Southern Serbia

Niš was the Roman Naissus, a crossroads on the military road from the Danube to Constantinople, and Constantine the Great was born there in the late 3rd century; the villa at Mediana was used by later emperors. Justinian built Justiniana Prima, now Caričin Grad near Lebane, in the 6th century. Slavs settled the valleys, and Byzantium, Bulgaria and Serbia fought over them through the Middle Ages.

Kruševac was the capital of Prince Lazar, who led the Serbs at the Battle of Kosovo in 1389 and built the Lazarica church. The Ottomans took the south in the 15th century, and it stayed Ottoman longer than the north: Niš was a major garrison town on the Istanbul road, and in 1809 Serbian rebels led by Stevan Sinđelić blew up their own position at Čegar rather than surrender; the Ottoman commander had the rebels' skulls built into the Skull Tower. Kruševac joined the principality in 1833, but Niš, Pirot, Leskovac and Vranje were won only in the war of 1877–78, when much of the Muslim population left.

Niš served as Serbia's wartime seat of government in 1914 and 1915, and the Toplica valley rose against Bulgarian occupation in 1917. In the Second World War the Germans ran the Crveni Krst camp in Niš. Under Yugoslavia, Niš grew into an electronics and university city and Leskovac into a textile centre. Between 1999 and 2001 an Albanian insurgency was fought in the Preševo valley.

The south speaks differently: the Torlakian dialects around Niš, Pirot, Leskovac and Vranje drop many grammatical cases and share features with Bulgarian and Macedonian, and southerners are teased, and tease back, about their accent. People from Niš pride themselves on humour, easy-going manners and an unhurried approach to life.

Music is central. Vranje is famous for its old urban songs, sung in the south and across Serbia, and the writer Borisav Stanković set his novel Impure Blood in the town. Niš hosts Nišville, a jazz festival held at the fortress each August, and Leskovac's Roštiljijada is a grill festival held in early September.

Crafts survive in Pirot, whose woven kilims, the pirotski ćilim, with their geometric patterns, are the region's best-known craft. The south is mainly Orthodox, but the Preševo valley has an Albanian Muslim majority, Bosilegrad and Dimitrovgrad have Bulgarian communities, and there are sizeable Roma communities.

Niš, with about 250,000 people, is Serbia's third city and the capital of the south, with a large university, and foreign-owned factories. Kruševac and Leskovac each have over 100,000 in their municipalities; Vranje, Pirot and Prokuplje are smaller. Pirot has a large tyre factory, and Kruševac has machinery plants.

Much of the south is poor by Serbian standards. The collapse of Yugoslav industry hit Leskovac's textile mills and the smaller towns hard, and districts such as Toplica, Jablanica and Pčinja have lost large shares of their people to Belgrade, Western Europe and, more recently, to the new jobs in Niš. Many villages are home mainly to the elderly.

Days follow the Balkan rhythm of strong coffee in the morning, a large late lunch and evening walks along Niš's Obrenovićeva street or the town promenades. Agriculture matters: peppers around Leskovac, vines in the Župa valley, and sheep on Stara Planina.

The south is Serbia's grilling capital. Leskovac gives its name to leskovački roštilj, the grill of ćevapi, pljeskavica patties, ražnjići skewers and uštipci, minced meat patties, served with raw onion, lepinja bread and urnebes, a spicy spread of white cheese and hot pepper. The Leskovac area is also known for its red peppers and paprika.

Pirot contributes two well-known products: Pirot kačkavalj, a hard yellow cheese, and peglana kobasica, the "ironed" sausage, pressed flat and dried. Burek, a flaky pastry of meat or cheese, is a breakfast favourite here as across Serbia. Stuffed peppers, sarma and lamb roasted on the spit fill the festive table.

Wine is made in the Župa valley around Aleksandrovac, whose September grape harvest festival has been held since 1963, and around Prokuplje; the red Prokupac, one of Serbia's oldest grape varieties, is the local speciality. Plum rakija is universal, and quince and apricot rakija are local favourites.

Niš shows its Roman and Ottoman past within a short walk. The Ottoman fortress on the Nišava, entered by the Istanbul Gate, holds an Ottoman mosque, Roman remains and the summer festival stages. The Skull Tower stands inside a chapel, Mediana's villa and mosaics lie on the edge of the city, and the Crveni Krst camp and the Bubanj memorial recall the Second World War. The Sićevo gorge of the Nišava lies just to the east.

Kruševac has the Lazarica church and the tower of Lazar's fortress, and the Ljubostinja monastery and the Župa vineyards around Aleksandrovac are nearby. In Toplica, Devil's Town on the slopes of Radan mountain near Kuršumlija has more than two hundred earth pillars capped with stones, alongside two springs of highly acidic water.

To the east, Pirot has its medieval fortress, Momčilov grad, and the Ponišavlje museum, and serves as the gateway to Stara Planina, with its high pastures, waterfalls and ski slopes. Leskovac has its grill street and the Byzantine ruins of Caričin Grad near Lebane. In the far south, Vranje has the Pasha's residence and the White Bridge, the Prohor Pčinjski monastery lies south of Vranje, and Lake Vlasina sits on a high plateau near Surdulica.