Ethnographic Museum in Belgrade

This building at Studentski Trg 13 is now the  Ethnographic Museum of Belgrade.

A very interesting museum (here the website www.etnografskimuzej.rs)

This building was originally designed as the Stock Exchange by Milutin Borisavljevic (1889-1970)  and it was built in 1934.
Since 1951 the Ethnographic Museum has been located here. The mueseum contains a wealth of objects and docments on the culture of Serbia and Yugoslavia.

The permanent collection – “Folk art in Serbia” – comprises of folk costumes,fabrics, rugs, and handicraft tools. The museum also has a library and a hall for lectures and cultural events.
 At the beginning of the 20th century, the Ethnographic Museum exhibited at shows  in St. Petersburg, Paris, London and Prague presenting Serbian culture. (two pictures from rascian at skyscrapercity)

an old picture of the building

Milutin Borisavljevic was an architect and also an esthetic expert. He studied in Paris at the Sorbonne. The ethnographic museum was one of his main works. In the nearby Studentski Park (former Pancic Park) he designed the fences. (They are made like the cirillic letter „R“ with two cast-iron gates)

Also a major work of him was the Flasar House (Kornelijs Stankovica 16) here in a picture of Goldstajn at skyscrapercity.

Best travel tips for Serbia - ETHNO VILLAGES

Links for Tour 4: Enjoying rural tourism and Serbian traditions in ethno villages


After general travel tips for Serbia, tips for a citytrip in Belgrade, tips for a bike tour through West Serbia and tips for discovering spiritual and cultural heritage in Raska and Kosovo I'm now sharing tips for a nice way to discover the beautiful traditions of the Serbian culture in Serbian ethno villages (етно село).

Most of the Serbian villages looks so authentic that you can call almost every village an "ethno village". There are some that are a little bit more styled and preserved like Sirogonjo (I wrote about it here) and Trsic (I wrote about it here) for exemple.

a village in south of Serbia

But in any rural area of Serbia you find pictures places where you can spend a couple of days in a healthy area and make some day trips to interesting cultural sites!
How to find a rural house for the holidays:

The ladies at panacomp organize not only accomodations in ethno houses, but also workshops and activities by request (like folk dances etc.)
Here a link to a general owerview about rural tourism
And here the "panacomp" list of housholds that are renting for tourists

old buildings in the village

Another site to find a nice ethno house to rent is this site of Serbian villages "selo" This site promotes alternative and responsible tourism: "Travelling Balkans"
I like also this link of "Odmor na selu" (Vacation in the village) it's about a village near Valjevo.

Salas in Vojvodina

the yard of a typical Salas

In Vojvodina the northern region of Serbia in the Pannonian plain has many farm estates called "salas" (салаш) a cluster of farmhouse, economic buildings and stables distanced from urban areas. Now you can't almost find quieter places to stay that a solitary salas!
Here a list on "Serbia tourist guide" with Vojvodian salas to rent

A village that I know and that I find very beautiful (and it's near Subotica and Sombor for excursions) is Stara Moravica, a village with Hungarian ethnic majority. Here a site with a salas in Stara Moravica to rent (some links of the site do not work properly at the moment)...

a typical village in Vojvodina

Free guides for Serbia:
You can read big parts of the Bradt Travel Guide for Serbia online here
A little printable guide of Serbia in three languages (serbian/english/german) You can order also your free copy...if you have the patience to wait....(it took many weeks for us)
Also good links for touristic informations about Serbia are the following sites:
The National tourist organization of Serbia has a very nice site, where you can explore culture, regions, food and traditions
Another good site full of information is "Visit Serbia"
In your pocket guide of Serbia (good online presentation)

Vidovdan 2009 in Gracanica Monastery

I made a post about Gracanica Monastery a while ago, emphasing on the archtiecture and history. But here there is even something more to say about the Gracanica Moanstery.
Every year on Vidovdan (St. Vitus day, June 28th) in the beautiful and spiritual surroundings of the monastery the celebration for this serbian religious and national holiday takes place. Here the pictures that my friend Johanna sent me from this year's celebration. The text is from [ B92, Beta, Tanjug ]

GRAČANICA - The celebration of Vidovdan started in Kosovo this morning with the Holy Liturgy served in the Serbian Orthodox monastery of Gračanica.

