Kalemegdan is a name of Ottoman origin. After Suleiman the Magnificent took Belgrade in 1521, the field in front of the fortress came to be called Kalemegdan: kale — “town/fortress,” megdan — “field.” The fortress hill was also known as Fićir-bajir — “the hill of contemplation.”
This place is millennia older than modern Belgrade. Life has continued on the ridge above the confluence of the Sava and the Danube for more than two thousand years; it was the fortress and Kalemegdan that formed the core around which modern Belgrade grew. Today the layers of different eras are visible here: medieval architecture sits alongside 18th-century Baroque fortifications.