All language subtitles for Ottoman Empire by Train with Alice Roberts S01E04 Controlling Europe 720p ALL4 WEB-DL AAC2 0 H 264-RAWR[EZTVx.to]_Subtitles01.ENG

The beautiful coasts of Turkey

and Eastern Europe are visited by
millions of us every year.

But just a few miles inland is
a whole different world.

One that is intoxicating, mysterious

and steeped in history.

This is such an incredible building.

It was the largest church in
the world for a thousand years.

The land where one of
the most formidable empires,

lasting six centuries

and spanning continents, was founded.

Tesekkur ederim.

I'm Alice Roberts

and I'm travelling hundreds
of miles by train through Turkey

and Eastern Europe.

Oh, wow, look a that. Lovely.

I want to discover
the fascinating story...

Go. ..of the Ottoman Empire.

Oh, no.

This is the mausoleum
of Osman himself,

the sultan who started
the Ottoman dynasty.

Through its distinctive
architecture...

Beautiful courtyard.

..its historic leaders...

The early Ottoman sultans had their
eye on this prize.

Constantinople.

..and of remnants of its turbulent
past.

What a horrific monument.

Having left Turkey behind,

I'm now in the Balkans into which

the Ottoman Empire expanded in
the fourteenth century.

Oh, my goodness.
Somehow wasn't expecting that.

I'm travelling north to
the glorious River Danube in

the Serbian capital.

Belgrade and its fortress really are
protecting this gateway to the rest

of Europe.

But I'm starting in Bulgaria,

as I learn more about
the Ottoman Empire by train.

This sleeper train is

a 13 hour journey taking me from
Turkey into

the Balkan peninsula of Europe.

By the time I get
to Sofia I will have clocked up

almost a thousand miles since Adana.

This line is part of

a route that originally opened
in 1916 linking Istanbul all

the way to Berlin, The Balkan
Express.

It was finally discontinued in
the 21st century.

But this night train,

from Istanbul to Sofia, was
reintroduced in 2017.

It's almost midnight

and I'm trying to stay awake in
readiness for

a passport check some time in
the next hour.

Eventually I reach the border.

SHE YAWNS
And It's 1.30am.

It's raining.

And I seem to be
the last person off the train.

This marks the end
of my time in Turkey

and the start of my adventure into
Eastern Europe.

SHE YAWNS

No idea where I am.

The timing of the passport check
seems a little brutal.

All I want to do is sleep.

But I will have

a nice official record of my journey.

Thank you very much.

And I got a stamp anyway.

A stamp in the passport.

There we go.

Istanbul.

Came in. Going.

It's a relief to wake up in Bulgaria

I'm heading into the heart of
the capital Sofia.

The Ottomans battled long and hard

to conquer territories beyond Turkey.

They claimed huge swathes of
the middle east,

north Africa and here in
Eastern Europe.

And they ruled this territory
for centuries.

But, in the end, the Bulgarians
needed outside help

to send the Ottomans back
to Istanbul.

This is the road to Istanbul.

If I carried on walking in that
direction,

I would eventually get all the
way back

to that city that I left on
the night train.

Arriving here in Sofia.

The road is called Tsarigradsko.

That's the Bulgarian name
for Istanbul, Tsarigrad.

The place of the tsar, the place of
the king.

Over my shoulder here is
another tsar,

a Russian tsar and its Alexander II.

Now he sent troops into Bulgaria at
the end of

the 19th century to fight
the Ottoman army.

There had been a revolution bubbling
up already in what was

to become Bulgaria

and the Ottoman army had exerted

extreme force, there had been
terrible reprisals, massacres

and this caught the attention of

the international community.
Russia came in pushing

the Ottoman troops all
the way back to Istanbul,

and this sowed the seeds
for Bulgaria to emerge as

an independent state.

Although this was once
Ottoman territory,

the city today reflects
a more recent empire,

of sorts, during the Soviet era.

Vast neo-classical buildings from

this period dominate the city.