Serbs mark Vidovdan (St. Vitus Day) as a religious and national holiday.

The province is calm and there are no incidents reported this Sunday, as Kosovo police, KPS, and KFOR members have visibly increased their presence near the Serb enclave of Gračanica, and also near Kosovska Mitrovica and Gazimestan.

This year's Vidovdan celebrations have gathered the largest crowd seen since 1999, with several thousand people in Gazimestan, near Priština, attending a commemoration of the anniversary of the Battle of Kosovo.

On this day 620 years ago, the Serb army, led by Lazar Hrebeljanović, confronted the invading Ottoman Turks.

Serbian Orthodox Church (SPC) Patriarch Pavle's emissary Metropolitan Amfilohije and bishops Artemije, Filaret and Teodosije served a religious ceremony dedicated to the souls of the fallen soldiers of the medieval Serbian empire - commonly referred to as the Kosovo heroes.

After the ceremony, Bishop Artemije told the crowd that "the Kosovo heroes have given their lives so that we can live in Kosovo and Metohija today."

The Serbs have gathered in Gazimestan, the bishop continued, to pray to the Lord and tell themselves and others that this is the holy Serb land, soaked with blood and tears of our ancestors.

"Kosovo was and will be the heart of Serbia, just as it was 620 years ago," he said.

The participants in the ceremonies today arrived in some 60 buses and several hundred private vehicles from all over Serbia, but also from Montenegro and the Republic of Srpska. KPS members and Czech KFOR soldiers secured the area close to the Gazimestan monument.

Unlike in previous years, this time a stage was set up, while the monument was draped with a huge Serbian national flag and a canvass with the fresco image of Holy Tsar Lazar.

Both the Gazimestan commemoration, and the one earlier in the day in the monastery of Gračanica were attended by government ministers Bogoljub Šijaković, Goran Bogdanović and Nebojša Bradić, and Crown Prince Aleksandar Karađorđević and his wife Katarina.

Johanna and her husband Nenad making the church greeting


Some even better information about Vidovdan 2009 here at de[construct].net

Ljubostinja Monastery and the first Serbian poetess Jefimija

Todays post is dedicated to Biljana in Skopje, thanks to her I discovered the story of this great Serbian Poetess, a diplomatic and creative woman that despite the tragedies in her life believed in God's goodness and cared for her country.

Jefimija
Jefimija was born 1349 as Jelena and was a Serbian nun and known as the first Serbian poetess. She was the daughter of kesar Voichna in the time of Car Dusan. She married Jovan Ugljiesa the ruler of Serres that died on 26 September 1371 in the Battle of Maritsa. After she lived in Serres and later in Krusevac at the court of Car Lazar.
After the defeat of the Serbs against the Ottomans in the battle of Kosovo, Jefimija joined the Zupanja Monastery with Carica Milica and later they joined monastery Ljubostina. There she spent her last days as abbess with the name Jevpraksija.

Her early life was a tragedy: she lost her family, her house, all her possession, income, land. Later as abbess she was involved in diplomatic affairs, like helping Princess Milica to get intercession for Stefan Lazarevic who refused to participate in the campagne in Bosnia of 1398. She also helped to get the body of Holy Petka Paraskeva back to Serbia, so her mortal remains were hold in the Sveta Petka Church in Belgrade until 1521 (now they're in Romania).

text and picture from serbian unity congress

Ljubostina Monastery
The church was painted just before the Kosovo battle. The original frescoes have survived only on pendetives, in the lower register of the drum and partially elsewhere. Especially interesting are the representations of the Old Testament prophets who vouch for the emergence of Christ.
Invited by princess Milica, painter Makarije of Zrze came to Ljubostinja in 1403, and carried out all the frescoes in the church.

picture from www.manastiri.rs

He repainted the frescoes in the dome, only ten years old, and wrote out his name on the arch above the door between the narthex and the nave.
The family of Prince Lazar is portrayed on the west wall of the narthex: Lazar and Milica are on one side, and Despot Stefan and his brother Lord Vuk on the other. They are all depicted in their full arrays, with all the insignia of power and dignity.


