Bucharest is the capital city, cultural, industrial, and financial centre of Romania. It is the largest city in Romania and was first mentioned in documents as early as 1459. Since then it has gone through a variety of changes, becoming the state capital of Romania in 1862 and steadily consolidating its position as the centre of the Romanian mass media, culture and arts. Its eclectic architecture is a mix of historical, interbellum, Communist-era and modern. In the period between the two World Wars, the city's elegant architecture and the sophistication of its elite earned Bucharest the nickname of the "Little Paris of the East".

Belgrade is the capital and largest city of Serbia. The city lies at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers, where the Pannonian Plain meets the Balkans. It has an urban population of 1.2 million, while the metropolitan area has more than 1.7 million people, making it one of the largest cities of Southeastern Europe. Its name translates to white city. Belgrade's wider city area was the birthplace of the largest prehistoric culture of Europe, the Vinča culture, as early as the 6th millennium BC. In antiquity, the area of Belgrade was inhabited by a Thraco-Dacian tribe Singi, while after 279 BC a Celtic tribe inhabited the city, naming it "Singidun".