Novi Sad

Novi Sad (nô´vē säd), Ger. Neusatz, Hung. Újvidék, city (1991 pop. 179,626), N Serbia, on the Danube River. The chief city and administrative center of Vojvodina prov. and an industrial center and port, its industries produce processed foods, textiles, electrical equipment, and munitions. It is the site of a major oil refinery. Known in the 16th cent., it rapidly developed as a commercial center, became an Orthodox episcopal see, and was made (1748) a royal free city of Austria-Hungary. In the 18th and early 19th cent. Novi Sad was the center of the Serbian literary revival. It was incorporated into the former Yugoslavia in 1918. The city has Serbian Orthodox churches, a university, and numerous cultural facilities. [source: columbian encyclopedia]