Unfortunately, little has remained of once vast painted area of Ljubostinja. In the nave, only the Annunciation unit of the whole Festival Cycle has survived. The four best-preserved compositions represent Christ's miracles and sermons: the Healing of the weakened man and the Anointment in Bethlehem above the south-choir door. The three major features of the Ljubostinja frescoes are expressive figures, strong contrast of light and dark, and architectural motifs in the background.


Architecturally, the church, dedicated to the Dormition of the Holy Virgin, belongs to the Morava School. Its ground plan has the form of a trefoil with a dome resting of four free-standing pillars. It is extended westward into a rectangular narthex with a blind calotte.
The facade is embellished with rich muling that edge the doors and windows. A horizontal cordon cornice divides the walls into two zones: in the lower one, there are lancet and two-light windows, and the upper zone is ornamented with rose and wheel windows of unequal size with floral and geometrical patterns.
In the threshold stone of the doorway between the narthex and the nave, the name of the "Protomaster Borovic Rade", the famous master-builder, is chiseled.

Prince Lazar and Princess Milica

The legends says that the monastery was built on a site where Princess Milica met Prince Lazar for the first time; and that had happened on the day of St Archdeacon Stefan to whom the earlier chapel on the same place had been dedicated. The construction of this foundation of Princess Milica and Prince Lazar started in 1388-89. After the battle of Kosovo, when Lazar was killed, Milica became a nun, as many widows of the Serbian soldiers did the same.

Eulogy for Knez Lazar
Her most meaningful work (and her first) is the eulogy for Knez Lazar (Похвала кнезу Лазару), a prayer in the shape of a poem. The text is preserved as a embroided blanked (the shroud for Lazar Herbeljanovic) that was made in the Ljubostina Monastery around 1402.

The text is embroided in gold on the shroud of Knez Lazar
and now in the Museum of the Orthodox Church in Belgrade.

The poem was meaningful not only for its beauty but also because it described the events around the Kosovo Battle and the historic period just after that. It made Jefimija one of the most famous Serbian Women.

Here a Serbian transcription with English translation (from wikipedia):

У красотама овога света васпитао си се од младости своје
о нови мучениче кнеже Лазаре,
и крепка рука Господња међу свом земаљском господом
крепког и славног показа те.
Господствовао си земљом отачаства ти
и у свим добротама узвеселио си уручене ти хришћане
и мужаственим срцем и жељом побожности
изашао си на змију
и непријатеља божанствених цркава,
расудивши да је неистрпљиво за срце твоје
да гледа хришћане отачаства ти
овладане Измаилћанима,
не би ли како ово постигао:
да оставиш пропадљиву висоту земаљског господства
и да се обагриш крвљу својом
и сјединиш са војницима небескога цара.
И тако две жеље постигао јеси:
и ЗМИЈУ убио јеси
и мучења венац примио јеси од Бога.
Сада не предај забораву вољена ти чеда
која си сирота оставио преласком ТВОЈИМ,
јер откако си ти у небеском весељу вечном,
многе скрби и болезни обузеше вољена ти чеда
и у многим скрбима живот проводе,
пошто су овладани Измаилћанима.
И свима нам је потребна помоћ твоја,
те се молимо моли се заједничком Владики
за вољена ти чеда
и за све који им с љубављу и вером служе.
Тугом су многом здружена вољена ти чеда,
јер они што једоше хлеб њихов подигоше на њих буну велику
и твоја добра у заборав ставише,
о мучениче.
Но ако сиНо ако си и прешао из живота овога,
скрби и болезни чеда својих знаш
и као мученик слободу имаш пред Господом,
преклони колена пред Владиком који те венчао,
моли да многолетни у добру живот
вољена ти чеда проводе богоугодно,
моли да православна вера хришћанска
неоскудно стоји у отачаству ти,
моли победитеља Бога
да победу подари вољеним ти чедима,
кнезу Стефану и Вуку,
за невидљиве и видљиве непријатеље,
јер ако помоћ примимо с Богом,
теби ћемо похвалу и благодарење дати.
Сабери збор својих сабеседника, светих мученика,
и са свима се помоли прославитељу ти Богу,
извести Георгија,
покрени Димитрија,
убеди Теодоре,
узми Меркурија и Прокопија
и четрдесет севастијских мученика не остави,
у чијем мучеништву војују чеда твоја вољена,
кнез Стефан и Вук,
моли да им се пода од Бога помоћ,
дођи, дакле, У помоћ нашу, ма где да си.
На моја мала приношења погледај
и у многа их урачунај,
јер теби не принесох похвалу како приличи,
већ колико је могуће маломе ми разуму,
па зато и мале награде чекам.
Но ниси тако ти, о мили мој господине и свети мучениче,
био малодаран у пропадљивом и маловечном,
колико више у непролазном и великом,
што примио јеси од Бога,
јер телесно страну мене у туђини
исхрањивао јеси изобилно,
те сада те молим обоје:
да ме исхраниш
и да утишаш буру љуту душе и тела мојега.
Јефимија усрдно приноси ово теби свети.


