Smederevo

Smederevo stands at the meeting of the Jezava and the Danube, beneath the walls of one of the great fortresses of medieval Serbia. Its triangular enclosure and massive towers were built for Despot Đurađ Branković, who made the town his capital. The river protected the fortress on one side and placed the Serbian court close to the Hungarian frontier.

After Branković was obliged to surrender Belgrade to Hungary in 1427, work began on a new seat at Smederevo. The fortified palace was completed around 1430, and a larger walled town followed. The Ottomans captured Smederevo in 1439, but the Serbian Despotate was restored in 1444. Its final surrender in 1459 marked the end of the medieval Serbian state. The Ottomans made the town an administrative centre of the Smederevo sanjak, a role it held until their capture of Belgrade in 1521.