Older settlements Human habitation in the territory of present-day Novi Sad has been traced as far back as the
Stone Age. Several settlements and
necropolises dating to 5000 BC were unearthed during the construction of a new boulevard in
Avijatičarsko Naselje. A settlement was also identified on the right bank of the river
Danube in present-day
Petrovaradin. In antiquity, the region was inhabited by
Celtic tribes, most notably the
Scordisci. Celts had been present in the area since the 4th century BC and founded the first fortress on the right bank of the Danube. Later, in the 1st century BC, the region was conquered by the
Romans. During Roman rule, a larger fortress was built in the 1st century, named
Cusum, and included in the
Roman province of
Pannonia. In the 5th century, Cusum was devastated by
Hunnic invasions. By the end of the century, the
Byzantines had rebuilt the town and called it
Petrikon or
Petrikov () after
Saint Peter.
Slavic tribes such as the
Severians, the
Obotrites and the
Serbs (including the subtribes of the
Braničevci and the
Timočani) settled the region around Novi Sad, mainly in the 6th and 7th centuries. The Serbs absorbed the aforementioned Slavic groups as well as the
Paleo-Balkanic peoples of the region. • on the right bank of the Danube:
Pétervárad () and
Kamanc (). • on the left bank of the Danube:
Baksa or
Baksafalva (),
Kűszentmárton (),
Bivalyos or
Bivalo (),
Vásárosvárad or
Várad (),
Zajol I (),
Zajol II (),
Bistritz (). Some other settlements existed in the suburbs of Novi Sad:
Mortályos (Serbian:
Mrtvaljoš),
Csenei (),
Keménd (),
Rév (). An etymology of settlement names reveals that some designations are of
Slavic origin, which indicates that the areas were initially inhabited by Slavs, particularly the
West Slavs. For example, Bivalo (Bivaljoš) had a large Slavic settlement dating from the 5th–6th centuries.
Founding of the city (1716) was a major clash between
Habsburg and Ottoman forces, significant for halting
Ottoman expansion into Central Europe and strengthening
Habsburg control in the region. prohibited Orthodox Christians to settle in
Petrovaradin. That policy pushed Serbs to form the
Serb city which later became Novi Sad. The city was proclaimed to be a free royal city by
Maria Theresa by 1748. Habsburg rule was aligned with the Roman Catholic doctrine and, as it took over this area near the end of the 17th century, the government prohibited people of
Orthodox faith from residing in
Petrovaradin. Unable to build homes there, the Serbs of the area founded a new settlement in 1694 on the left bank of the Danube. They initially called it the 'Serb city' (, ). Another name used for the settlement was Petrovaradinski Šanac. In 1718, the inhabitants of the village of
Almaš were resettled to Petrovaradinski Šanac, where they founded
Almaški Kraj ('the Almaš quarter'). According to 1720 data, the population of Ratzen Stadt was composed of 112 Serbian, 14 German, and 5 Hungarian houses. The settlement officially gained the present names
Novi Sad and
Újvidék (
Neoplanta in Latin) in 1748 when it became a 'free royal city', in German language it was called Neusatz. The edict that made Novi Sad a 'free royal city' was proclaimed on 1 February 1748. The edict reads: In the 18th century, the Habsburg monarchy recruited Germans from the southern principalities of the Holy Roman Empire to relocate to the Danube valley. They wanted both to increase the population and to redevelop the river valley for agriculture, which had declined markedly under the Ottomans. To encourage such settlement, the government ensured that the German communities could practice their religion (mostly Catholicism) and use their original German dialect.
Habsburg monarchy known as the "Gibraltar on the
Danube," is a massive 18th-century, 112-hectare
fortification in Serbia, renowned as one of Europe's best-preserved and second-largest, crucial for halting
Ottoman expansion into the Europe in 1716. For much of the 18th and 19th centuries, Novi Sad remained the largest city inhabited by Serbs. The reformer of the Serbian language,
Vuk Stefanović Karadžić, wrote in 1817 that Novi Sad was the 'largest Serb municipality in the world'. It was a cultural and political centre for Serbs (see also
Serbian Revival), who did not have their own
national state at the time. Due to its cultural and political influence, the city became known as the 'Serbian
Athens' (
Srpska Atina in Serbian). According to 1843 data, Novi Sad had 17,332 inhabitants, of whom 9,675 were
Orthodox Christians, 5,724
Catholics, 1,032
Protestants, 727 Jews, and 30 adherents of the
Armenian church. The largest
ethnic group in the city were Serbs, and the second largest were
Germans. During the
Revolution of 1848–49, Novi Sad was part of
Serbian Vojvodina, a Serbian
autonomous region within the Austrian Empire.