In the beautiful of this world you raised yourself from your youth
O, New Martyr, Knez Lazar,
And God's strong and glorious hand
Pointed at you, among all the lords of the earth.
You lorded over your fatherland
And with your goodness delighted
The Christians under your wing.
And with a martyr's heart and a wish for blessing
You went against the dragon
And against the enemies of the holy churches.
Having deemed it unbearable for your heart
To see the Christians of your fatherland
Be conquered by the turks
In order to achieve these
To leave the unstable height of earthly lordship
And to spill your blood
And to join the soldiers of the heavenly emperor.
And so you achieved two wishes:
You killed the dragon
And received a martyr's wreath from God.
And now do not forget your beloved children
Whom you left orphaned by your transition.
For since you achieved the bliss in the eternal celestial joy
Many hardship and suffering fell upon your children
And in many misfortunes they spend their lives,
Because they are conquered by the Turks
And they need your help.
For this I beg you,
Pray to the universal ruler for your children,
And for all those who serve them with love and faith,
for they are fettered with worries,your beloved children
Those who ate their bread raised a conspiracy against them
And forgot your goodness,
o Martyr.
But since you passed from this life,
You know the worries and sufferings of your children
And as a martyr you are free before God.
Kneel before the Lord who wreathed you,
Pray that your children live long lives
In happiness pleasing to God.
Pray thar Orhodox Christian faith amply endures in your fatherland
Ask the victorious God to grant victory
to your beloved children, Knez Stephan and Vuk,
Against visible and invisible enemies.
For if we receive God's help
We will give you praise and gratitude
Call for a meeting of your fellow martyrs
And pray with them to the glorifying God,
Warn George
Move Demetrios
Persuade both Theodores
Take Merkourios and Prokopios
And do not leave out the forty martyrs of Sebaseia
In whose suffering now fight your children,
Knez Stephan and Vuk.
Pray that the help from God be given them.
Come then to our aid, wherever you are.
Consider my small contribution
and count it among many,
For I did not grant you the praise you deserve,
But only as far as my small mind allowed,
And so I expect but small rewards
For you were not selfish, My Lord and Martyr,
In this decaying and short lasting world,
But you are more generous in the everlasting and magnificent
That you received from God.
For you fed me profusely
When I was foreign in a foreign land
And now I beg you both:
To feed me
and to assuage the fierce storm in my soul and body
Jefimija humbly offers you this, O Holy One

Trsic - Ethno Village

The small etno village of Trsic, 9 kilometers south of Loznica, is the birthplace of Vuk Stefanovic Karadzic, the 19th century language reformer who is considered the father of the modern Serbian language.

A portion of the village has been turned into an ethnographic park, centered on a recreation of the Karadzic family home.







Many authentic 19th century items are in the home, including a portrait of ‘Vuk' from 1816 painted by Pavle Djurakovic. In later years an amphitheater was erected to stage the many cultural events that take place in Trsic, among which the best known is 'Vukov sabor' dating since 1933.

