Hotel Vrbak in Novi Pazar

Here a little excursion to the Raska region (a historical region in the south-west of Serbia, also called the region of the serbian kings, as it was already a kingdom around 1200 with Stefan Nemanja as a ruler).

Novi Pazar, a lively town in the Raska is not only an interesting spot and good place to have a a wonderful cup of coffee, but also bears one of the big gemms of Hotel Architecture in the Balkan: a retro-byzantin meets space-age design of concrete built in the 1970: The Hotel Vrbak.

In contrast to communist rational buildings for housing of that time, this Hotel, located in the full center of the city, represents the pure opposite: a festival of arches, vaults and domes, brick and stucco surfaces, symbolic ornamentation, and use of decorative mosaics!

The building consist of two connected octagonal shapes and an rectangular extension that straddels the River Raska.
Some Kiosks are attached under the building like the cabine of a zeppelin.

It has about 60 rooms, restaurant, café, aperitif bar, and a tourist agency (unfortunately there are not a lot of overnight guests, so not everything is always working, but it's still a popular spot for weddings...)