In 1849, the Hungarian garrison led by general
Pál Kiss, located at the Petrovaradin Fortress, bombarded and devastated the city, which lost much of its population. According to the 1850 census, there were only 7,182 citizens left in the city, compared to 17,332 in 1843.
Marija Trandafil and her husband paid for some of the rebuilding including two churches. Between 1849 and 1860, Novi Sad was part of a separate Austrian crownland known as the
Voivodeship of Serbia and Banat of Temeschwar. After the abolishment of this province, the city was included into the
Batsch-Bodrog County. The post office was opened in 1853. Following the
compromise of 1867, Novi Sad was located within the
Kingdom of Hungary, the
Transleithania, which comprised half of the new
Austro-Hungarian Empire. During this time, the
Magyarization policy of the Hungarian government drastically altered the demographic structure of the city as the formerly predominantly Serbian population became one with a more mixed character. In 1880, 41.2% of the city's inhabitants used the
Serbian language most frequently and 25.9% employed Hungarian. In the following decades, the percentage of Serbian-speakers decreased, while the number of Hungarian-speakers increased. According to the 1910 census, the city had 33,590 residents, of whom 13,343 (39.72%) spoke Hungarian, 11,594 (34.52%) Serbian, 5,918 (17.62%) German and 1,453 (4.33%) Slovak. It is not certain whether Hungarians or Serbs were the larger ethnic group in the city in 1910, since the various ethnic groups (
Bunjevci,
Romani, Jews, other
South Slavic people, etc.) were classified in census results only according to the language they spoke. Similar demographic changes can be seen in the religious structure: in 1870, the population of Novi Sad included 8,134 Orthodox Christians, 6,684 Catholics, 1,725 Calvinists, 1,343 Lutherans, and others. In 1910, the population included 13,383
Roman Catholics and 11,553 Orthodox Christians, while 3,089 declared themselves as
Lutheran, 2,751 as
Calvinist, and 2,326 as Jewish.
Serbia and Yugoslavia in Novi Sad was a key
Danube crossing built in the early 20th century and destroyed in
1941 during
World War II. operated in the city from 1911 to 1958 On 25 November 1918, the
Assembly of Serbs, Bunjevci and other Slavs of Vojvodina in Novi Sad proclaimed the union of the region of Vojvodina with the
Kingdom of Serbia. From 1 December 1918, Novi Sad was part of the
Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes; and in 1929, it became the capital of the
Danube Banovina, a province of the newly named Kingdom of Yugoslavia. In 1921, the population of Novi Sad numbered 39,122 inhabitants, 16,293 of whom spoke the Serbian language, 12,991 Hungarian, 6,373 German, 1,117 Slovak, etc. In 1941, Yugoslavia was invaded and partitioned by the
Axis powers, and its northern parts, including Novi Sad, were annexed by
Hungary. During
World War II, about 5,000 citizens were murdered and many others were resettled. During the three days of the
Novi Sad raid (21–23 January 1942) alone, Hungarian police killed 1,246 citizens, among them more than 800 Jews, and threw their corpses into the icy waters of the Danube. The total death toll of the raid was around 2,500. Citizens of all nationalities—Serbs, Hungarians, Slovaks, and others—fought together against the Axis authorities. Novi Sad became part of the new
Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. Since 1945, Novi Sad has been the capital of
Vojvodina, a province of the
Republic of Serbia. The city went through rapid industrialization and its population more than doubled in the period between World War II and the breakup of Yugoslavia in the early 1990s. by
Jovan Soldatović, Monument dedicated to the victims of the
Novi Sad raid, which took place during the Hungarian occupation in WWII. After 1992, Novi Sad became a part of the
Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. Devastated by
NATO bombardment during the
Kosovo War of 1999,
Novi Sad was left without any of its three Danube bridges (
Žeželj Bridge,
Varadin Bridge and
Liberty Bridge), communications, water, and electricity. Residential areas were cluster-bombed several times while the
oil refinery was bombarded daily, causing severe pollution and widespread ecological damage. In 2003, FR Yugoslavia was transformed into the
state union of
Serbia and Montenegro. These two states separated in June 2006 (following the May 2006
Montenegrin independence referendum), leaving Novi Sad part of the
Republic of Serbia. On 1 November 2024, the canopy of the
main railway station in Novi Sad collapsed,
killing sixteen people. The incident sparked a series of
mass protests against government corruption. During 2025, one million square meters of residential space were under construction simultaneously in Novi Sad, making the city the largest construction site in Serbia. == Geography ==