SERBIA
Serbia – Vojvodina (Novi Sad, Subotica, Pančevo) May 20-22, 2019
I entered my 110th country on May 20. The Serbian side asked lots of questions and seemed surprised that someone would travel as much as I do.
I decided to head south to see some places in the far west of the country before going to Novi Sad and Vojvodina.
The road was a 2 metre wide pile of potholes initially but did improve for the 35km drive to this unassuming town.
SREMSKA MITROVIA
Museum of Srem. This city museum has the usual archaeology (pots, metal), history (documents, weapons, photos, newspaper clippings) and ethnology (dress, costumes, agricultural equipment). It was first established in 1885 but did not get started until 1946 and now exists in two buildings. One holds the history, art and ethnology parts and the lapidaries is in the yard of the museum. 200
SIRMIUMART. In the NM “Entertainment/Things to do” series, this is an art gallery showcasing local artists. It holds a gala rock concert on New Years and competitions for art. Free
Google Maps then had a spell of “Can’t find a way there”. This happens when you have run out of downloaded maps. I could not access data so went to a coffee shop to use wifi and download maps for the country.
It had been raining and there was the most fantastic rainbow (unlike one I have ever seen before) just at sundown – very high in the sky and huge: a very faint one above the main rainbow, the main rainbow and 4 more faint rainbows directly under it.
On the first sunny day for what seems weeks, I had a big drive-about through Volvodina in the north of Serbia. The sun didn’t last as it became cool and rained in the afternoon.
Krušedol Monastery. Set in a bucolic area of grass and mature trees, this was first built in 1509-14, was burned by the Turks in 1716, and looted in 1942. It is the burial site of Serbian kings, renowned people and famous clergy. Inside the frescoes were dark and faded and the iconostasis gilt. The highlight was the brightly painted red/green icon frames. I entered at a service where there were more priests than congregation.
Novo Hopovo Monastery. The best known of Serbian monasteries, it was built in 1515-16 and the towers in 1751, burnt by the Turks in 1688 (destroying the relics of St Teodor) and again in WWII when the treasury and library were destroyed. Stone/brick, the inside had faded frescoes gone from the lower walls, ceiling and entrance. This is a tourist draw and it was full of a busload each of oldies and 7-year olds.
FRUŠKA GORA NATIONAL PARK
This occupies a long ridge NW of Belgrade and is full of mature deciduous trees. In the park and area are 19 monasteries, 4 mountain lodges, 10 lakes, hotels and springs. I drove along the crest and then descended on switchbacks to the north.
Fruška Gora Monasteries and Nature.
Rakovac Monastery: built in 1533, it is known for its carved wood iconostasis of 1763. In WW II it was destroyed and rebuilt in 1958-59. It has no frescoes. I was kicked out by an ancient nun as I was wearing shorts.
Beoćin Monastery: First built in 1578, it was abandoned after the Turks destroyed it in 1697 and then restored in 1731-40. It is known for the icons on the iconostasis, the icon of the Miraculous Mother of God and the relics of Nastić, the youngest Serbian saint. When I was there, the inside was completely gutted to the bare brick walls and full of scaffold. A small chapel, completely new, contained the icon. The patrons of Versaille had built a real duplicate of Versasille on the south side of the complex but now the hedges were home to the only caretakers, a herd of sheep.
NOVI SAD
Strand. This small sand beach on the north shore of the Danube River has lots of umbrella cabanas to rent. A lovely park with promenade and bike trails follows the river. Free
Petrovaradin Fortress. High on the hill on the south side of the Danube, this completely renovated fort has a hotel, the City Museum of Novi Sad, restaurants, knick-knack stands and the Planitarium. Drive through 3 sets of gates and tunnels in the bastions to access the good parking at the centre. This has great views of the Danube and the city. Free
Novi Sad Planetarium. In the fort, this is an entered through an inconspicuous wood door to in the brick wall of a dirt bastion. It has no hours listed and doesn’t appear to be open.