Life here has been transformed since
Bulgaria joined

the EU in 2007.

Sofia's affordable housing

and low cost of living has made it
a magnet for artists,

students and new businesses.

Its vibrant streets, though, belie

a city that has struggled at times
to come to terms

with its past.

I'm heading to the south side of
the city to find one of

the few Ottoman structures
still standing,

which only survived
because it was incorrectly named.

This is the Roman Wall.

When it was built,
in the 16th century,

this area would have been
mostly fields.

It's here I've arranged
to meet Rossitsa Gradeva,

history professor at

the American University of Bulgaria.

So this is the so-called Roman Wall?

The so-called Roman Wall.

So it's not Roman?

Not exactly. It's early Ottoman
actually.

People didn't like very much
to associate with

the Ottoman past.

But I think it's

the fact they believed that it's

Roman that saved the structure here.

And what is it? Because it seems
very odd

that it is just this wall on its own.

Was it part of a bigger building
or something?

No, it's really a strange thing. As
you can see,

the mihrab here... Yeah, yeah. ..the
praying niche.

The niche that shows
the direction of Mecca.

We don't have explanation why
and when it was built,

but we know about such praying
places outside

the mosque... Right, OK.

..from the time of
Mohammed. Mohammed had such

a structure outside
the walls of Medina

and Muslims were praying there,

the whole community together

because one mosque may not contain
all of them.

I see. It's the first time
I've seen this,

It's the first time I've seen a
mihrab,

effectively an open-air mosque.

Well, what we believe is that this
is where,

because Sofia was on

the way of Ottoman army starting
from Medina towards West Vienna.

Yeah. So Sofia was a major stop over.
For several days

the whole army will be here and
pray when they needed

to pray. Yeah. And this was
the perfect site for that.

Yeah, yeah. So outside the city
itself.

Rossitsa knows about more traces of
the Ottoman Empire in

the city that she wants to show me.

So we will be walking towards
the centre of the city.

Tell me about Sofia

and when it becomes part of
the Ottoman Empire.

Actually the Ottomans captured it
from the Bulgarians in around 1385.

Today Sofia is home to 1.5 million
people.

In the earlier Ottoman period it was
just 20,000

and the city stopped here at
the Perlovska River.

So now we are entering
the Ottoman city.

In post Ottoman Bulgaria there was
a desire to build

a new national identity which led to

a wide destruction
of almost everything associated with

the Ottoman past.

First up is a mosque which survived

the purge by being transformed into
a Christian church.

Who was the sultan at the time?

Suleiman the Magnificent. Suleiman
the Magnificent.

Was it his chief architect who
designed it?

Yes, it's Sinan.

Sinan. Who designed
the huge mosque in Istanbul.

And plenty of others.

So this is now a church
but it was originally a mosque?

Yes, it was built as
a mosque in 1548.

This is the entrance of
the original building. OK.

This is a very regular...
It's a square space.

Yeah, this is the original
structure, the original space.

Incredible dome.

The dome. Sinan was so good at
creating domes.

It's called the black mosque

because there was
a lot of black granite

and it was lead laden, the dome, on
top .

Yeah, covered in lead. Yeah. Yeah.

Is that new because there is
an apse there?

Absolutely, because

the apse is from
the beginning of the 20th century.

So that's been pushed out. That was
the Christianisation

of the building. Yeah.

The walls and ceilings feature
gilded images of Christian prophets

and angels.

The decorative painting was only
completed in 1996 by young

local artists.

So when Bulgaria became part of
the Ottoman Empire,

was there a process
of conversion that happened there?

Well, as soon as the Ottomans took
a place,

conquered by force or surrendered,

there would immediately be people
who would convert,

sometimes by force,

sometimes lured by advantages

to hold positions in
the Ottoman Empire.

It's such a complex process, isn't
it? It's very complex.

We can't tell that it's just
pragmatism, or just great religion.

What's fascinating is

the relationship between state
and religion.

That they're completely
intertwined. Absolutely.

