Serbia Trivia
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47 free Serbia trivia questions with answers — geography quiz, new questions added Sep 2026.
Fifty questions on Serbia, the landlocked heart of the Balkans that has been a medieval empire, an Ottoman province, a kingdom, a Yugoslav republic and, since 2006, an independent state again. Geography covers Belgrade at the confluence of the Sava and Danube, Vojvodina and the Pannonian Plain, Midzor, the Iron Gates and Djerdap, Novi Sad and Nis, and the plum orchards that make Serbia the world's second-largest producer. History runs from Vinca and Lepenski Vir, the Nemanjic dynasty and Dusan's empire, the Battle of Kosovo in 1389, Ottoman rule and the Great Migration, Karadjordje and Milos Obrenovic's uprisings, the Congress of Berlin, the Balkan Wars, the 1914 telegram, the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, Tito's partisans, the Non-Aligned summit, Milosevic and the 1999 NATO bombing, the fall of Milosevic in 2000, Djindjic's assassination, Montenegro's exit and Kosovo's declaration. Culture and sport cover Cyrillic and Latin digraphia, slava, slivovitz and rakija, cevapi and pljeskavica, Studenica and the White Angel, Ivo Andric's Nobel, Kusturica's two Palmes d'Or, Exit and Guca, Nikola Tesla, Djokovic's 24 majors, Red Star's 1991 European Cup and Serbia's water polo golds. Every answer was checked against Wikipedia's articles on the country, its cities, rulers, artists and athletes, and the sentence that establishes it is quoted under each explanation. Suits a pub quiz, a Balkan history class or a Danube cruise.
30 of 47 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Belgrade sits at the confluence of the Danube and which other river?
The Sava
The Sava meets the Danube beneath Belgrade Fortress; the Celtic Scordisci settled that ridge in the 3rd century BC and gave the town its Celtic name, Singidunum.
Q 02Which country does Serbia claim to border only through the disputed territory of Kosovo?
Albania
Albania meets only Kosovo, and Serbia counts that as its own border because it doesn't recognise Kosovo's 2008 declaration of independence.
Q 03Which dynasty ruled Serbia from 1166 to 1371 and raised it to a kingdom in 1217 and an empire in 1346?
The Nemanjic
The Nemanjic dynasty, founded by Stefan Nemanja, produced Stefan the First-Crowned (king from 1217) and Stefan Dusan (emperor from 1346); its last ruler, Uros the Weak, died in 1371.
Q 04Which Serbian ruler died leading his army against the Ottomans at the 1389 Battle of Kosovo?
Prince Lazar
Prince Lazar was killed at Kosovo, yet the battle ended without a clear victor, with heavy losses on both sides.
Q 05Who led the First Serbian Uprising against the Ottomans in 1804?
Karadjordje Petrovic
Karadjordje Petrovic led the 1804 revolt, and Serbia stayed free for almost a decade before the Ottoman army reoccupied it in 1813.
Q 06Serbia's independence was formally recognised at which 1878 peace settlement?
The Congress of Berlin
The Congress of Berlin met to revise Russia's Treaty of San Stefano, which had already forced the Ottomans to accept Serbia's independence, and made that recognition international.
Q 07On 1 December 1918, which new state was proclaimed in Belgrade?
Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes
The Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes kept that name until 1929, when King Alexander abolished the constitution, ruled as dictator and renamed it Yugoslavia.
Q 08Which short-lived 1941 mini-state in western Serbia is called the first liberated territory in WWII Europe?
The Republic of Uzice
The Republic of Uzice held out for only about two months before German forces retook it at the end of November 1941.
Q 09Belgrade hosted the first summit of which international grouping in September 1961?
The Non-Aligned Movement
The Non-Aligned Movement drew in many newly independent former colonies in Africa and Asia, and its early successes came in pushing decolonisation.
Q 10In 1972, Kosovo and Serbia suffered Europe's largest post-war outbreak of which disease?
Smallpox
Smallpox came back with a pilgrim returning from the Middle East, and Yugoslavia stopped it with enforced quarantine and mass vaccination.
Q 11Which Serbian leader rose to power in 1989 and was later tried in The Hague, dying in his cell in 2006?
Slobodan Milosevic
Slobodan Milosevic was forced out by mass protests on 5 October 2000, and his Hague trial dragged on so long that he died before any verdict.
