Image: AP Photo/Darko Vojinovic
The ship was approximately 177 feet (54 metres) long and was originally named Vag, after the Vah River, the longest river in Slovakia. Built in Budapest in 1913, it was equipped with a steam engine and used to tow heavy cargo between Budapest and other settlements along the Danube. The vessel survived two world wars before finally sinking in 1945, leaving a physical trace of Europe’s turbulent twentieth-century history beneath the Sava.
Speaking to CBS News, historian Andrija Popovic said the wreck had not been so exposed for several years. its latest emergence is unusually extensive Although portions of the vessel have appeared above the water during previous periods of low river levels. The remains show the rusted hull of a vessel that once played a role in commercial and wartime transport along the Danube and its surrounding waterways. He described the appearance as something that people do not encounter every day, explaining the fascination surrounding the vessel now that the Sava has retreated so dramatically. The ship’s history also helps explain why its emergence is more than a curious sight on a drying riverbed.
Following the liberation of Belgrade in 1944, Yugoslav anti-fascist forces used it to transport wounded fighters and equipment as they advanced westwards against German forces. Its final journey came in late April 1945, near the end of the war. The Slovenian may therefore look like an archaeological curiosity emerging from the Sava, but its appearance is also a visible measure of just how far Europe’s rivers have fallen.
The ship became part of the newly formed Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes as part of war reparations and was renamed Slovenian, according to Popovic. Around half of the European Union and the United Kingdom were experiencing drought conditions by late July 2026, with 9% of the territory at the most severe “alert” level, according to the European Drought Observatory . Europe is also the world’s fastest-warming continent, with temperatures rising at roughly twice the global average since the 1980s, according to the EU’s Copernicus Climate Change Service. Serbian hydrology expert Dejan Vladikovic also told CBS News that the current drought resulted from a combination of limited winter snowfall and an exceptionally dry spring. He warned that similar conditions could become more frequent, describing a future in which such periods may become “a new normalcy”.
The ship’s story stretches back to the final years of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. After the First World War, the dissolution of the empire changed ownership of the vessel. The vessel later found itself caught up in the Second World War. After Nazi Germany occupied Yugoslavia, the ship remained in the region. The Slovenian was carrying wounded fighters when it struck a German mine. The explosion sank the vessel, which has remained in essentially the same location ever since. That wartime history has given the shipwreck an unusual significance for the local community. Its rusting remains are effectively a submerged historical record, preserving part of the story of the region’s transport network and the final stages of the Second World War. Now, decades after it disappeared beneath the Sava, the changing river level is revealing that history to a new generation. The Danube had reached record-low levels, severely affecting nuclear power plants in Hungary and Romania and halting traffic along parts of Europe’s second-largest waterway. The prolonged drought has also damaged crops from the Netherlands to Bosnia and contributed to water shortages extending towards the Alps. The lower the water drops, the more of the continent’s hidden past becomes visible, while the disruption to transport, agriculture, electricity and water supplies reveals the present-day cost of a hotter and drier climate.