Southeastern Europe Travel Guide

Capitals of the countries in the Balkans region in photos. This page lists all capital cities in Southeastern Europe with their population and elevation.

Capitals of the countries on the Balkans are all located under 1000 m elevation. Ankara is the city with the highest position - 850 m over the sea level. Podgorica is only 44 m over the sea level.

Ankara also has the biggest population of 3 900 000 people, both with Athens are the biggest capital cities with population over 3 millions people, in comparison with Podgorica which has only 150 000 people. The other big capitals are Bucharest, Belgrade and Sofia with more than 1 million people.

Sofia (capital of Bulgaria)
Population: 1 400 000
Elevation: 550 m (1 804 ft)

Athens (capital of Greece)
Population: 3 130 000
Elevation: 70 - 338 m (230 - 1 109 ft)

Ankara (capital of Turkey)
Population: 3 900 000
Elevation: 850 m (2 789 ft)

Bucharest (capital of Romania)
Population: 1 932 000
Elevation: 60 - 90 m (197 – 295 ft)

Zagreb (capital of Croatia)
Population: 785 000
Elevation: 158 m (518 ft)

Sarajevo (capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina)
Population: 304 000
Elevation: 500 m (1 640 ft)

Podgorica (capital of Montenegro)
Population: 150 000
Elevation: 44 m (144 ft)

Belgrade (capital of Serbia)
Population: 1 630 000
Elevation: 117 m (384 ft)

Tirana (capital of Albania)
Population: 616 000
Elevation: 110 m (361 ft)

Skopje (capital of Republic of Macedonia)
Population: 700 000
Elevation: 240 m (787 ft)

Ljubljana (capital of Slovenia)
Population: 268 000
Elevation: 298 m (978 ft)

Kishinev (capital of Moldova)
Population: 593 000
Elevation: 85 m (279 ft)

Prishtina (capital of Kosovo)
Population: 600 000
Elevation: 652 m (2 139 ft)

This is a list of the national flags of the countries from Southeuropean Europe and the Balkans.

Colors of the flags

The most used color in the Balkans countries flags is the red. Red color is in the national flags of 10 countries from Southeastern Europe (Bulgaria, Turkey, Romania, Croatia, Montenegro, Serbia, Albania, Republic of Macedonia, Slovenia and Moldova).

The white color is on the national flags of 7 Balkans countries (Bulgaria, Greece, Turkey, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Slovenia and Kosovo).

The blue color is on the national flag of 7 Southeasteuropean countries (Greece, Romania, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Slovenia, Moldova and Kosovo).

The yellow color is on the coutry flags of 5 countries from the Balkans (Romania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Republic of Macedonia, Moldova and Kosovo).

The green color is presented only on the national country flag of Bulgaria and the black color is only for the double-head eagle on national flag of Albania.

Animals on the flags

There are few animals on the natioanal flags and in the coats of arms or in the state emblems of the Southeasteuropean countries. We have already said about the double-head eagle on the country flag and in the state emblem of Albania. There is a double-head eagle in the flags and coats of arms of Serbia and Montenegro too. One head eagle is on the coats of arms of Romania and Moldova.

Lions are in the coats of arms of Bulgaria, Montenegro, Romania and Croatia. There are other animals too: bulls, fish, goat, fox, etc.

Elements of the flags

A crown is presented on the coats of arms of Bulgaria, Croatia, Montenegro and Serbia and a cross on the state emblems of Bulgaria, Greece, Moldova, Montenegro and Serbia. There is a crescent on the coats of arms of Turkey, Croatia, Romania and Moldova and a star on the Turkish, Croatian, Macedonian, Romanian, Moldovian and Slovenian state emblem.

