Balkans

Rome drew the first line that still matters. When the empire was divided in 395, the boundary ran roughly down the Drina, the river that now separates Bosnia from Serbia. West of it, Latin Christianity and later the Catholic Church took hold; east of it, Greek-speaking Constantinople and Orthodox Christianity. Diocletian's palace in Split, the Roman amphitheatre in Pula and the ruins of Butrint and Stobi are the visible remains of that earlier unity.

Slavic tribes settled most of the peninsula in the 6th and 7th centuries. Medieval kingdoms rose and fell: Croatia's kings entered a union with Hungary in 1102, the Bulgarian empires rivalled Byzantium twice, and Serbia under the Nemanjić dynasty built the frescoed monasteries of Kosovo and Raška before its defeat at the Battle of Kosovo in 1389 became the founding legend of Serbian national identity. The Venetian Republic held the Dalmatian coast for centuries, which is why Kotor, Korčula and Hvar look like Italian towns.

The Ottomans took Constantinople in 1453 and most of the Balkans within a century. For four to five hundred years, depending on the place, the region was run from Istanbul through a system that grouped people by religion rather than language. Conversion to Islam was widespread in Bosnia, Albania and Kosovo, less so elsewhere. Ottoman rule left the bazaars of Sarajevo, Skopje and Prizren, the stone bridge at Mostar, coffee culture, the words for many dishes and the habit of mixed towns where faiths lived street by street.

Dubrovnik stayed independent as the Republic of Ragusa by paying tribute and trading with everyone until Napoleon ended it in 1808. The Habsburg monarchy held the north-west, pushing the Ottoman frontier back after 1683 and settling a Military Frontier in Croatia and Vojvodina with Serb and Croat soldier-farmers — the origin of mixed populations that became front lines three centuries later.

The 19th century was the age of national uprisings. Serbia won autonomy in 1817 and full independence in 1878; Greece became independent in 1830; Romania and Bulgaria followed; Albania declared independence in 1912. The Balkan Wars of 1912–13 pushed the Ottomans almost out of Europe and set the new states against each other. In 1914 a Bosnian Serb student shot Archduke Franz Ferdinand on a Sarajevo street corner, and the First World War began.

After 1918 the South Slavs were joined in a kingdom later named Yugoslavia. It was occupied and torn apart in the Second World War, when Croatia's Ustaše regime ran the Jasenovac camp, Serbian Chetniks and Tito's communist Partisans fought each other and the occupiers, and more Yugoslavs died at the hands of other Yugoslavs than of foreign armies. Tito's Partisans won, and his socialist Yugoslavia broke with Stalin in 1948, opened its borders and let its citizens work abroad — a looser, more prosperous communism than in Albania, Bulgaria or Romania.

Albania under Enver Hoxha became the most isolated state in Europe, cut off from Yugoslavia, the Soviet Union and finally China, and dotted with some 170,000 concrete bunkers. Bulgaria was the Soviet Union's most loyal ally; Romania under Ceaușescu ended in the only violent revolution of 1989. Greece took a different path: civil war to 1949, a military junta from 1967 to 1974, then EU membership in 1981.

Yugoslavia dissolved after Tito's death in 1980, economic crisis and rising nationalism. Slovenia and Croatia declared independence in 1991; war followed in Croatia and, from 1992, in Bosnia and Herzegovina, where the siege of Sarajevo lasted almost four years and the Srebrenica massacre of July 1995 was later judged genocide. The Dayton Agreement of 1995 ended the Bosnian war and created the state structure still in place. In 1998–99 war in Kosovo ended with NATO bombing of Serbia; Kosovo declared independence in 2008. Montenegro left its union with Serbia peacefully in 2006.

For a visitor, this history is not a museum topic. Guides in Sarajevo, Mostar, Vukovar and Srebrenica lived through it. Streets are named after heroes one side calls war criminals, and many towns have two versions of events. The respectful stance is to listen, ask about lives rather than blame, and read before you go.

Religion is the clearest marker of identity in much of the Balkans, often more than language. Croats are overwhelmingly Catholic, Serbs, Montenegrins, Macedonians, Bulgarians, Romanians and Greeks Orthodox, Bosniaks and most Kosovo Albanians Muslim. Albania mixes Sunni Muslims, Bektashi Sufis, Orthodox and Catholics, and was declared the world's first atheist state in 1967; many Albanians today say their religion is being Albanian.

