Belgrade is a spiritual centre of the Balkans. Eastern Orthodox Christianity is the dominant faith in the region. The infiltration of Orthodox Christian thought, Byzantine culture and the Slav soul can be felt even in the smallest church, as you stare at frescoes of rulers and saints, painted down the centuries.

The Serbian Orthodox Church Patriarchate (Patrijaršija)
Kralja Petra I 5, tel. 328-2593, www.spc.yu

This was built in 1935 on the site where the Serbian Metropolitan's Palace stood from 1847 to 1849. The building that stands there today was designed by the Russian architect Viktor Lukomski. The Patriarchate is the residence of the head of the Serbian Church, and it also houses a library and a museum.

The Cathedral (Saborna crkva)
Kneza Sime Markovića bb,
www.saborna-bgd.spc.yu

The Church of the Holy Archangel Michael was erected on the site of an older church dating from 1728. The new cathedral church was built to the order of Prince Miloš Obrenović over the years from 1837 to 1840, to plans drawn up by Kvarfeld, a builder from Pančevo, in the classical style with elements of the baroque. The treasury of the church is especially valuable with its collection of old icons and sumptuously decorated gold works of art covering the period from the 17th to the 20th century. The tombs of the Serbian sovereigns Miloš and Mihailo Obrenović are housed in the church. In the churchyard are buried two giants of Serbian culture - Dositej Obradović and Vuk Stefanović Karadžić.

The Cathedral of Saint Sava (Hram Svetog Save)
Vračarski plato, www.hramsvetogsave.com

Preparations for the erection of one of the largest Orthodox churches in the world began as long ago as 1894. The Cathedral is being built on the site where according to tradition the remains of Saint Sava were brought from the Mileševo Monastery and burnt at the order of Sinan Pascha in 1594. After two tenders, in 1926 the proposal of the architects Bogdan Nestorović and Aleksandar Derok was eventually accepted. Construction was interrupted by air-raids at the beginning of World War Two and it was not until 1985 that work on the building was restarted.