“The second city of Serbia”
Novi Sad (Serbian Cyrillic: Нови Сад, pronounced [nôʋiː sâːd] ( listen); Hungarian: Újvidék [ˈuːjvideːk]; see below for other names) is the second largest city in modern-day Serbia, the capital of the autonomous province of Vojvodina and the administrative center of the South Bačka District. It is located in the southern part of the Pannonian Plain, on the border of the Bačka and Srem geographical regions. Bordering the banks of the Danube river, the city faces the northern slopes of Fruška Gora mountain.
According to the 2011 census, Novi Sad proper has a population of 250,439, while the entire urban area of Novi Sad (with the adjacent urban settlements of Petrovaradin and Sremska Kamenica) comprises 277,522 inhabitants. The population of the administrative area of the city, including suburbs, totals at 341,625 people.Novi Sad was founded in 1694, when Serb merchants formed a colony across the Danube from the Petrovaradin fortress, a Habsburg strategic military post. During the 18th and 19th centuries, it became an important trading and manufacturing centre, as well as a centre of Serbian culture, earning it the nickname Serbian Athens. The city was heavily devastated in the 1848 Revolution, but was subsequently rebuilt and restored. Today, along with the capital city of Belgrade, Novi Sad is an industrial and financial center important to the Serbian economy. It was selected to be one of the "European Capital of Culture" cities for the year 2021.