Splav Restaurants in Begrade

The Splavs are a specialty of Belgrade and got famous also because of it's reputation for mafia-style location. Basically they are rafts that have been turned into clubs and restaurants and are anchored at the riverbank.
Most of them are open until the the morning and gives (particularly in summer) a good location to party all night long.

The mafia stories of the 90's and from films are more or less over, what stayed are interesting unusual places to celebrate from weddings to club-nights.
Here just for a good laugh the video of "mi nismo andjeli III" from Boris Milivojevic that makes fun of the Splavovi Image!

Inside Splav Godo

Usually the clubs conform to the highest esthetic standards and offer modern hi-tech equippement (video/movie/slide projectors, plasma TV, wireless Internet connection, Disco & DJ Party Lights). Many have boat access, beautiful terrasses and fantastic view overlooking the beautiful Sava river.



Earlier Splavs wee old rafts improvisated into restaurants.
Today it's not uncommon to hire a classy architect and to create new and attractive interiors.

A project for a Splav-Restaurant by Vladimir Lojanica

Tara National Park in Western Serbia

Milutinović Ratka, Fotografska radnja "ERA" 31250 Bajina Bašta

Recently I saw the movie "Zavet" by Serbian director Emir Kusturica. He shot the movie in Uzice and in the area of Tara National Park (in Western Serbia).

If you plan to visit this beautiful place you will be rewarded with a picturesque scenery (hills in dense forest and grass vegetation, spots with beautiful view, waterfalls, rivers and the wonderful Drina canyon with its impressive vertical cliffs)
and natural rarities - e.g. endemic species like the monumental Serbian spruce (Picea Omorika found by Serbian botanist Josif Pancic).

scene from the Kusturica movie

You can reach the National Park from little town of Bajina Basta, and on the way to tara is one of the most attractive cultural-historical values of this region: the Raca Monastery.


Interior of Kafana in Bajina Basta

To get in mood for this wonderful place, see Kusturica's movie and download the beautiful presentation of Tara National Park. More information on the english Tara Site here.

Peaceful Serbians in Zurich

This afternoon the Serbs of Zurich met in a peaceful meeting to show their emotions about the illegal indipendence of Kosovo.
In a speech they asked the swiss executive authority to think twice before accepting this phantom-state called Kosovo.
The Serbs arrived in decorated cars, celebrated with Trubaci, prayers and swinging flags.

Orthodox Christmas

Because the Serbs follow the Julian calendar Christmas comes two weeks later than that of Roman Catholics. The 6th of January, in the morning, the habit is to go in search of badnjak (oak branches with leaves) and to put straw around the fireplace, to simulate the connection with the earth. Usually, Serbs put coins, walnuts, almonds, dry figs on the straw, all the gifts for the children. The traditional January 6th supper for Serbs is religious diatary meals, usually fish. Christmas Eve supper is very rich even if it is always meatless meal.
In the morning of January 7th, Christmas, the first person that enters the home is called "polozajnik" and he's offered"zito" (boiled wheat Christmas speciality) and black wine. For breakfast the habit is to prepare "cicvara" (a dish made of flour, eggs, butter and cheese) and to serve it with small dry cakes, dry figs and rakija. (plum brandy). All persons gather around the table, family and guests, while the father lights the candle. That moment marks the start of "mirbozenje" (peace and reconciliation). Partecipants than kiss one another at Christmas time while saying: "Mir Bozji". If there were any disagreement, all are forgotten.
During the entire Christmas day a custom is to replace a classic: "Hello" or: "Good day" with: "Hristos se rodi" (Christ is born!) and as greeting in reply: "Vaistinu se rodi" (Really born he is!)
On Christmas day, lunch is very rich. In contrast to Christmas Eve that relates to All Souls’ Day, Christmas relates to the cult of agriculture. Nowadays, in the cities, before lunch the family throws the straw under the table (man’s relation to the earth).Traditionally essential part of the Christmas dinner is a type of flat, round Christmas bread called "cesnica".


Advise:
If you have enough of the Western Commercial Christmas with zillions of presents and stressful shopping-frenzy, come and see the peaceful Serbian Orthodox Christmas celebrated in church with big fire in front of the building and hot rakija served at the exit.