Museum of Contemporary Art. With temporary exhibitions every 2 weeks, I was between them and that part was empty. But the permanent exhibits on WWI and II showed the role Serbia played against the Austro-Hungarian Empire (primarily Bulgaria) in WWI and against Germany in WWII. After WW I, Vojvodina developed very slowly because of poor electricity, few railways and poor industrial base. The main economy was agriculture and handicrafts. Full of photographs, newspaper clippings, guns, uniforms and war paraphernalia, all labels were in Serb but there were some storyboards in English. There were some nice sculptures made of guns, helmets and grenades on the columns inside. Free
Museum of Vojvodina. The storyboards were in Serb but the labels in English in this regional museum. Flooding from the Danube and its four tributaries was frequent but in the 18th and 19th centuries, peasant labour drained marshes, built 1600kms of dikes and 11,000kms of canals, got rid of meanders and turns shortening the Danube by 18kms and the Tisza River by 78kms and ended up reclaiming 1,500,000 hectares of land. This is visible everywhere as the rivers look like canals. I enjoyed the decorated horns. 20, 15 reduced
The Name of Mary Church. On the main town square, the president was visiting – marching bands, lots of people and tons of police were everywhere.
This RC church has great Ways of the Cross – colorful deep bas-reliefs and a lovely carved wood main altar full of statues. Free
Youth Center CK13. This youth centre has a performance venue, a vegan café and an open courtyard with tables. A different program is offered daily and the centre is well used. When I arrived the management team was having a meeting and was given a tour.
SREMSKI KARLOVCI.
Patriarchate Court (Palace). Just south of Novi Sad, this was the seat of the Patriarchate of Karlovci between 1848 and 1920. It was built between 1892 and 1895 on the site of the first residence of the head of the Serbian Orthodox Church in the style of Italian palaces. The Royal Chapel the story above the main entrance is covered by a hemisphere dome and is topped with a Lantern. It is the historic administrative seat of the Serbian Orthodox Church and houses the Church Museum with treasures such as stored valuables, works of art, icons, portraits of the major metropolitan and church dignitaries, different objects of applied arts and a library of rare valuable manuscripts and old printed books. Within the palace, a treasury is open to the public with a permanent display of objects from the eighteenth and nineteenth century from the destroyed churches in Bosnia and Croatia.
North of the Danube, Serbia is pancake flat agricultural country. All the secondary roads are narrow without shoulders and traffic moves slowly with all the trucks, farm tractors and old men on bicycles. There are always the young speed freaks but most Serbians are rational drivers.
BAČ
Historical place of Bač and its Surroundings, the tentative WHS (15/04/2010) reflects is long history as a fortress town coming into contact with all invaders from Roman times to the 18th century.
Bač fortress. First referred to by the Romans in 535, in 873 it was a Barbarian fortress. In 1241, it was destroyed by the Mongolians. The present fortress was built by the Hungarian king from 1338-42 making it the oldest fortress in Vojvodina. It was originally on an island originating on a meander of the Mostonga River. In 1529, it was conquered by the Turks and after the Rokotzy Uprising of 1702-4, the fortress was burned, demolished, deserted and never renovated again. Now it is a ruin with a few standing walls but an intact 5-story square keep that was restored completely in 1960 and serves multi-functions (closed and couldn’t be entered). Free
Liberland (micronation). The border between Croatia and Serbia in the far north east is very unusual. You would expect the Danube to be the border but both countries have ‘bits” on the other side. In the NM “Bizzarium” series. Liberland is west of the Danube and Gornje Podunavlje Special Natural Reserve in a ‘peninsula’ jut out of Serbia. Its boundary is formed by a canal, looks like it should be part of Croatia and is reached only through Croatia. Croatia likewise crosses the Danube on both sides of Liberland, both part of the Nature Reserve.
Liberland, officially the Free Republic of Liberland, is a micronation claiming an uninhabited parcel of disputed land on the western bank of the Danube, between Croatia and Serbia. It was proclaimed on 13 April 2015 by Czech right-libertarian politician and activist Vít Jedlička. The land in question has no infrastructure and lies on a floodplain. The official website of Liberland states that the nation was created due to the ongoing Croatia–Serbia border dispute, in which some areas to the east of the Danube are claimed by both Serbia and Croatia, while some areas to the west, including the area of Liberland, are considered part of Serbia by Croatia, but Serbia does not claim them. The size of the land in question is 7 square kilometres (2.7 sq mi; roughly the same as Gibraltar). It has been administered by Croatia since the Croatian War of Independence. There has been no diplomatic recognition of Liberland, although it has established relations with Somaliland (also unrecognized).