We don't talk about private

and public space, it's...
Religion is everywhere.

Yeah.

The final location Rossitsa is
taking me to is

the earliest building in Sofia.

Just like the Seven Saints church,

this building has also gone through

a religious transition.

The Rotunda, as it's known,

is sandwiched by Soviet-style
government buildings,

and it was a Christian church
for centuries.

When the Ottomans came,
they converted it into a mosque.

But today it's
a Christian church once again.

But it didn't start off its life as
a religious building.

So this is the Rotunda.
When does this date to?

Beginnings fourth century, for
sure.

Oh, OK. So that's Roman.

So if it it's fourth century, it's
very unlikely to have been

a church from the beginning.

No, at the beginning, we don't
know the exact dedication

or functionality of the building.

Probably related to a public baths,

or baths connected to
the towers of the emperors,

probably some other
administrative building.

And in the Soviet period,
it was shut?

It was used as a museum. A museum.

So it's built earlier

and as the Roman Empire
becomes Christianised,

it becomes used as a church.

There was Christian population
here before

the official Christianisation. The
official adoption of Christianity.

So Sofia had developed as
a centre of Christianity.

Mm.

When you enter inside you will see
paintings.

I love archangel Michael.
You have to find him.

Beautiful archangel

with beautiful eyes looking at you
from the dome, almost the dome.

I can hear that there is
a service going on in there

at the moment, but I would love to go
in and look at those paintings.

You can find a quite nice

combination of the music
and the painting.

I'll go and have
a look. Thank you very much.

It's a busy, working church,
but visitors are welcome,

even during services.

The murals were painted between
the 10th

and 14th centuries.

Rossitsa's favourite painting is

the archangel Michael up there on

the ceiling looking down at us.

Despite five centuries of
the Ottomans in Bulgaria,

there is scant evidence
of their empire here today.

Later, I'll be heading to Serbia
to learn about

the dark days of
the end of Ottoman rule there.

I'm in central Sofia on my
quest to learn about

the vast Ottoman Empire.

Sofia is the first major city on

the road into Europe from Turkey.

To the north it is framed by
the Balkan Mountains.

The city's full of enormous parks,

which once earned it the title of
Europe's Green capital.

It was an important city within
the Roman Empire

and later, for the Ottomans.

But there seems to be
a bit more visible evidence of

the Romans,
even though they were much earlier.

These extensive remains
of Roman fourth

to sixth century buildings were
discovered during

the construction of the metro
station.

I'm meeting Kirila Atanasova
at the National Archaeology Museum.

Kirila. Hello, Alice. Lovely to meet
you. Lovely to meet you.

I'm so excited about going into
the Archaeological Museum.

Yeah. Me too, let's go.

Kirila is a researcher at
the University of Sofia

and she wants to show me
a few important exhibits here.

The museum is in what was once
a mosque,

built by the Ottomans.

It was constructed under
the orders of

a high ranking governor,

known in the Ottoman period as
a Grand Vizier.

And some of the original Ottoman wall
decoration can be seen through

the flaking paint.

It was commissioned by one of

the Grand Viziers of Mehmed II.

Oh. His name was Mahmud Pasha.

So Mehmed II who
conquered Constantinople?

Exactly. The same guy.
His name was Mahmud Pasha.

And he commissioned this?

Yes. He was very prominent

because he led the conquest of

the Ottomans, the expansion to
Bosnia

and to the Black Sea coast.
He was very influential.

The museum includes exhibits
spanning thousands of years,

with some exceptional artefacts from
the Roman period.

The first piece Kirila wants
to show me is

a poster advertising some
entertainment for the locals.

So here what we are going to see
is what I call Third Century PR.

This relief here?

Yeah, It's a poster from
the third century

and shows what was played at
the amphitheatre.

Isn't that fantastic?

Yeah.

Is this a crocodile?

Yeah, I guess so. It looks like
a crocodile.

This looks like
a lion here attacking a...

