For more than six centuries, they have guarded these walls, though they lived here even before the first stone was laid.
Golubac Fortress was built in the early 14th century to control navigation on the Danube. Since then, it has seen Ottoman armies, Serbian princes, Hungarian knights, and an endless change of eras. But there are residents here who have owned these stones much longer than people — pigeons.
The fortress's name is no coincidence: the Slavic golub, the Hungarian galamb, the Latin columba — this place has always been named of the Pigeons. So this is not a metaphor, but a fact.
The fortress grew into limestone cliffs that had served as home to birds for centuries. And arrow slits, battlements, and deep niches became an ideal substitute for natural shelters where pigeons once sought refuge from weather and predators.
They have settled every crack, feeling like full-fledged masters. They sit where archers once stood, looking out over the river with the eyes of their ancestors.
Today the fortress is one of the main attractions on the Danube, filled with tourists. But the presence of pigeons softens its severity, turning a historical monument into almost a living organism. The pigeons care nothing for history and bustle. For them, this is not an attraction, but simply home. And they are its feathered keepers.
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