Press Center Building by Ratomir Bogojevic in Belgrade

Picture from Peter at Ostarchitektur

This building is at the most famous shopping street in Belgrade...and chances are that you pass by without realizing what a special building it is. It sticks out more if you approach it from the Republic Square. The building is called "Dom stampe".

The Press Center Building from Trg Republike

The «Dom stampe» building (the Presse Center Building) in Belgrade was erected in 1958-61. This modern business building was executed following the designs made by architect Ratomir Bogojević (1912–1963) one of the most prominent representatives of Serbian modern architecture, in the spirit of Le Corbusier.
At the time it was a novelty in the Belgrade setting. As a part of Trg Republike, this building plays a significant role since it completes a block whose highest point is the «Albanija» Palace (I made a post about it here).

The Press House is “designed and built in almost a classic manner, fits just right with the nearby Reunion Palace and the Foreign Trade Chamber buildings, and makes the ensemble of representative city palaces complete” at the Republic Square.

Trg Republike 5 /corner of Kneza Mihailova

Now the Belgrade Cultural Centre is located in the first floor of the building.

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)

Best travel tips for Serbia - RASKA/KOSOVO

old Serbia

Links for Tour 3: Visiting UNESCO heritage sites and spiritual places in Raska and Kosovo
These two regions are filled with historic facts and tradition. Endangered World Heritage, a long ottoman past and medieval treasures of the Serbian empire..here you have loads of culture!

The Raska Region

Serbia's South/West has currently two names. Serbs call it Raska or Old Serbia, while Muslims who live in the same region and are in majority here call it Sandzak. These two names reflect the two characters of this region in which Orthodox and Muslim populations live alongside one another with their different traditions and customs.
Even before the chaos in Kosovo, this part of Serbian territory was considered a possible future flash point and it's still making headlines. This area was the heart of medieval Serbia.
There are numerous beautiful examples of sacral buildings in existence from middle age highlighting the importance of this region in the past:

The old church of St. Peter near Novi Pazar
St. Peter's church (Црква светог Петра) is one of the oldest churches on the territory of the Serbian Orthodox Church. I made a post about it.

Sopocani Monastery near Novi Pazar
In the vicinity of Novi Pazar stands the Sopocani monastery (Сопоћани Манастир), built around 1260 as the endowment of King Stefan Uros I (Стефан Урош I), the son of King Stephen the First-Crowned (Стефан Првовенчани). The primary and major value of the Sopocani monastery are its frescoes, by which it ranks among the best examples of the European medieval painting. Here the nice UNESCO site about Sopocani and here my post.

Djurdjevi Stupovi Monastery
The monastery of St. George in Ras belongs to the most important sacred places in the history of Serbian people. As early as the Middle Ages it became known as "Djurdjevi Stupovi", named after its pillars towers which adorned the monastery church. The monastery was founded by the founder of the Nemanjic dynasty, Stefan Nemanja (Стефан Немања), in the second half of the 12th century.
Here is my post about it.

Djurdjevi Stupovi

Studenica Monastery
The Studenica monastery was built in the late 12th century, as the endowment of the Serb ruler Stefan Nemanja (Стефан Немања), who endowed it richly with the icons and books. After he had become a monk and left for Serbian Hilandar on the Mt. Athos, his older son Stefan, later named the "First-Crowned" (Стефан Првовенчани), took his place in taking care over the monastery.(Here my post)

Novi Pazar
Novi Pazar, the former capital of the region and still the most important city here, bursts with oriental sights and smells. I made posts with beautiful pictures about Novi Pazar here, here and here.

Novi Pazar

Here are links for spiritual/cultural landmarks and Serbia's orthodox treasures
of this region:
An overview about the region from "Serbia in your hands" and from "Visit Serbia" will give you a first impression.
"panacomp"has two interesting tours called: SERBIAN U N E S C O HERITAGE inclusive KOSOVO AND METOHIJA 1 and SERBIAN U N E S C O HERITAGE inclusive KOSOVO AND METOHIJA 2 for group travels.