I think it's a horse because it's
got hooves.

It's got an odd tail for a horse,
but it has hooves.

And these are really odd.
Look at that.

Because they're human figures but
they look like they're wearing...

..dog masks.
Yeah, I think you're right.

Really strange.

But, yeah, a kind of poster

for upcoming attractions at
the amphitheatre. Yes.

Yeah. And this amphitheatre,
according to some archaeologists,

was one
of the largest in the Roman Empire.

Really? That speaks to the size
and importance of Roman Sofia.

What was it called?

Serdika. Serdika.

It's very easy

to get waylaid by all the incredible
Roman artefacts here,

but there are some Ottoman
pieces too.

So here we have an Ottoman helmet.

That is from the 16th or 17th
century

and it's gilded bronze.

And you can see the Arabic script all
over it, yeah.

So presumably the kind of helmet
that would've been worn in parades

and not so much actually going into
battle.

I don't think it's very practical

for battles. Yeah.

It's in extremely good condition.

Have you got some more
Ottoman artefacts along here?

Yeah, over there. These all date to
the Ottoman period as well?

Yeah. They're from the Ottoman
period.

Again, covered in Arabic script.

Very intricate, isn't it?

What were they used for?

Some of them should be used
for bathing or for water.

Yeah. Imagine using this
in your everyday life.

Yeah. It would be quite fancy.

The end of the Ottoman reign in
Bulgaria came with

a heavy loss of life.

15,000 Bulgarians were killed in
what is known as

the April Uprising.

Although the end of
the 19th century may seem

a long time ago,

it's Kirila's generation that are
just coming to terms

with their family history under
the Ottomans.

What's the perception of

the Ottoman empire looking back to
that period from

in Bulgarian history today?

Well, for sure there is the family
trauma.

If I may say, for example, my
family,

one of my great great grandfathers
was killed during the April revolt.

That's in the 19th century.

Yes, in 1876.

And, ah, well, we have the memory of
that but of course...

..we should look forward
to our future

and, um, I think we should start
accepting our past.

And remember it, not forget it,
but also move forward.

Mmm. Cos it's a traumatic time,

the end of the Ottoman empire
for Bulgaria.

For sure, not only for Bulgaria
but most of the Balkan countries.

End of an era is always traumatic
for people.

Yeah. The end of what they knew
and the beginning

of something that is unknown was
very stressful for them.

Some of the difficulties we see now,
politically, have their roots

centuries ago.

For sure, but we need to find
a mechanism to move forward...

Mmm. ..and to, um, find a way
to live together.

Yeah, yeah.

I mean, that's, I suppose that is
the lesson from history.

We can see what happens when things
go wrong.

For sure. Yeah.

I'm taking the Metro
to Sofia's central railway station

but feeling slightly nervous about
my next train.

I want to head north across

the border from Bulgaria into Serbia
to the city of Nis.

I don't understand this.

I know... I know that there's
a railway between Sofia

and Nis in Serbia.

But I just cannot seem to buy
a ticket.

I have been looking online. It says
it's 96 miles.

It's says it would take me a day

and ten hours to walk there,
which is some good going,

and doesn't involve any sleep.
I don't want to walk,

I want to get a train.

I would like to travel to Nis.

Can I buy a ticket to Nis?

No tickets, no trains.

There is no train to Nis?
No train to Nis.

Repair.

Repair.

Oh, OK, so there is normally
a railway line from Sofia to Nis.

I am going to have to get
a taxi then I think,

maybe a taxi.

OK, I will investigate. Thank you
very much.

Let's go Let's go.

You don't sit in traffic like this
on a train, do you?

I'm not used to it.
It's like being thwarted.

It's now the Ottoman Empire mostly
by train.

So much less pleasant than
travelling by train.

When researching the story of

the Ottoman Empire everyone told me
I must come to Nis.

I've crossed the border from
Bulgaria into Serbia.

I'm stopping off here before
I head up to Belgrade.

