Zlatibor: The gentle giant of Western Serbia

Zlatibor: The gentle giant of Western Serbia

Zlatibor is a ruffled plateau 25 km south from Užice, with a settlement of the same name being the centre of this tourist region. Known for its exquisite landscapes and clean air, Zlatibor has recently developed into a leading destination of mountain tourism in Serbia. However, with urbanization, commercialization and popularization, the environment has also lost much of its natural purity.

Up to the middle of the 19th century, this mountain was known as Rujno for the lustre of its vast fields filled with flocks of sheep. The area was poor, but it was also a place where a number of different routes intersected, so the natives were known as shippers who transported heavy loads on small donkies over their mountain and the rest of Serbia. Zlatibor (“Golden Pine”) was named after a magnificent tree (lat. Pinus Silvestris v. Zlatiborica) which unfortunatelly cannot be found in this area any more.

Its reputation of virginal natural beauty was spreading fast, convincing King Alexander Obrenović to visit it in 1893. There is a well commemorating the King’s visit in the centre of the settlement, which was henceforth known as Kraljeve Vode (“King’s Waters”). At that time, there were only a few houses there to accommodate the passengers and rare tourists who chose to follow the leader. The real progress of Zlatibor began after 1927 with a new road link to Užice, when small villas were built first by well-off people from this town and later by other nature-lovers. After the war, larger holiday resorts were built here and since the 1960s, Zlatibor became one of the most popular resorts in the mountains.

Known for its exquisite landscapes and clean air, Zlatibor has recently developed into a leading destination of mountain tourism in Serbia. Zlatibor primarlily owes its popularity to a domesticated ambience surrounded by breathtaking mountain widerness. Zlatibor town, (until recently known as Partizanske Vode and before that as Kraljeve Vode) is in the heart of the plateau at an average altitude of 1000 m, surrounded by Čigota, Murtenica, Tornik and Gruda mountains.

The Crni Rzav river, with lots of tributaries and perfectly clear waters, flows south from the plateau. On the other hand, Zlatibor has an amiable climate, with over 2000 sunny hours (i.e. 200 days) per year, whereas the snow in long and cold winters settles for over 100 days a year due to sub-zero temperatures from October to April. This makes Zlatibor a very convenient skiing destination. In the summer – June, July and August – the days are warm and nights can often be chilly.

The centre of the town is next to a small lake – a place to take a refreshing swim in the summer and a natural skating field in the winter. There are wooden kiosks lined up along the lakeshore with shops, cafés and restaurants, ending with the town's bus station. This is where the focal point of daily activities and night life. There are many places for accommodation and big hotels all around the lake, especially private boarding houses that have spouted all around the resort over the last couple of years.

Zlatibor offers remarkable options for outdoor activities, from leisure and hiking to serious mountaineering ventures. Equally popular is biking, either in the town area or through the natural landscape. The most relaxing hike is to Glavudža, where you can find a monument in memory the victims of German retaliation on peasants in 1941. Further south-west, many people opt to walk to the first major peak – Čuker (1358 m).

It takes about one hour to reach the top. Further on, Čigota ridge leads to the peak with the same name at 1422 m altitude, a several-hour climb. Southwest of the town is the vast Lake Ribničko. Since the town and the surrounding area is supplied with water from this lake, swimming is forbiden. Nonetheless, you can still go fishing here for dace, trout, carp, etc. The highest peak of Zlatibor, Tornik (1496 m), rises above the lake, covered with coniferous woods. A ski centre is at the foot of the mountain, with two ski lifts frequently used during winter.

On the way to the railway station, some 12 kms form the town, there is a resort complex “Kod komša”, with a small swimming area enclosed in the dammed section of a stream. The town itself has a number of basketball courts, football fields, volleyball grounds and tennis courts, as well as outdoor and indoor swimming pools.

Environs:

There are several destinations around Zlatibor that should not be missed. 

The famous Sirogojno village can be reached through villages Rudine and Rozanstvo. In 1979, the best preserved part of the village was put under protection as buildings that traditoinally represented South-west Serbian rural architecture. A few other buildings were transferred from surrounding villages to complete the setting displaying national architecture of this area. The whole complex is known today as the Open-Air museum “The Old Village” (Muzej na otvorenom “Staro selo”, tel 031/802-291, www.sirogojno.org.yu, office@sirogojno.org.yu).

It consists of some fifty buildings designed, furnished and equipped with home “appliances” evoking the life from previous centuries in this part of Serbia. The houses here are specific for the whole Dinaric Alps region stretching over the whole Bosnia and a substantial part of Croatia, inhabited in the past almost entirely by Serbs. Although these houses were mostly built in the 19th and at the beginning of the 20th century, their archaic design did not change much over the centuries. Each of the family cooperatives had a central building, “the house” (kuća), where the head of the cooperative lived and where everyone gathered.

Each of the sons had his own “building” (zgrada), where he lived with his own family. Around it were various constructions, such as a dairy, corn and grain cribs, the barn, etc. Houses were built on the hillside, with the stone base used as a cellar, half of which is dug into the hillside. The upper part of the house, used for habitation, was entirely made of wood without any binding materials, not even nails. Very steep shingle-covered roofs were adorned with a specific type chimney.

All this and much more about the life of people in this area can be learnt at the museum, where you can also find a shop abundant with souvenirs, from the famous Sirogojno sweaters to other home made products – jam and rakija. Some of the cottages were redecorated to accommodate visitors, and there is also a herbal pharmacy and a tavern that offers an traditional ethno-ambience. At the top of the hill, above all the houses, there is the church of Sts. Peter and Paul built in 1764. The massive bell-tower was added a century later. The iconostasis is the work of the famous Simeon Lazović Old XVIII and XIX-centruy gravestones surround the church. Not far from Sirogojno is the Stopića cave (Stopića pećina), the most significant of a number of natural caves that can be found in the Zlatibor area. It is right below the Užice-Rožanstvo-Sirogojno road 19 km from Zlatibor town. The Trnavski stream runs through a 1651-meter-long cave. The temperature inside the cave much cooler than on the outside during summer.

The impressive entrance is 35m wide and 18m high, while the cave itself consists of five segments and, although it is not particularly rich in cave ornaments, there are interesting travertine tubs, quite distinctive in size and depth (up to 7 m), compared to other caves in Serbia. Somewhat more to the south from Sirogojno is the Gostilje village, known as a destination for village tourism and even more for its impressive waterfall (vodopad). The village also has a small camp and a trout farm. A few more kilometers to the south, you can find the charming Ljubiš village. The road will then lead you back around Čigota to Zlatibor.

Source: www.serbiainyourhands.com