Kosovo and Metohija

A lot of medieval monuments in Kosovo and Metohija are in the list of World heritage in Danger. Many monuments have already been destroyed by blasting, incendiary and looting. I will intentionally not give any numbers of how many monuments/churches have been devastated as every source gives another information and also this is used a lot for manipulating information to show which side of criminals is worst.

Kosovska Mitrovica

Visok Decani Monastery
The Decani Monastery was built in the mid-14th century for the Serbian king Stefan Decanski (Стефан Урош III Дечански) and is also his mausoleum. Here my post.

Gracanica Monastery
The Gracanica Monastery was one of the last monuments by Serbian King Uros II Milutin. It was errected in 1321 on the ruins of an older church.

Saint archangels Monastery
The saint archangel monastery was founded by Tsar Dusan and built between 1343 and 1352 on the place of the earlier church,and is part of the Visegrad fortress complex abov the city of Prizren. Here my post.

Prizren
The city of Prizren is just awsome. Here my impressions.


And this are just a few highlights to visit. Kosovo and Metohija is filled with exiting landmarks!
And here my favorite links:
The diocese of Ras-Prizren and Kosovo-Metohija
Kosovo – the land of the living past – by the monks of Decani
Kosovo and Metohija by "Serbia in your hands"
A nice pdf to download about spiritual and cultural heritage of Kosovo

Travelling in the Kosovo province on one's own?
With foreign number plates you can travel everywhere in the entire province (stick to the roads...as off road there might still be landmines). With Serbian number plates however it's not recommended to travel in the Albanian parts. The Serbian authorities do not recognize as official the external border crossings of Kosovo. Between the northern Kosovo region and Central Serbia there is just an administrative line but no "official border". It is therefore advised not to enter Serbia through the Kosovo province (at the administrative line in the north) as you will not get an entrance stamp for Serbia and this can give you again problems when leaving the country. If you enter the Kosovo province by the administrative line in the Serbian part and leave it again from the Albanian part to get to Central Serbia you might have trouble at the border for leaving the Kosovo province.

How to visit Serbian orthodox monasteries?
To visit Serbian orthodox monasteries protected by KFOR you must carry personal documents as they will control you.
From what I can tell, the monks in Serbian orthodox monastery are not really strict about behavior of visitors in the monastery, as they assume that if you dress not adequate and behave rather rude, that you’re not doing it on purpose, but that you just don’t have a clue about the rules. However it’s nice to show you arrive prepared and are willing to show your respect for their holy place.
Apropriate clothing: For men it’s long trousers and closed shoes, and no head coverage. For woman it’s a long skirt, long sleeves and a headscarf.
Greeting the monks: Walking toward the monk (or monks) you can nicely say: "pomaže bog" (literally: That god helps) and he will answer "bog pomogao" (literally: God helps). The monk will then hands you his hand that you will hold in your both hands and bend down your head and tell: "oče blagoslovi" (literally: Father bless me) and he will make a sign to bless you.
Of course you don't need to do all that, a simple greeting is fine. The monastery always will send one monk to show you around the monastery and answer your questions. Often you will be invited for coffee and cakes or exquisite monastery rakija. If you want to show gratitude leave some money or in the designated places or simply by the icons in the chapel.



In the next post there will links for the last tour:
Links for Tour 4: Enjoying rural tourism and Serbian traditions in ethno villages (26.10.2009)

Best travel tips for Serbia - TARA/KOPAONIK

Tara National Park

(Links for Tour 1 - Visiting Belgrade - here)

Links for Tour 2:
You are into natural attractions or you enjoy sport activities
Discover the beautiful region of Tara National Park and Kopaonik region by bike! Here markowe, a brit with serbian roots suggests a 7 days trek from Kopaonik to Tara.

Kopaonik in winter

Day 1 - Kopaonik

Day 2 - Kopaonik-Raska-Golija

Day 3 - Golija-Sjenica

Day 4 - Sjenica-Gostilje

Day 5 - Gostilje-Zlatibor-Mokra Gora

Sargan eight railway station in Mokra Gora

Day 6 - Mokra Gora-Tara

Day 7 - Tara-HOME!