National flags

Bulgaria
Flag of Bulgaria
Colors in the flag: White - Green - Red

Greece
Flag of Greece
Colors in the flag: Blue - White

Turkey
Flag of Turkey
Colors in the flag: Red - White

Romania
Flag of Romania
Colors in the flag: Blue - Yellow - Red

Croatia
Flag of Croatia
Colors in the flag: Red - White - Blue

Bosnia and Herzegovina
Flag of Bosnia and Herzegovina
Colors in the flag: Blue - Yellow

Montenegro
Flag of Montenegro
Colors in the flag: Red - Yellow

Serbia
Flag of Serbia
Colors in the flag: Red - Blue - White

Albania
Flag of Albania
Colors in the flag: Red - Black

Republic of Macedonia
Flag of Republic of Macedonia
Colors in the flag: Red - Yellow

Slovenia
Flag of Slovenia
Colors in the flag: White - Blue - Red

Moldova
Flag of Moldova
Colors in the flag: Blue - Yellow - Red

Kosovo
Flag of Kosovo
Colors in the flag: Blue - Yellow - White

The Republic of Serbia (Serbian: Република Србија or Republika Srbija), is a landlocked country in Central and Southeastern Europe, covering the southern part of the Pannonian Plain and the central part of the Balkan Peninsula. It is bordered by Hungary on the north; Romania and Bulgaria on the east; Albania and the Republic of Macedonia on the south; and Montenegro, Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina on the west. The capital is Belgrade.

Once a powerful medieval Kingdom and an Empire (which at times ruled most of the Balkans), the modern state of Serbia emerged in 1817 following the Second Serbian Uprising. Later, it expanded its territory further south to include Kosovo and Metohija and the regions of Raška and Vardar Macedonia (in 1912). Finally, Vojvodina (formerly an autonomous Habsburg crownland named Voivodship of Serbia and Tamiš Banat) proclaimed its seccession, and united with Serbia in November 25, 1918, preceded by the Syrmia region a day before. The current borders of the country were established following the end of World War II, when Serbia became a federal unit within the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. Serbia became an independent state again in 2006, after Montenegro left the union which was formed after the dissolution of Yugoslavia in 1990s.

In 17th and early 20th century English works, the country was often referred to as Servia. The usage was often resented by Serbs, who felt that the use of “Servia” linked the Serbs to the Latin servus, a slave or servant. The British press stopped using the term by the 1930s, allegedly due to the efforts of Vojislav M. Petrović (Војислав М. Петровић, publisher of the Serbian grammar in London. However, scholars today agree that Serbian name did not derive from word servus.

The basic name, Serboi, originates in the works of Tacitus, Plinius and Ptolemy in the 1st and 2nd centuries, describing a people living north of the Caucasus. Following the migration into Central Europe, White Serbs established a state called Sorbia (White Serbia) in the 5th century. Their arrival in the Balkans is thought to have happened in 630, when Serbs settled among the other Slavic tribes that settled there a century earlier and mixed with them forming a medieval Serbian nation. Serbian kings were crowned as Kings of all Serbs rather than Kings of Serbia, and were using the terms Serb lands rather than Serbia itself. This is due to the fact that the Serbs were dispersed into several different tribal statelets such as Duklja and Travunija, rather than living in one unified country; however, the first unified state was achieved under the Vlastimirovic dynasty in the 9th century and has reemerged several times during Serbian history.

Serbia is located in Europe, on the Balkan peninsula and in the Pannonian Plain. It is placed at the crossroads between Central, Southern and Eastern Europe. The Danube river (2850 km) flows through the northern third of the country; it is 588 km long and forms the border with Croatia and part of Romania. The Sava river forms the southern border of the Vojvodina province, flows into the Danube in central Belgrade, and bypasses the hills of the Fruška Gora in the west. Sixty kilometers to the northeast of Belgrade, the Tisa river flows into the Danube and ends its 1350 km long journey from Ukraine, and the partially navigable Timiş River (60 km/350 km) flows into the Danube near Pančevo. The Begej river (254 km) flows into Tisa near Titel. All five rivers are navigable, connecting the country with Northern and Western Europe (through the Rhine-Main-Danube Canal–North Sea route), to Eastern Europe (via the Tisa–, Timiş–, Begej– and Danube–Black sea routes) and to Southern Europe (via the Sava river).

Balkans 360 is a website collecting information about the Balkans and countries on the Balkans region, in a goal to become the ultimate travel and news guide to the Balkans.

On the Balkans peninsula are located the Southeast European countries Bulgaria, Greece, Turkey, Croatia, Republic of Macedonia, Albania, Serbia, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Romania, Slovenia and Moldova.

Capitals of the Balkans countries are the cities Sofia, Athens, Ankara, Zagreb, Skopje, Tirana, Belgrade, Podgorica, Sarajevo, Bucharest, Ljubljana and Kishinev.

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