Q 12The 1998-99 Kosovo War ended after which organisation intervened militarily?
NATO
NATO's bombing campaign began on 24 March 1999 and ended that June, once Belgrade agreed to withdraw its forces from Kosovo.
Q 13Which reformist Serbian prime minister was assassinated in 2003 in a plot by organised crime?
Zoran Djindjic
Zoran Djindjic was shot in March 2003, and Serbia declared a state of emergency to hunt plotters tied to the Zemun clan and a special police unit.
Q 21What is Serbia's national drink?
Slivovitz
Slivovitz is often distilled at home, and at festivities it accompanies toasts wishing everyone good health.
Q 22Serbian is a rare European language that regularly uses which two alphabets side by side?
Cyrillic and Latin
Cyrillic and Latin both fill daily life, though Serbia's 2006 constitution makes Cyrillic the official script.
Q 23Slava, inscribed by UNESCO as intangible heritage, is the Serbian veneration of what?
A family's patron saint
A family's patron saint is honoured with a Slava cake that is blessed with wine, cut crosswise and turned.
Q 14Serbia became an independent state again in 2006 after which partner left their union?
Montenegro
Montenegro's May 2006 independence vote left Serbia a landlocked country.
Q 15Which court advised that Kosovo's 2008 declaration of independence from Serbia broke no international law?
The International Court of Justice
The International Court of Justice gave that opinion in 2010 at Serbia's own initiative, after Belgrade had sought it hoping to have the declaration judged illegal.
Q 16Serbia's parliament formally proclaimed what stance in December 2007?
Military neutrality
Military neutrality was declared to hold until a referendum makes the final decision on whether Serbia joins any military alliance.
Q 17What is Serbia's highest peak outside Kosovo, at 2,169 metres on the Bulgarian border?
Midzor
Midzor's summit was off-limits to tourists from both sides of the border until the early 1990s, which kept the nature around it untouched.
Q 18Serbia's biggest lake is a Danube reservoir behind a dam at which famous gorge?
The Iron Gates
The Iron Gates dam, built by Yugoslavia and Romania, raised the Danube until it drowned the island of Ada Kaleh, whose Turkish residents had to move.
Q 19What is the name of the cold, squally southeasterly wind that is a signature of Serbia's climate?
Kosava
The Kosava gathers speed because a narrow Danube gorge squeezes it like a jet nozzle, before it blows northwest along the river.
Q 20Which Roman emperor, born at Naissus in today's Serbia, called the Council of Nicaea?
Constantine the Great
Constantine the Great backed Christianity for decades and ended its persecution, yet he was baptised only on his deathbed in 337.
Q 24Which Serbian monastery, famed for its white marble churches, became a World Heritage Site in 1986?
Studenica
Studenica's founder, a ruler of Serbia, died a monk on Mount Athos, but his remains were later brought back to rest at Studenica.
Q 25Which Belgrade-based writer won the 1961 Nobel Prize in Literature for works such as 'The Bridge on the Drina'?
Ivo Andric
Ivo Andric had been Yugoslavia's envoy in Berlin; when Germany invaded in 1941 he returned to Belgrade and wrote the novel there in seclusion.
Q 26Besides 'When Father Was Away on Business', which film won Emir Kusturica the Palme d'Or?
Underground
Underground won Kusturica his second Palme d'Or in 1995, a decade after When Father Was Away on Business; Time of the Gypsies brought him Best Director at Cannes in 1989.
Q 27The Exit festival, staged at the Petrovaradin Fortress until 2025, was held in which city?
Novi Sad
Novi Sad lost Exit after its organisers backed Serbia's student protests, said they faced mounting pressure and pulled the festival out of Serbia.
Q 28Which small Serbian town has hosted a famous trumpet festival since 1961?
Guca
Guca's festival began in a churchyard in 1961 with just four trumpet bands, and by the 2000s it was drawing hundreds of thousands of visitors.
Q 29Belgrade's international airport is named after which famous inventor?
Nikola Tesla
Nikola Tesla died in New York in 1943, but his ashes were later brought to Belgrade, to the museum dedicated to him.
Q 30At which tournament did Novak Djokovic win his first Grand Slam singles title?
Australian Open
Long before his 2008 Australian Open win, a coach spotted a six-year-old Djokovic at a tennis camp in the mountain resort where his parents ran a restaurant.