As in everybody’s case, Novi Sad, as our hometown, is the most beautiful city to us.
On the map, made by Gerhard Merkator in 16th century, in the place of today’s Novi Sad there was a settlement called Bistriz. In its journal about travelling down the Danube river, Hans Christian Andersen mentions Novi Sad as the “water city”.
Novi Sad “sprouted” on the fertile ground, along the bridgehead across the fortress, some three hundred years ago. On 1st February 1748, the Austro-Hungarian Empress Maria Theresa awarded Novi Sad with the status of a royal town. It was than that Novi Sad was called by its today’s name. In that time, no man from the Fruška Gora could marry if he hadn’t planted a new seedling (serb. seedling=sad, new=novi).
The city area covers some 130 square kilometres and has 235.000 inhabitants. The first ferry (raft), which connected Novi Sad and Petrovaradin, was put in the place in 1213 and the last one in 1999. Novi Sad is quite sensitive to its bridges. 134 pontoon bridges have been constructed from 1720s until 1920s. The history of these bridges is another story, a story so special that sometimes Novi Sad was called “the town where river runs above the bridges”.
