Nis
Birthplace of Constantine, former Yugoslav industrial giant—Niš's 1981 GDP peak hasn't returned, but its Morava valley location keeps attracting tech investment.
Niš exists because Constantine the Great was born here—and because the Morava valley has funneled armies and traders through this exact spot for three millennia. The Romans called it Naissus; they built the Via Militaris through it, the highway linking Rome to Constantinople. When Constantine emerged from these hills to become emperor, he put his birthplace on the map. Eighteen centuries later, the city's airport still bears his name.
The 20th century brought industrial ambition. Between 1960 and 1990, corporations like Electronic Industry Niš, Tobacco Industry Niš, and Mechanical Industry Niš made the city a manufacturing powerhouse—by 1981, per-capita GDP exceeded the Yugoslav average by 10%. Then came collapse: economic crisis in 1993, NATO bombing in 1999, output halved by 2000. The factories that once employed tens of thousands became monuments to Yugoslav-era planning.
Today Niš rebuilds differently. One of Serbia's 14 free economic zones anchors a shift toward tech and services, leveraging the same geographic centrality that made it Rome's crossroads. The electronics and textile industries persist, now competing with Belgrade and Novi Sad as a regional tech hub. By 2026, the city's challenge is familiar to post-industrial centers everywhere: whether historical advantage—the same corridor logic that created Constantine's empire—can translate into a knowledge economy, or whether the factories' ghosts will linger indefinitely.