Where Is Serbia and What
Is It Known For?

Answer:

Orthodox church St. Marks in the center of the city Belgrade, Serbia.

Serbia, officially the Republic of Serbia, is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central- and Southeastern Europe, covering the southern lowlands of the Carpathian basin and the central part of the Balkans. Serbia borders Hungary to the north; Romania and Bulgaria to the east; the Republic of Macedonia to the south; and Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Montenegro to the west; its border with Albania is disputed. Serbia's capital city, Belgrade, is among the most populous in Southeastern Europe.

After their settlement in the Balkans, Serbs formed a medieval kingdom that evolved into a Serbian Empire, which reached its peak in the 14th century. By the 16th century Serbian lands were conquered and occupied by the Ottomans, at times interrupted by the Habsburgs. In the early 19th century, the Serbian revolution established the country as the region's first constitutional monarchy, which subsequently expanded its territory and pioneered the abolition of feudalism and serfdom in Southeastern Europe. The former Habsburg crownland of Vojvodina joined Serbia in 1918. Decimated as a result of World War I, the country united with other South Slavic peoples into a Yugoslav state.

Following ethnic conflict and the breakup of Yugoslavia through the 1990s, the state union of Serbia and Montenegro retained the name Yugoslavia until 2003. The two then became separate independent countries in 2006. The southern Serbian province of Kosovo declared its independence from Serbia in February 2008.

The landscape is rugged, mountainous and forested in the south, while the north is low-lying and drained by the Danube river system.