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Serbian culture


Serbian culture refers to the culture of Serbia and of ethnic Serbs.

Early on, Serbs may have been influenced by the Paleo-Balkan peoples. The Byzantine Empire had a great influence on the culture; Serbs were initially governing the Byzantine and Frankish frontiers in the name of the emperors and were later through their sworn alliance given independence, baptized by Greek missionaries and adopted the Cyrillic script, with Latin and Catholic influences in the southern regions. The Serbian Orthodox Church gained autocephaly from Constantinople in 1219, whereas Stephen the First Crowned was declared king by the Pope. The Republic of Venice influenced the maritime regions in the Middle Ages. The Ottoman Empire conquered Serbia in 1459 and ruled the territory for several centuries, the consequences of which suppressed Serbian culture but also greatly influenced Serbian Art, especially in the southern regions. Meanwhile, in northern regions Habsburg Monarchy expanded into modern Serbian territory starting from the end of the 17th century, culturally bounding this part of the nation to Central Europe rather than Balkans. Central Serbia was the first to emancipate as the Principality of Serbia in 1815, and started to gradually expand into Ottoman and Habsburg-held regions.

Following Serbia's autonomy after the Serbian revolution and eventual independence, the culture of Serbia was restrengthened within its people.

Conversion of the South Slavs from Paganism to Christianity began in the early 7th century, long before the Great Schism, the split between the Greek Orthodox East and the Roman Catholic West, the Serbs were first Christinaized during the reign of Heraclius (610-641) but were fully Christianized by Byzantine Christian Missionaries (Saints) Cyril and Methodius in 869 during Basil I, who sent them after Knez Mutimir, had acknowledged the suzerainty of the Byzantine Empire. After the Schism, those who lived under the Byzantine sphere of influence became Orthodox and those who lived under the Roman sphere of influence became Catholic. Later, with the arrival of the Ottoman Empire, many Serbs converted to Islam. Their modern descendants are considered to be members of the Gorani and Bosniak ethnic groups.


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