Servia, Youngest Member of the European Family: or, A Residence in Belgrade and Travels in the Highlands and Woodlands of the Interior, during the years 1843 and 1844. — John Shaqi
Servia, Youngest Member of the European Family: or, A Residence in Belgrade and Travels in the Highlands and Woodlands of the Interior, during the years 1843 and 1844.Paton, A. A. (Andrew Archibald)
History
Servia, Youngest Member of the European Family: or, A Residence in Belgrade and Travels in the Highlands and Woodlands of the Interior, during the years 1843 and 1844.
Paton, A. A. (Andrew Archibald)
Serbia -- Description and travel
Being Bairam, I was induced to saunter into the Turkish quarter of the
town, where all wore the handsome holyday dresses of the old fashion,
being mostly of crimson cloth, edged with gold lace. My cicerone, a
Servian, pointed out those shops belonging to the sultan, still marked
with the letter f, intended, I suppose, for _mulk_ or imperial
property. We then turned to the left, and came into a singular looking
street, composed of the ruins of ornamented houses in the imposing,
but too elaborate style of architecture, which was in vogue in Vienna,
during the life of Charles the Sixth, and which was a corruption of
the style de Louis Quatorze. These buildings were half-way up concealed
from view by common old bazaar shops. This was the "Lange Gasse," or
main street of the German town during the Austrian occupation of
twenty-two years, from 1717 to 1739. Most of these houses were built
with great solidity, and many still have the stucco ornaments that
distinguish this style. The walls of the palace of Prince Eugene are
still standing complete, but the court-yard is filled up with
rubbish, at least six feet high, and what were formerly the rooms of
the ground-floor have become almost cellars. The edifice is called to
this day, "_Princeps Konak_." This mixture of the coarse, but
picturesque features of oriental life, with the dilapidated
stateliness of palaces in the style of the full-bottom-wigged
Vanbrughs of Austria, has the oddest effect imaginable.
The Turks remaining in Belgrade have mostly sunk into poverty, and
occupy themselves principally with water-carrying, wood-splitting, &c.
The better class latterly kept up their position, by making good sales
of houses and shops; for building ground is now in some situations
very expensive. Mr. Fonblanque pays 100L. sterling per annum for his
rooms, which is a great deal, compared with the rates of house-rent in
Hungary just over the water.
One day, I ascended the spire of the cathedral, in order to have a
view of the city and environs. Belgrade, containing only 35,000
inhabitants, cannot boast of looking very like a metropolis; but the
environs contain the materials of a good panorama. Looking westward,
we see the winding its way from the woods of Topshider; the Servian
shore is abrupt, the Austrian flat, and subject to inundation; the
prospect on the north-west being closed in by the dim dark line of the
Frusca Gora, or "Wooded Mountain," which forms the backbone of
Slavonia, and is the high wooded region between the Save and the
Drave. Northwards, are the spires of Semlin, rising up from the
Danube, which here resumes its easterly course; while south and east
stretch the Turkish quarter, which I have been describing.
There are no formal levees or receptions at the palace of Prince
Alexander, except on his own fete day. Once or twice a year he
entertains at dinner the Pasha, the ministers, and the foreign
consuls-general. In the winter, the prince gives one or two balls.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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