversations, and we also learned previously unknown details about the Danube.
The Danube and its Significance in Greco-Roman History
The Greeks called the lower reaches Istros; the upper reaches were unknown to them.
From the year 37 until the reign of Emperor Valentinian I, the Danube Limes was the northeastern border of the empire, with occasional interruptions, such as the fall of the Danube Limes in 259. The Roman Empire only succeeded in crossing the Danube into Dacia in two battles in 102 and 106 after the construction of a bridge near the garrison town of Drobeta at the Iron Gate. This victory over the Dacians under Decebalus gave rise to the province of Dacia; however, this province was lost again in 271.
Danube – from Hungary to Romania
Just 25 kilometres after the Danube crosses the border from Hungary and the border inspection point of Bezdan, opposite Batina, lies the port city of Apatin, the first major Serbian city on the Danube. Until the end of the Second World War, it was inhabited almost exclusively by Danube Swabians. Further downstream, the river passes the city of Novi Sad, whose bridges were severely damaged in the Kosovo War in 1999. For over six years, traffic between the two halves of the city was carried out over a temporary pontoon bridge. Since this bridge was only opened three times a week, it represented the most significant obstacle to shipping along the Danube. Since the reopening of the Liberty Bridge on October 11, 2005, the Danube has been navigable again.
Continuing its course through Serbia, the Danube flows past the industrial cities of Pancevo, at the mouth of the Timiș River, and Smederevo, where the Morava River flows into the Danube. Near Stari Slankamen, the Tisza, the Danube's largest tributary, joins it from the left.
Below the ruins of the Serbian fortress of Golubac, it enters the impressive Danube Gorge at the Iron Gate. Here, the Danube forms the border between Serbia and Romania up to the two dams, Djerdap 1 and 2. On the Serbian side is the famous Djerdap National Park.
The Danube's importance for nature
A very significant problem is the constant erosion of the riverbed, which various government measures are intended to counteract, including regular dredging. Nevertheless, around 70 million cubic meters of sediment still reach the Black Sea every year, leading to constant changes in the delta area.
The Danube in Mythology
Jung maintained a long-standing exchange with the physicist Wolfgang Pauli on the questions of the "psychoid archetype" and the relationship between psyche and matter. The mythologies and religious systems of different cultural areas exhibit many similar or identical structures, patterns, and symbolic images. This can be interpreted as evidence of a common background of archetypal structures in the human psyche. One example is the worldwide occurrence of myths of a "Great Goddess" or "Mother" (the so-called mother archetype). Even Paleolithic Venus figurines may be an indication of this.
Thus, in Konstantin Kostenetsky's eulogy to Belgrade, the Danube is one of the so-called four rivers of paradise. The equation of the Danube with the Pishon goes back to earlier ancient views by Severian of Gabala and was revived by Byzantine writers through Michael Psellos.
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