Nis is fairly modest in size,

with a population of 250,000,

but it is one of
the oldest cities in Europe.

The Nis Fortress is the centrepiece.

It's one of the best preserved
Ottoman forts in the world.

Today, it's used for recreation,

as a venue for international
cultural events,

for sport and just hanging out
with family and friends.

This is the historic Nis Fortress
built right on

the banks of the Nisava River,
first by the Romans,

then it was developed further in the
Byzantine period

and it was last re-fortified in 1723
under the Ottomans

and within its walls it preserves
all those different phases

of its history.

The Ottomans dominated Nis
for 500 years.

And these were mostly peaceful times

for those living under their rule.

But it was towards
the end of their reign in

the early 19th century when tensions
grew

and skirmishes turned into
a series of bloody battles.

I'm meeting a young researcher who
can tell me about

a tragic Ottoman monument.

It's a structure that became known
as the Skull Tower.

The Skull Tower today is hidden
from view,

inside this chapel,

which was purpose
built around it in 1894.

Ognjen.

Hello. Lovely to meet you. Nice to
meet you, too.

So this is the chapel that contains

the famous Skull Tower?
So what happened?

The monument behind us is connected
with one battle

from the first Serbian uprising.

The fight was on 31st May, 1809.

The numbers of the Ottoman troops
were far greater than

the Serbian ones.

And when the commander perceived

that victory was impossible,
he shot

the gun powder storage and took
his life,

all the remaining soldiers and all
of the Ottoman soldiers.

He sacrificed himself and his troops?

Yeah. Yeah. So in the end the total
number killed on

the Serbian side was between 3,000
and 4,000. Really?

But the number killed of
the Ottoman troops were two

to three times greater. Right.

And the governor of
the Ottoman troops, he ordered that

the skulls of the dead
Serbian soldiers were collected,

and used for the building of
the monument that is behind us.

I mean, it seems to be a story that
harks back to

the early middle ages... Yeah.

..where you saw such atrocities
happening.

Yeah. It harks back

to things like Trajan's Column where
you've got soldiers carrying

the heads of dead enemies on spikes.

Displaying the dead heads of enemies
is something that

is known in history

and this is the last time it was
used, as far as I know,

and this is the only surviving
monument of this kind.

Yeah.

So the tower still exists as
a monument to that battle

but also as a memorial to

the people that lost their lives.
Yes.

Yeah. Shall we take a look? Sure.

Oh, my goodness. They're right there
as you come in.

Somehow I wasn't expecting that.

I didn't expect
to immediately see the tower.

Originally this tower contained
952 skulls.

Some have been stolen,

some have been destroyed

and some have been buried.

58 remain.

What a horrific monument.

As an anatomist I am used
to looking at human bones,

but these skulls represent

a terrible episode in Serbian
history.

It's interesting when you look at
skulls because

the first impression is,

it's a skull.

And then you start to look at the
details and you start to compare

the different faces and
you can see how they differ.

You can see that some have wider
cheekbones, narrower jaws...

..maybe a taller skull here.

Maybe a bigger brow ridge in some
of them.

And you start to see the faces.

Yeah. And recognise that these are
all individuals and...

..each one is a person.

Can't help thinking about all

the people left behind, as well.

All these men, thousands of men, died
that day.

They've got families where fathers,

husbands, grandfathers...

..have gone.

The Skull Tower was originally built
right beside

the road, for all to see.
It was designed to instil fear,

suppressing any more thoughts of
an uprising.

But it failed.

Instead, the desire to rid Nis

of Ottoman control
had been galvanised.

In the morning, I leave Nis
for Belgrade,

but with an hour of daylight left,

I've come back to Nis Fortress.

Like all Ottoman territories,

Nis was ultimately ruled by
the sultan.

Beneath him in the hierarchy,
were the Grand Viziers,

then Governors
and then an elite force known as

the Janissaries.

Janissaries were similar to

the slave soldiers of
the Roman Empire.

Many of them here in Nis would have
been Serbs,

keeping watch on their own people.