Somber City Museum. This has all the usual of a municipal museum – archaelolgy (pots, metal), paintings, many furnished period rooms
SUBOTICA
In the far north of Vojvodina and Serbia (bordering on Hungary), Subotica is lovely with large trees lining all the streets and squares. It is known for its Art Nouveau Buildings – the synagogue and the municipal museum buildings are two examples. Walk along Dmitri? Street to see wonderful buildings, a mixture of Baroque and Art Nouveau.
Municipal Museum. This is one municipal museum I actually enjoyed. There was a great exhibit of photography (by Tlatvan Tõrténet) of Subotica citizens: artisans, people at work and leisure and politicians. Oddly there was a large exhibit on African culture that I didn’t quite understand but assume a Subotica citizen was an early explorer. Meteors, with examples, from around the world were wonderful. The large amount of art was even pleasant. Free (I arrived 15 minutes before closing and didn’t need to buy a ticket).
Subotica Synagogue. Unusually, this huge synagogue sits in the middle of a large area of grass, walks and benches. It is an impressive building: white with red brick accents (decorative carvings and brick arches over the windows, corners and columns). The tiled roof has a blue geometric design. There are four onion domes with multicoloured tiles on the corners and a large central onion dome. Its hours are 10-6 most days and 10-2 on Saturdays.
Franciscan Church.
Subotica Flea Market (Bolha piac). About 4kms west of town, this large flea market operates daily starting at 7:30.
I was up early and driving by 6 to see the rest of Vojvodina on my way to Begrade, the capital of Serbia.
PALIĆ
The “small town” of Palić, about 10kms east of Subotica, sits on the north arm of Palić Lake, a NM “Sight” just southeast of Subotica. Palic Nature Park sits on the water with a variety of water activities. Paddle boats may be the only one possible at this time of year.
Kanjiža. A NM “small town”, there was little to distinguish this place.
The 1½ hour drive south continued through pancake-flat farm country. I passed at least 20 tractors on the highway.
ZRENJANIN
Zrenjanin is the large commercial centre of the Banat region of Vojvodina. It has a multi-cultural heritage with emigrants from Germany, Hungaria, Romania, Slovenia and elsewhere.
Zrenjanin National Museum. This large regional museum has 3 floors of exhibits. The man at the front desk insisted that I have a guide and the pleasant female curator showed me around. The ground floor had some poor art by Milan Konyovilch. The 1st floor was primarily serial rooms of period furniture with each room a different style, then Serbian painters from the 20th century. The 2nd was the ethnology section showed typical rooms of the various ethnic groups, agricultural equipment and formal costumes of each of the groups. Free
Dry Bridge. This old, decrepit, pedestrian bridge is suspended from a single-cable with a single pillar on each end. It lies at the west end of a ½kilometer long canal (that doesn’t seem to have an inlet nor outlet. Both ends are blocked and it can’t be waked on. A dirt road separates the channel from a very marshy channel.
Ravno Selo Windmill. Serbian windmills have a conical shape with a wide base tapering up with a wood roof. The top doesn’t rotate and faces into the prevailing wind. This one is brick and had no vanes.
Black Ćuprija. Zabalj. About 15kms west of Zrenjanin, this monument consists of three black, tall, thin, skeletal, male, nude figures. A rock in front has the dates 1941-1945 but no specific information. I asked some workmen what it was about, and they said “nothing special”. From Wikipedia: it is a World War II monument that stretches across an area of 472 ha (1,170 acres). At a height of 9 meters (30 ft), the sculptures are dedicated to the victims of the Novi Sad raid killed near Žabalj by fascist Hungarian forces occupying Yugoslavia in January 1942. Part of the monument was stolen in 2009.
Kovačica Museum of Naive Art. This museum is an a small centre with several galleries showing Naive Art. This one had about 80 paintings. The ones done on glass are very special. Naive Art is a type of folkart with a cartoonish, whimsical look. Bright colours are used. Many were for sale. Free
I also went into the collective that shows art for 150 local artists. It too had some different styles. The owner showed me around and explained some of the artists and techniques.
PANČEVO
Pančevo Flea Market. About 20kms east of Belgrade, this is a fixed market with metal buildings. It sets up at 7:30 every morning and starts close in the early afternoon.