Petrovaradinska Tvrdava - The Fortress by the Danube opposite Novi Sad

promised a set of photos of a visit to the Petrovaradinska Tvrdava, an old fortress that you would have seen from afar on the other side of the Danube, and so here it is. I wanted to check my info and it was started building in 1692 and finished in 1780.

But before I get into that, I took some photos along the way of things on the path.

First was this. It looks like there was a fire within the last day, there was a fire engine there, and there was a whole bunch of people gathering stuff out from parts of the building next to it.

This is the Druzhstveni Centar (I think this means the friendship center, in Bulgarian Druzhba means friendship, Mili said that was about right), something like a squat or anarchist collective mutual aid society or so. They help out people who are having money problems with things like showers and such, and they also have music events in parts of the location.

Apparently the city council has been trying to get them to vacate the premises, but they were still there. Mili knows a lot of the people there.

At one point I did see them carrying out what looked like some kind of wood fired heater or something, so maybe it was just some kind of accident that was related to this fireplace - it looked like a 55 gallon drum, with openings and a stand welded on.

Mili's kitty appears to have an abcess or infected wound under her chin, most likely from probably one of her brothers or cousins who lives downstairs beating her up. So she was taking Moli, (or Molly, if you prefer) to a vet to have it seen to.

This is a section of the river near Mili's place called 'The Strand' and they put sand on it and people go there to swim and such. It's pretty cold at the moment so nobody is there except this old man fishing.

The Serbian Army seems to have gathered more gunships here, and now they have also set up camp. I think the event that is coming up will involve tanks rolling down the road beside the river, the boats driving around, and helicopters and MIGs flying around. Nothing untoward :) Just standard military jingoism...

In Amsterdam I encountered this custom, and here I see the same thing. You can see engraved into the lock Dule & Anchy, a date, and Volim Te (I love you). A lot of the bigger bridges in Amsterdam have these also, with the names of lovers engraved on them.

A view from the top of the curve of the bridge over towards where the train station is.

In the other direction, towards the opposite side of the Danube, is a section of old city, at the base of the fortress.

A bit of graffiti against US/NATO on the ground along the bridge path. Serbia is not a place where this is just graffitti from communists, it's the general opinion, and why they have never joined the EU. But on my way back I noticed some commie graffiti in the same ink. Well, only commies scrawl this I guess.

This is closer up of the little bit of old city on the opposite side of the river. Some of these are absolutely beautiful, but could do with a little repair.

I snapped this one because it has some particularly pretty ornamentation. There was little shops and cafes and nightclubs along this row, though because of the way it's old buildings, they don't have big display windows or particularly large signage.

This is a big gate that seems to be a part of the fortress' outer walls. Again, some very nice sculptural work on the wall sections.

I rounded the corner and up towards the right following the sign directing towards the fortress and the city museum, this is the main inner gate that gives access to the fortress.

This is the second inner gate, it is quite a long bit of tunnel, about 30 metres deep. I love tunnels.

And, the light at the end of the tunnel!

And then, within the very thick wall this tunnel goes under, there is a nightclub. It has a sign that says it is open on Friday and Saturday night. I bet it's pretty awesome inside. I love ancient buildings.

This is the rear of the Museum building, which also has a nightclub attached to the side. Serbians in particular seem to really like nightclubs, you can find them all over the place.

This is obviously a transformer room, inside is high voltage electrical equipment. This is not nearly as scary looking to me as the ones that they have in Bulgaria, but it does have a skull on it. The text says Visoko Napon, Opasno po Zhivot (high voltage, dangerous to life), more or less the same thing the Bulgarian ones say, except in latinised Serbian.

The front of the Museum, an to the right is the Museum Nightclub.

Further up there was an elevated spot with a big gap between buildings where you can see a good view of Novi Sad from up high.

This is the big clock you may recall seeing from the previous photos of the fortress, up close. Over to the right on the edge near the fence is what appears to be a coin operated telescope.

Here is a couple of views over the little section of old city beside the fortress.

As I am writing this, I am reminded of something that an old, unfortunately late friend of mine, he used to have a number of funny sayings which some I now understand were transliterations of probably Serbian expressions (What's this business? - in the south east slavic languages the word 'business' has a lot of meanings), - instead of saying 'historical' he would say 'hysterical'. It always made me laugh.

The next three are shots of the city from out on the edge of the platform next to the clock.

The next two are some typical abstract socialist abstract sculpture. Both depict human forms in a very vague way.

Decorated by some typical tube steelwork, this is a planetarium. I don't know if it operates or not, I didn't read the sign that closely except to determine it was a planetarium.

So, I needed a toilet break, and decided to grab a beer from the restaurant, and I was led outside to this tent thing in which smoking is permitted.

Although, I'm not entirely sure it's not permitted within the building. I don't think those rules have descended here just yet. I remember in Romania there was a restaurant I was taken to by some guys who were coming home after a season working in the UK last year where it was still permitted also.

I forgot to go take a photo of a pretty brass sculpture of deer at the exit to this inner ring of the fortress, I will probably add that to the set after I get back into town.

I am getting a ride via blablacar tonight into Budapest, I need to make sure I have got that properly lined up, so I will be heading back across the river shortly to get this sorted out. There is an open invitation for me to return to Mili and Vladi's place, which I think I probably should take up, it would be nice.

*

_{All images in the above post are either original from me, or taken from Google Image Search, filtered for the right of reuse and modification, and either hotlinked directly, or altered by me}
Uploaded images hosted at postimg.org

_{If you want to send me some cryptos:
bitcoin: 3K6SPNFkDsRQNuZ88A1uN6QDWfbnGGzJkr
or through https://blocktrades.us via:
transfer $D to: blocktrades with memo 7b74ea00-6f54-4ed3-bffd-b1c5ec8c309a
which will directly deposit to my Wirex bitcoin-loadable debit card's wallet.}