So this,

hidden away in the Nis Fortress, is
the Bali Bey mosque,

and it was ordered to be built in

the 16th century by Balia,

who was Janissary commander.

Now the Janissaries were absolutely
crucial to

the Ottomans keeping control
of their vast empire.

They were an elite fighting force

and a particular stratum of society

and they were

the children who were taken from
non-Muslim families,

children taken and then brought up
as Muslims

and trained to join this
military force

and then deployed all across
the empire.

But over time they became powerful
in their own right. They even started

to vie for power with
the sultan himself.

Nis was eventually liberated from

Ottoman control in 1878.

Tomorrow I head to
the capital Belgrade

to find out how post-Ottoman Serbia
began to take shape

and how changing the Serbian language

would play a significant role.

In this European chapter of my
Ottoman adventure,

I'm heading towards the Serbian
capital city.

After arriving in
Sofia on the overnight sleeper train,

and then a journey into
Nis disrupted by engineering works,

I am hoping to take
a normal train ride.

I'm heading 150 miles northwest on
a train that likes

to stop at every station.

This train stops a lot.

There all these small villages and
towns...

..scattered along

the line in this amazing
green countryside.

Is it stopping? I don't know.

Ooh, it might be.

Yes, it is.
There's a little platform.

Off we go again.

They'll announce the next station.

I think.

PA: Next station...

This may not be the quickest way
to get from Nis

to Belgrade

but it's a wonderful way
to appreciate

the Serbian countryside as we go.

Now, in the 15th century much
of this was already in

the possession of
the Ottoman empire under Mehmed II,

the conqueror who took Istanbul,

and also pushed

the empire further into south
east Europe.

This whole area was known as Rumelia.

The land that had been taken from
the Byzantine empire,

the Roman lands,

the lands where orthodox
Christians lived.

But Mehmed II never managed

to take Belgrade that was still held
by the Hungarians.

It would be one of his successors,
Suleiman the Magnificent,

in the 16th century who would
finally capture that city.

And I've been reading about all of

the politics in Europe at
the time, which was in turmoil.

There were these shifting alliances
between Frances I of France,

Charles V, the Holy Roman Emperor.

Henry VIII got involved from time to
time.

And a lot of land in Europe was up
for grabs.

Suleiman the Magnificent spotted his
chance while there was all this

turmoil going on
and finally captured Belgrade

and then actually carried on going
into the kingdom of Hungary.

Belgrade,
or Beograd to give it its real name,

means white city.

It's a name taken from

the white fortress that has
guarded the city

for over 2,000 years.

The Ottomans seized Belgrade from

the Kingdom of Hungary in 1521...

..and apart from a 20 year period in

the mid 18th century,
they ruled here for over 350 years.

The 19th century saw Serbia
gradually extracting itself from

the Ottoman Empire.

By the end of the century it was
recognised as

a completely independent state.

It was in 1867 that

the last Ottoman troops were
expelled from the fortress

and after that all of the mosques in

the city were destroyed apart from
one.

This one.

There were 273 mosques in
Belgrade during

the Ottoman period.

When Serbia extracted itself from
the empire

the Minister of Education

and Church Affairs selected
the Bajrakli Mosque

to be preserved for Muslims coming

to Belgrade on business.

All the other mosques were destroyed.

This one is a classic design.

A dome sits on a square block,

it has a honeycombed mihrab

for praying towards Mecca
and a balcony for the women.

One of the few other surviving
Ottoman buildings in

the city is tucked away,

squeezed in between shops and cafes.

Originally a family home,
then a school,

it is now a museum.

And It is dedicated
to two men who represent

the spread of Enlightenment in
a post-Ottoman Serbia.

Hello. Deyna and Marina,
really, really lovely to meet you.

Welcome to the museum.

I'll just pop my bag down there,
shall I? OK.

The museum is a key venue
for Serbian school visits.

This section is dedicated
to Dositej Obradovic.

That's him, presumably. Yes.