Panorama over Zlatibor mountains

I wrote also about that region and here are posts about the surroundings of Tara National Park and about Drvengrad the village build by director Emir Kusturica in Mokra Gora.

Mokra Gora

maps of the region:

If you try to look up Serbia in googlemap you will be a little disapointed what concerns Serbia, just a couple of highways and a little more around Belgrade. So I try to give here links to some maps that are more satisfying, if you wish to put an itinerary of West Serbia together. But for travelling you'll need a good road-atlas anyway.
This is one of the better maps of Serbia in internet. And this is one with a good choice of roads and you can print it out.

Typical restaurant in Zlatibor

And here the list of links for the attractions of the region: The Raca Monastery not far from Baijna Basta (description and panorama movie)

Raca Monastery

Emir Kusturica's Drvengrad "Küstendorf" the official website

Church in Drvengrad

Website of Kopaonik, the major place for skiing ans snowboarding in Serbia Tara National Park (the webiste with wonderful pictures)

Zlatibor Village

In the next posts there will be some more links:
Links for Tour 3: Visiting UNESCO heritage sites and spiritual places in Raska and Kosovo (23.10.2009)
Links for Tour 4: Enjoying rural tourism and Serbian traditions in ethno villages

Best travel tips for Serbia - BELGRADE

After giving some general travel tips I thought about some of my favorite itineraries for Serbia.

The reasons why you're visiting Serbia as a tourist may vary, usually you can resume them into some categories. Here I pass out links for 4 different tours to discover Serbia.



Links for Tour 1.
You head for a city trip in a top destination? Then visit Belgrade (and if you have a little more time add Novi Sad and Nis to your journey)

The best links to catch all the attractions and to find good information, help for reservation and to find places to eat are the following two sites:
the official website of Belgrade (in english, german and serbian)
and the website of the Tourist Organization Beograd.



And here my personal best 5 of Belgrade.

Here the links to good guides for Belgrade:
Completely free, the inyourpocked guide can be downloaded here and printed out makes a handy little guide to carry.



For a really different kind of tour through Belgrade, I put my NATO-Trail-Guide together, where I lead the visitor to landmarks that NATO bombing in 1999 changed forever...complemented with lots of background informations.

If you wish to buy a guide, then my favorite is a Belgrade walking Guide from Ljubica Corovic. She suggests 10 walking routes through Belgrade which reveal the past and present of the city in a interesting way.



And of course you sure heard it before: Belgrade is the nightlife capital of the east! So here a nightlife guide and the place where to find out what's going on!

Belgrade-Blogs

A good way to stay informed about a city is to follow it throught the eyes of Bloggers. My favorite Belgrade based blogs (in english) about the city are:

The blog of Belgraded is the one I follow the most as it's updated frequently and has a good link called 100-things-to-do-in-Belgrade (good inspiration!)

Other good blogs are Adam's blog The Balkan File (It is run by a British expat in his mid-20s who has made Belgrade his home) and Life in Retro(bel)grade - a blogger lady that invites you to take a step back to to see the big picture of Belgrade.

A newer blog that covers Belgrade and did a good review about Belgrade Hotels (read it before booking...) is merkat traveler - travel to belgrade -blog

And for beautiful pictures from the serbian capital I like to check belgradedailyphoto-blog


Maps of Belgrade:

Here is a good interactiv map where you can find single streets and attractions in Belgrade

NOVI SAD
Here the in your pocket guide for Novi Sad.
And here the wikitravelguide for Novi Sad
NIŠ
Here a little basic guide for Niš
And here the wikitravelguide for Niš



In the next posts I'll put together some more links:
Links for Tour 2: Discovering natural attractions in the beautiful region of Tara National Park and Kopaonik by bike! (20.10.2009)
Links for Tour 3: Visiting UNESCO heritage sites and spiritual places in Raska and Kosovo (23.10.2009)
Links for Tour 4: Enjoying rural tourism and Serbian traditions in ethno villages (26.10.2009)