Belgrade vs Tetovo

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Belgrade ( BEL-grayd; Serbian: Београд, romanized: Beograd, lit. 'White City', pronounced [beǒɡrad] (listen); names in other languages) is the capital and largest city of Serbia. It's located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers as well as the crossroads of the Pannonian Plain and the Balkan Peninsula. Nearly 1.7 million people live within the administrative limits of the Town of Belgrade, a quarter of the total population of Serbia.Belgrade is among the oldest continuously inhabited cities in Europe and the World. One of the most important prehistoric cultures of Europe, the Vinča culture, evolved within the Belgrade area in the 6th millennium BC. In antiquity, Thraco-Dacians inhabited the region and, after 279 BC, Celts settled the town, naming it Singidūn. It was conquered by the Romans under the reign of Augustus and given Roman town rights in the mid-2nd century. It had been settled by the Slavs in the 520s, and changed hands several times between the Byzantine Empire, the Frankish Empire, the Bulgarian Empire, and the Kingdom of Hungary before it became the seat of the Serbian king Stefan Dragutin in 1284. Belgrade served as capital of the Serbian Despotate during the reign of Stefan Lazarević, and then his successor Đurađ Branković returned into the Hungarian king in 1427. Noon bells in support of the Hungarian army against the Ottoman Empire during the siege in 1456 have remained a widespread church heritage to this day. In 1521, Belgrade was conquered by the Ottomans and became the chair of the Sanjak of Smederevo. It often passed from Ottoman to Habsburg rule, which saw the destruction of most of the city during the Austro-Ottoman wars.

In the period after the Serbian Revolution, Belgrade was named the capital of Serbia in 1841. Northern Belgrade stayed the southernmost Habsburg post until 1918, when it was attached to the city, because of former Austro-Hungarian lands becoming the role of the new Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes after World War I. Belgrade was the capital of Yugoslavia from its creation in 1918 to its dissolution in 2006. In a fatally strategic position, the city was battled over in 115 wars and razed 44 times, being bombed five times and surrounded many times.Being Serbia's primate city, Belgrade has special administrative status within Serbia. It's the seat of the central authorities, administrative bodies, and government ministries, as well as home of almost all the largest Serbian companies, media, and scientific associations. Belgrade is categorized as a Beta-Global City. The town is home to the Clinical Centre of Serbia, one of the hospital complexes with the biggest capacity in the world, the Church of Saint Sava, one of the biggest Orthodox church buildings, and the Štark Arena, one of those indoor arenas with the biggest capacity in Europe. Belgrade hosted major international events like the Danube River Conference of 1948, the first Non-Aligned Movement Summit (1961), the first major gathering of the OSCE (1977--1978), Eurovision Song Contest (2008), as well as sports events like the first FINA World Aquatics Championships (1973), UEFA Euro (1976), Summer Universiade (2009) and EuroBasket three-times (1961, 1975, 2005).

Source: Wikipedia

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Tetovo (Macedonian: Тетово, [ˈtɛtɔvɔ] (listen); Albanian: Tetovë/Tetova; Turkish: Kalkandelen) is a city in the northwestern part of North Macedonia, built on the foothills of Šar Mountain and divided by the Pena River. The municipality of Tetovo covers an area of 1,080 km2 (417 sq mi) at 468 meters (1,535 ft) above sea level, with a population of 52,915. The city of Tetovo is the seat of Tetovo Municipality. In antiquity, Tetovo was a Penestae (Illyrian) fortress-town in eastern Illyria, called Oaeneon (Οαίνεον), in Latin Oaeneum, located on the pass between mount Scardos (now Šar) and river Artatos (later called Oracha, now Pena), a tributary to the Vardar river. This was a territory where the Illyrian tribe Penestae lived, and it included the fortress-towns Draudacum, Uskana, Divra and Styberra in northern Pelagonia. Based on archaeological findings in the area, the city was first inhabited thousands of years ago. Archaeological findings include a Mycenaean sword and a bronze statuette of the 6th c. BCE. Subsequently, Oaeneon was ruled by many ethnic groups; the Illyrian King Genti of the Labeatae, by King Perseus of Macedonia, by the Romans, by the Byzantines, by the Slavs, by the Bulgarians, and by the Albanians led by Gjergj Kastrioti Skanderbeg. In the 15th c. AD, Oaeneum came under Ottoman rule for about five centuries.

For a short period of time during the 15th century, Tetovo came under the control of the Albanian state, League of Lezhë led by Gjergj Kastrioti Skanderbeg and the Albanians achieved a victory over the Ottomans in the Battle of Polog. After it's conquest by the Ottomans, most of city's population converted to Islam and many Ottoman-style structures were built, such as the Šarena Džamija and the Arabati Baba Teḱe, which still stand as two of Macedonia's most significant landmarks of its Ottoman period. During this period, the town belonged to the Vilayet of Kosovo, became a firearm and cannon foundry, and was renamed Kalkandelen (meaning Shield Penetrator); as a result, the town attracted many workers and grew to a city. Following the World Wars, Tetovo became a part of Yugoslavia and, later, the Republic of Macedonia. Tetovo has become the unofficial capital and centre of a predominantly ethnic Albanian region which extends in an arc from Tetovo to Struga. Over one-third of the city is inhabited by ethnic Macedonians. Tetovo historically had a large Turkish population, forming nearly one-quarter as recently as 1961, though it now makes up under 4% of the city. South East European University, North Macedonia's third largest university after Skopje and Bitola, is located in Tetovo. Tetovo is also home to the State University of Tetovo.

Source: Wikipedia