An Odd Day in Novi Sad: A Walk through Serbia’s “New Garden”

At Petrovaradin Fortress, the clock’s long hand tells the hour and its short hand tells the minutes. Before checking whether you are running late, check which hand you are looking at.

The arrangement helped boatmen read the hour from the Danube below. Its nickname, the Drunken Clock, is often attributed to a separate problem: temperature affects the mechanism, making it run fast or slow.

Use your phone for the return train.

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The Habsburgs built the fortress between 1692 and 1780 to defend their southern frontier against the Ottoman Empire. There is enough brickwork here to make the military intention quite clear. Follow the ramparts away from the clock and the walls keep descending in layers towards the river.

Below, red roofs pack together in Petrovaradin’s Lower Town. Across the water lies the flatter city you will spend the afternoon walking through.

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Leave time for the paths behind the viewpoint, too. Artists have worked in former military spaces here for decades, and sculptures occupy the grass among the trees.

Read more: Petrovaradin Fortress and the Drunken Clock

A friend brought me to Balkan Ekspres on my first visit to Serbia. It was my introduction to Serbian cooking: a leafy terrace, red-and-white checked tablecloths, and a breaded roll of pork that occupied a considerable length of plate.

Karađorđeva šnicla is built around kajmak, a rich dairy spread with something of clotted cream about it. In the version I ate, bacon joined the kajmak inside the pork before the whole thing was breaded and fried. Cutting through the crisp coating revealed how much had been fitted inside.

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Alongside it, Shopska salad supplied chopped vegetables under a generous covering of grated white cheese. The tomatoes were particularly good. I had arrived in Serbia disliking raw tomatoes and was beginning to order them voluntarily.

Jelen, one of Serbia’s familiar beers, goes well with lunch.

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Read more: Karađorđeva šnicla · Shopska salad

Four slender bronze figures stand beside the Danube: two adults, a child and a baby. This is The Family, Jovan Soldatović’s sculpture at the Novi Sad Raid Memorial.

In January 1942, Hungarian occupying forces murdered more than a thousand people in the city, predominantly Jews and Serbs. Victims’ bodies were thrown into the Danube. The memorial stands beside that river; nearby plaques record names.

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The fortress you started from now stands across the water.

Read more: The Novi Sad Raid Memorial

The tomb is pink marble, with carved white skulls beneath its slab and intertwined hearts above. Behind it, the street gets on with buses and currency exchange.

The Tomanović–Čenazi family monument dates from 1790. It belonged to the churchyard of Novi Sad’s Armenian Catholic church, demolished in 1963 to make way for the boulevard. The monument survived, was later restored, and remains a place of burial.

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A nearby Armenian cross-stone, or khachkar, carries a more recent story. It commemorates seven Yugoslav aircrew killed while bringing earthquake relief to Armenia in 1988.

Allow a few minutes to look at both stones, keeping the bus stop clear.

Read more: Novi Sad’s Armenian memorials

Novi Sad Synagogue opens into a tall hall of white arches, dark wooden benches and blue stained glass. Look up from the seating and the galleries lead your eye towards another circle of coloured glass overhead.

Completed in 1909 to a design by Lipót Baumhorn, it formed part of a complex with a Jewish school and community building. Today, a grand piano and music stands share the hall with its religious fittings.

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The building also holds painful history. A plaque records that Jews were forcibly gathered here in 1944 before deportation to death camps.

The synagogue now hosts concerts as well as heritage visits. Sightseeing access needs to be arranged with the Jewish Community; a performance listing does not mean the doors will be open that afternoon. If you cannot go inside, the exterior is still worth including on the walk.

Read more: Novi Sad Synagogue

The two towers on Freedom Square do not look like the work of one architect. They are.

City Hall occupies one side, the Name of Mary Church another. The church rises in pale yellow brick towards a steep, patterned roof and spire. Both buildings were designed by György Molnár.

In front of City Hall, the bronze Svetozar Miletić has one arm raised. He served twice as mayor. Around his pedestal, people cross the square and rest on benches.

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Follow Zmaj Jovina towards the Bishop’s Palace. Outside it stands Jovan Jovanović Zmaj, poet and physician, resting a hand on his cane at the end of the street named after him.

Zmaj means “dragon.” By the usual account, the name began as a date: he added “3. мај” (3 May) to his signature in honour of the Serbian assembly of May 1848, and one day left out the full stop. In Cyrillic, “3мај” looks very much like “змај.”

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Continue into Dunavska, but give the passages between buildings some attention. The street frontage is only the first layer. Through an arch, the view can narrow to lamps, painted walls and a few people talking in the shade.

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After that, the directions can stop. Have a coffee, look up at a roof you missed, or go back through a passage that caught your eye.

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Read more: The Name of Mary Church · Novi Sad’s statues

Dinner is a student invention. The Index sandwich appeared in 1984 at kiosks in Student City, the University of Novi Sad’s campus, and took its name from the indeks, the booklet in which students collect their grades. The reasoning was that the booklet holds a variety of marks, and the sandwich a variety of fillings.

The usual version brings ham, cheese and chopped mushrooms together in a toasted roll, with sauces and additions depending on the order.

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Index Mirjana has several branches. For this walk, its Ilije Ognjanovića address is convenient for the centre; check the branch hours before heading over.

The streets around Freedom Square are worth another turn after dinner. Or settle at a café table and watch people pass.

The same centre looks quite different after dark in winter. On my January 2024 visit, illuminated structures stood around the Name of Mary Church and coloured light reflected across the wet paving.

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Not every figure in the centre was made of bronze: Mickey and Minnie were posing for pictures among families and balloons.

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Seasonal displays and events change from year to year. Leave some time after sunset for a walk through the lights.

Plan this extension for a Friday, Saturday or Sunday morning: these are Najlon’s flea-market days, rather than a daily event.

Start with burek and plain drinking yogurt. The hot pastry comes with fillings such as meat or cheese; the yogurt is there to drink alongside it. This is a breakfast worth finding near wherever you are staying.

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Then head north to Najlon Market in Klisa. From the centre, take bus 5 towards Temerinski put from the Šafarikova stop on Jevrejska Street and get off at Najlon pijaca. For the return, use the opposite direction towards the centre. A taxi is another option. This is a separate outing beyond the old town; give the market a couple of hours of its own.

Here, guitars, crockery, clothes and miscellaneous household objects spread across stalls and the ground. The next box may require a closer inspection before you know what is in it.

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Friday and Saturday are particularly good for browsing second-hand goods; Sunday brings the traditional large fair. The pleasure is in arriving without a very precise shopping list. I went home with a small cup, which later found work in Japan as a rakija glass.

For a city called New Garden, Novi Sad is remarkably good at keeping old things in use.

Read more: Burek and yogurt · Najlon Market