Hike Avala and Kosmaj — the two Belgrade mountains

ABOUT THIS EXPERIENCE

Belgrade is one of the few capitals with its own mountains inside the city limits. Avala, 16 km south, is the classic: marked trails climb from the bus stop through oak woods past the Monument to the Unknown Hero — Ivan Meštrović’s 1938 monument with its eight caryatids — to the 205 m Avala Tower, rebuilt in 2010 after NATO destroyed it in 1999; the viewing terrace at 122 m gives the whole city, Vojvodina and, on clear days, the distant Carpathians. Kosmaj, 40 km south-east, is higher and wilder — a protected landscape where three medieval monasteries (Pavlovac, Tresije and ruined Kastaljan) hide in the wooded valleys, and the striking 1979 spire of the Kosmaj Partisan Detachment memorial crowns the summit meadow. Both are reachable by public transport and make the best day hikes in the city’s orbit.