page_title: Belgrade
section_title: International cooperation and honours
hierarchical_section_title: Belgrade / International cooperation and honours
caption_attribution_description: Français&#160;: Les insignes de chevalier de l'Ordre National de la Légion d'Honneur
context_page_description: Belgrade is the capital and largest city of Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers and the crossroads of the Pannonian Plain and the Balkan Peninsula. Nearly 1.7 million people live within the administrative limits of the City of Belgrade, a quarter of the total population of Serbia.
  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 city, naming it Singidūn. It was conquered by the Romans under the reign of Augustus and awarded Roman city rights in the mid-2nd century. It was 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 it to the Hungarian king in 1427.
context_section_description: List of Belgrade's sister and twin cities:
   Coventry, UK, since 1957
   Chicago, USA, since 2005
   Ljubljana, Slovenia, since 2010
   Skopje, North Macedonia, since 2012
   Shanghai, China, since 2018
  Other friendships and cooperations, protocols, memorandums:
   Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan, since 2016, Agreement on Cooperation 
   Tehran, Iran, since 2016, Agreement on Cooperation 
   Corfu, Greece, since 2010, Protocol on Cooperation
   Shenzhen, China, since 2009, Agreement on Cooperation
   Skopje, North Macedonia, since 2006, Letter of Intent
   Banja Luka, Bosnia-Herzegovina, since 2005, Agreement on Cooperation
   Zagreb, Croatia, since 2003, Letter of Intent
   Kiev, Ukraine, since 2002, Agreement on Cooperation
   Tel Aviv, Israel, since 1990, Agreement on Cooperation
   Bucharest, Romania, since 1999, Agreement on Cooperation
   Beijing, China, since 1980, Agreement on Cooperation
   Rome, Italy, since 1971, Agreement on Friendship and Cooperation
   Athens, Greece, since 1966, Agreement on Friendship and Cooperation
  Some of the city's municipalities are also twinned to small cities or districts of other big cities; for details see their respective articles.
  Belgrade has received various domestic and international honours, including the French Légion d'honneur (proclaimed 21 December 1920; Belgrade is one of four cities outside France, alongside Liège, Luxembourg and Volgograd, to receive this honour), the Czechoslovak War Cross (awarded 8 October 1925), the Yugoslavian Order of the Karađorđe's Star (awarded 18 May 1939) and the Yugoslavian Order of the People's Hero (proclaimed on 20 October 1974, the 30th anniversary of the overthrow of Nazi German occupation during World War II). All of these decorations were received for the war efforts during World War I and World War II. In 2006, Financial Times' magazine Foreign Direct Investment awarded Belgrade the title of City of the Future of Southern Europe.
caption: Belgrade has received various domestic and international honors, including the French Legion of Honour in 1920.
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