Golubac

Golubac stands on one of the oldest frontiers in Europe. Under Rome the site was a stronghold called Cuppae, which became a town named Columbria in the 6th century; the name, like the Serbian Golubac, means the place of doves. The fortress 4 km downstream, first recorded in Hungarian sources in 1335 and dating from the 14th century, guarded the point where the Danube narrows into the Iron Gates, and in the Middle Ages a chain across the river to the rock of Babakaj may have controlled the traffic.

The castle changed hands repeatedly. It passed between Hungary, the Ottomans and Serbia through the late 14th century, was granted to Despot Stefan Lazarević in 1403, and after his death in 1427 its commander sold it to the Ottomans rather than hand it to Hungary. King Sigismund besieged it in 1428 and was nearly captured; the Polish knight Zawisza the Black was killed, and Cecília Rozgonyi, who commanded one of the attacking ships, was credited with saving the king. The Ottomans held Golubac for most of the next four centuries, with Habsburg interludes, until it was handed to Serbia in 1867 and the town in 1868.

The Iron Gate dam, built in 1964–72, raised the river and flooded the lower parts of the fortress and the town's riverside sports grounds, though Golubac was the first settlement upstream that did not have to be moved. A road through the fortress gates carried traffic from the 1930s until a tunnel opened in 2017, and the full restoration of the fortress was completed in 2019.

Golubac's identity is tied to its fortress and its legends. The best known, though plainly much later than the castle, tells of a Serbian girl named Golubana who refused the gifts of an Ottoman pasha and was left to die on a rock in the river; other stories link the name to the towers rising "like doves" towards the sky. The town also has names in Romanian, Hungarian, German and Turkish, a reminder of the powers that fought over it.

The river shapes local life. Golubac is a well-known sailing centre: the Sailing Association of Serbia has its training base here, used by the national team before major events, and the town hosts a regatta each August and summer sailing camps for beginners. Fishing has long been part of daily life, and the riverside quay is the town's place for evening walks.

The surrounding landscape has international standing: Đerdap National Park, which begins at the fortress, became Serbia's first UNESCO global geopark in 2020. In 2023 Serbian and Romanian municipalities signed an agreement on the idea of a bridge across the Danube nearby.

The town had 1,445 inhabitants at the 2022 census and is the seat of a larger, mostly rural municipality in the Braničevo District. The older part of Golubac lies on a narrow strip along the river at about 75 metres above sea level, and the newer part rises on higher ground to the south.

Since the 2000s the town has been rebuilt around tourism. The fortress drew 63,000 visitors in 2017, before its restoration was even finished, and international cruise ships have docked there since it was declared a port area in 2018. Plans for the area between the town and the fortress include new restaurants, guesthouses, roads and cycle and footpaths. Fishing and sailing remain part of the town's working life.

The main square and park have been renovated, and the town has a modern quay with a cycle path.

Life is quiet and seasonal. Summer brings visitors and sailors, and the quay fills in the evenings; in winter the town is calm.

Golubac eats from the Danube. Fish soups are counted among the delicacies of Serbian cooking, and in the town's restaurants they are made from the river's catch, alongside fried and grilled fish. Lamb and veal soups are held in the same esteem.

East of the Great Morava, which includes Golubac, hard cheeses are the dairy speciality rather than the kajmak of the west. Kačamak, a maize porridge whose name comes from Turkish, is a common breakfast dish, and bread is eaten with butter, yogurt, sour cream or cheese at breakfast, with bacon, sausage or eggs.

Rakia, the fruit brandy of south-eastern Europe, is normally around 40 per cent alcohol, though home-made versions can be much stronger, and many people distil their own. Serbian wine makers grow the aromatic Tamjanika, a muscat-family grape used mainly for white wines and named after frankincense for the scent of its ripe fruit, which is planted mostly in the Morava wine regions.