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Show ANCIENT SERBIAN CITY bEMENDRIA HA3 LONQ BEEN KNOWN IN HISTORY. Its Trade, Chiefly With Vienna and Budapest, Has Specialties That Havo Mado It Noted At Ono Tlmo Strongly Fortified. "Somcndrla, whero tho shells from Austro-aorman battorics foil in prop-oration prop-oration for tho Teutonic drivo toward tho Qoldon Horn, is ono of tho llrst commercial towns of Sorbin," says a war prlmor Issued by tho National Geographic socloty. "Sorbla Is on agricultural country. Pigs nnd grains nro its ranking oxports, and tho greater part of tho Serbian export In pigs, and almost all of Its export in coroils, passed through Somondrla In ponco times. Its trado has boon dono chiefly with Vienna and Budapest. Amung its exports nro n superior whlto grapo and a delicious wlno. "Thero Is nn Interesting tradition connected with tho grapos of Somcndrla. Somcn-drla. It Is told that -tho Sorblan Prlnco Goorgo Brankovlch brought cuttings of tho grapo vines of Somondrla So-mondrla nnd plantod them upon his sunny ostntes In Hungary, whon ho bocamo tho lord of Tokay thero. This transplanting of tho Serbian grapes took placo In tho fifteenth contury, and it Is from theso Imported vines that Hungary's famous, spicy whlto wlno, Tokay, camo. This, tho llttlo Serbian city is tho great ancestor of tho Magyars best-known product, tho Hory, aromatlq glnsm from Hungary which Is prized by connoisseurs tho world around. "Somondrla lies upon tho Danube, between Bolgrado and tho Iron Gates. It Is distant about 30 miles southeast from tho Sorblan capital. It Is said to stand upon tho slto of the Roman town Mons Aureus, and logond has It that Its famous grapo vinos wore plnntod by tho Roman Emperor Pro-bus. Pro-bus. Thorofore. It mnr bo annn that the royal wine hod an Imperial bo-ginning, bo-ginning, and the perfect product of today can boast a long nnd glorious past. "At ono tlmo a powerful fortress guarded tho approach to tho city. It was a thick-walled, triangular structure, struc-ture, said to havo boon built in 1430, and for a long tlmo it was tho distinguishing dis-tinguishing foaturo of tho small placo nnd tho river crossing which It guarded. guard-ed. Somondrla has beon under attack several times In tho courso of Its history, his-tory, and ono battlo of great Importance Impor-tance took place hero In 1411, when the Turks forced a passago Into Hungary Hun-gary through a Danubo choked with tho bodies of tho heroic Magyar do-fendors. do-fendors. "Semendrla has often boon a fa-vorod fa-vorod residence of tho Sorblan rulor nnd from 1430 to 1459 It was the capital capi-tal of tho state The town has a plcturosquo setting upon tho broad river, hero narrowing for Its passago of tho Iron Gates Just bolow It. Tho country around it Is brokon and wooded. Tho population la nbout 7.K00. and, despite a thriving wlno production produc-tion and an expanding commorco, this population has romalned about tho samo through tho last score of years. Tho port has a branch lino connecting it with tho Bolgrado-Nlsh rauway, tno main products' nrtory In tho country. Its rugged old trlan-gular trlan-gular fortress still stands, tho most interesting architectural featuro In tho city, nnd Us 24 squaro towers nro sontlnols of Somondrla today as in tho days of Goorgo Brankovlch, father of Tokay wlno, who bullded thorn. Tho fortress was built on tho model of tho Constantinople walls." |