One of the most important portraits
of Dositej

and you will see a lot of books.

He's very proud of his pile
of books, though, isn't he? Yes.

He dedicated his whole life
to books.

Under centuries of Ottoman rule

the spoken Serbian language
had evolved,

but written Serbian
with elements of Greek and Russian,

remained somewhat stuck in the past.

Many ordinary Serbs couldn't even
read and understand it.

Dositej wanted to change that.

So he was, presumably then,

starting to write down
the spoken language.

Yes, that's right he wanted
to make peace

with those differences
between official

and family or spoken language.

Dositej himself moved a lot, he
travelled quite a bit...

You can see it on the map.

We can see it on the map. You can
see all the dots where he travelled

and all these places was his home.

And he learned 11 foreign
languages.

When he came back he had this final
idea of what he wanted to do.

So is he bringing the enlightenment
to Serbia? Yes. That's right.

He's the first representative
of enlightenment in Serbia.

Dositej learned on foot

and he had a chance to see
the future centuries.

So he was a visionary man as well.

What a brilliant saying,
say it again.

It was his saying.

So you learn by travelling

and you have a vision of the future.

Yes, that's right. That's
right. Amazing.

The other visionary remembered here
is Vuk Karadzic.

And what does Vuk mean? Does that
mean anything?

It's a wolf. Wolf?

Yes. Great name, great name.

Where Dositej formed
a contemporary Serbian language,

Vuk created a new Serbian alphabet.

These are his private objects from
his studio, his office.

Vuk's personal possessions here
include his prosthetic leg,

his trademark Fez hat
and several portraits and busts.

This portrait is put on contemporary
Serbian money.

So we have this portrait on
ten Dinars.

Oh, yes, there he is.

Young wolf.

Demonstrating how important he is.

That's right. I'd better give you
back that ten Dinars.

Thank you.

What was his career?
Was he an educator?

What did he do that was so important?

So one of the reasons we are
so proud of him

and all the kids know about him,

is because he reformed finally our
language.

So it's very easy. We have 30
letters,

you read as is written, so we don't
have double letters,

we don't have letters that you don't
read.

So it's very easy when you go to
the school

and you need to learn the letters.
It's very, very easy.

So you don't have what we have
in English

where you have consonants
modifying the sounds of vowels?

No, fought all that and he made this
perfect system

of 30 sounds in our language

and, in our speaking, and 30
symbols. So 30 letters.

And was there resistance to that?

Yes. Of course.

Of course. He had supporters,
he had opponents as well.

And one of the biggest protestors
was the church.

Oh, really? Of course.

Yeah, because he wanted to transform
the official language of the church,

so it's really interfering with
the job of the church.

I mean, he was obviously successful

because the written language
of Serbian today is

the language he created.

That's right.
It was a lifetime struggle.

He was really stubborn
with his work

and he never wanted to give up.

It's happening at an interesting
time, cos it's obviously happening

at the same time that Serbia is
removing itself from

the sphere of influence of
the Ottoman Empire.

Is it bound up with that? Is it bound
up with ideas of Serbian identity?

It is. He didn't fight on
the battlefield as

the rest of his generation.
His fight was something else.

Yeah. Yeah.

The museum is a hidden gem
in Belgrade's city centre.

As I head to the Kalemegdan Fort at
the edge of the city,

I'm struck by the lingering
influence of

Ottoman centuries here.

The after effects came
to a head in the 1980s with

the Kosovo war which was rooted in

the expulsion of Muslims from
post-Ottoman Serbia

a hundred years earlier.

On the final leg
of my journey, I'll be travelling

to Romania and then Hungary,

the western-most limit of the empire.

This fortress, the Kalemegdan
Fortress,

it dominates Belgrade today.

It's absolutely massive

and it's in this really imposing
position in

the landscape at
the confluence of the Sava

and the Danube rivers.

So Belgrade and its fortress really
are protecting this gateway to

the rest of Europe.

Subtitles by Red Bee Media