Serbian, Croatian, Bosnian and Montenegrin are one language by linguists' measure, with four standards and two scripts. Croatia uses Latin letters; Serbia officially prefers Cyrillic but uses both; Bosnia and Montenegro use both. A traveller who learns the thirty letters of Serbian Cyrillic can read bus destinations from Banja Luka to Belgrade. Macedonian and Bulgarian are close relatives written in their own Cyrillic alphabets; Albanian, Greek and Romanian stand alone.

Place names are political. Croatia's Dubrovnik was Ragusa, Kosovo's towns have Albanian and Serbian names (Pejë/Peć, Prizren/Prizren, Mitrovicë/Mitrovica), and the dispute between Athens and Skopje over the name Macedonia ran from 1991 to the Prespa Agreement of 2018. Maps and bus boards may show either version depending on who printed them.

Coexistence is also everyday. Sarajevo's centre puts a mosque, a Catholic cathedral, an Orthodox church and a synagogue within ten minutes' walk. Coffee, rakija, the same sweets under different names and the habit of long unhurried visits cross every border. The shared culture is real; so are the fault lines.

Balkan food is a map of empires. From the Ottomans come grilled minced meat (ćevapi, qebapa, kebapche), burek and other filo pies, stuffed peppers and vine leaves, baklava and thick coffee. From Central Europe come goulash, schnitzel, strudel and the cake shops of Zagreb and Novi Sad. From Venice and the Mediterranean come olive oil, grilled fish, risotto and cured ham along the coast.

Every country claims the same dishes under its own name and argues that its version is the original. Ćevapi in Sarajevo are small and served in a somun flatbread with raw onion; Belgrade's pljeskavica is a wide patty; Skopje's kebapi come with bread and peppers. Ajvar, the roasted red-pepper relish made in bulk every autumn, is the region's shared ritual; shopska salad, tomato and cucumber under white cheese, is on every table from Sofia to Bar.

Rakija — fruit brandy, often plum (šljivovica), grape (loza) or quince — is the drink of welcome, toast and medicine, frequently home-distilled. Wine is ancient here: Croatia's Plavac Mali and Pošip, Montenegro's Vranac, North Macedonia's Tikveš vineyards and Greece's many native grapes. Coffee is served slowly and is an invitation to talk, not a takeaway.

Vegetarians do better than the grill menus suggest: beans (prebranac, tavče gravče), bureks with cheese or spinach, pies, salads and stuffed peppers in Orthodox fasting versions without meat or dairy. Ask about stock and lard in stews.

The region is split between members and candidates. Greece joined the EU in 1981, Bulgaria and Romania in 2007, Croatia in 2013; all four are now in Schengen, and Croatia and Bulgaria use the euro. Montenegro and Albania are the most advanced candidates, with Montenegro aiming to close negotiations by the end of 2026 — check. Serbia, North Macedonia and Bosnia and Herzegovina are candidates; Kosovo has applied but five EU states do not recognise it.

Emigration shapes every country. Hundreds of thousands of young people have left for Germany, Austria, Ireland and Italy since EU accession opened doors, and Bosnia, Serbia, Albania and Kosovo have shrinking, ageing populations. In July and August the diaspora drives home in German-plated cars, weddings fill hotels and border queues stretch for hours.

Tourism is the growth industry. Croatia now receives far more visitors than residents each year, Albania's arrivals more than tripled in a decade, and Montenegro's coast is lined with new apartment blocks. The side effects are familiar: overcrowded old towns, cruise-ship limits in Dubrovnik and Kotor, fines for beachwear in streets, and rents that push locals out. The interior — Bosnia, Kosovo, Serbia beyond Belgrade — remains cheap and uncrowded.

Politics can surface on a trip. Serbia has seen mass protests since the Novi Sad railway station canopy collapse of November 2024; Bosnia's Republika Srpska has challenged the state's institutions; Serbia–Kosovo relations flare in the north. None of this touches most visitors, but it explains the graffiti, the road blocks and why a question about politics can take the rest of the evening.