Vranje

 Since I saw movies like Zona Zamfirova and Ivkova Slava I always had the wish to visit Vranje, a lively city of South Serbia. From our family home in Kovaceva Bara it's just about an hour of traveling, but somehow I never made it to Vranje until last summer, when we wanted to show the area to my relatives from Italy! My husband made us a tour of  the region and so I had finally the oppurtunity to visit Vranje!

In ancient times, various tribes inhabited present-day Vranje, until the Romans conquered the region in the 2nd and 1st centuries BC. The Roman fortresses in the Vranje region were abandoned during the Hun attacks in 539-544 AD. The name Vranje stems from the old word for "black" ("vran") in Serbian. Vranje was an important Ottoman trading site.


Around Vranje’s busy pedestrian zone is the Pasha’s residence on Pionirska Street. The complex comprises two buildings erected by Raif beg Džinić in 1765 as his residence. Its architecture is a typical example of South Serbian architecture. 

The National Museum in Vranje (Народни Музеј Врање)

It was founded in 1960. Pionirska 1, Vranje, Tel: 017 424018

The Museum features a collection of Roman excavations, medieval coins, traditional costumes and craftwork.

In general, buildings of this period include a basement and two floors. The walls are pierced by many windows arranged symmetrically. The façade is decorated with one or two bay windows, a cantilevered glass Advanced overlooking the street and expanded interior space, while the courtyard façade is decorated with a balcony. The court, located at the rear of the manor, is fenced by high walls.

The daughter of the last pasha sold it to the local metropolitan bishop who converted the building into Vranje’s first high school in 1881.

The building’s front residence, the selamluk was reserved exclusively for men. It faces the street was used by Pasha and his male entourage. The sheltered rear residence, theharemluk, was reserved for women. 

Мy Sketchbook entry for Vranje

Vranje is located 35km from the Macedonian border and 345km from Belgrade.
King Milutin annexed Vranje to the Serbian medieval state in 1282, the same year he acceded to the throne. Vranje consequently became the center of the župa (a small administrative division).

The old hamam of Vranje dates from 17th century and lays in the Roma District, but the surrounding doesn't look super inviting for a tourist (it's located in Ulica petog kongresa) 

Vranje's homepage: http://www.vranje.org.rs/kler_en.php

The Pašin's Quarter and the picturesque pedestrian zone of Vranje

The school is a an exemple of modern socialist style mixed up with oriental details. Vranje is one of the Serbian cities where the Tursk stayed the longest and it shows in many details of architecture.

The White bridge is a symbol of the city and is called "most ljubavi" (Lovers bridge) after the tale about the forbidden love between the Muslim girl Ajša and Serbian-orthodox Stojan that resulted in the father killing the couple. After that, he built the bridge where he had killed her and had the story in-scripted in Ottoman Arabic.
 

The Burberry signature on a building in the center of Vranje :-)

Colorful buildings at the entrance of Vranje

Air Force Headquarter in Zemun by Dragisa Brasovan

It's not the first time I write about this beautiful building by Dragisa Brasovan, but I'd like to share the pictures I made during a walk through Zemun. 

The building stands empty and unused near Avijaticarski Trg and even if it's really damaged (it was a target of NATO attacks in 1999) it still looks noble and attractive.

 

Dragisa Brasovan (Драгиша Бршован) finished this building, a large block structure of autonomous character, in 1935. The compositional strategy is to accentuate the strict symmetrical arrangement of the main facade with a prismatic vertical motif.

Some modernist architects criticized this building for its symbolism: the shape in fact is a dual of "Roda" fighter jets with its two wings.

 Air Force Signs and Memorials incorporated into modernist architecture

 Edged corners and a strict fenestration two other details of modernist architecture

 One of the damaged part that was a bit restored. 

A lot of details show Brasovan's good eye for modernist details.

Serbian Cyrillic

From the first time I traveled to Serbia many years ago, one of the typical things I loved so much was the cyrillic writing everywhere. Even if it was a bit difficult for me to quickly read things, I wouldn't like to miss it as for me it's a big part of the recognition value of the Serbian ambiance.

Generally in Serbia both scripts, the "азбука" (cyrillic script) and the latinic alphabet are in use and most of the people know both alphabets (Children usually learn first the  "азбука" and the the latinic, but in the end the will know both). People can freely decide which letters to use and often both scripts are portrayed (like traffic signs and street signs).
"Latinica" in serbian means a modified alphabet with 30 letters also called "Abeceda".
In commercial use (especially for export goods) the latinic script is more often used. Also for internet use the latinic comes in handle.

Even if it's now possible to have cyrillic webadresses (instead of the "www" as in cyrillic there is no "w" the letter "њ" (nj) is used) the practice makes it easier to use latinic. However Serbia now got two domain types. .rs and .срб. (You can e.g. try to find the Serbian Television website on the cyrillic domain: њњњ.ртс.срб.)

For official documents (like government files) cyrillic is used (since 2006 the cyrillic writing is the official script in Serbia), and also some of the more traditional an older newspapers like "Politika" use cyrillic. For documents like passports both variantion are offered, as people belonging to other ethnic groups than Serbian (like Hungarians and Albanians with Serbian passport) prefer the latinic version. In the some places of the Vojvodina region, where for example a lot of Hungarians live, the latinic is in wide use (there cyrillic serbian, latinic serbian and hungarian stand together on traffic signs.)

The first known alphabet the Serbs had was called Glagoljica, then the saints Cyril and Methodius with their students developed letters based on the Greek alphabet and made the Cyrillic alphabet.
Still today the Cyrillic alphabet is the official script for the Serbian Orthodox Church.

The cyrillic writing like we know it today was developed in 1818 by Serbian linguist Vuk  Stefanovic Karadzic (Вук Стефановић Караџић).

The ligatures Љ= lj and Њ= nj, together with Џ= dž, Ђ=dj and Ћ= ć  were developed specially for the Serbian alphabet.

In tourism, cyrillic is used to underline the ethno aspects and activate the traditional emotions. For ethno restaurants and village tourism "cyrillic" is part of the image.

In urban areas, there is a wish to appear international and maybe also the wish to help the tourist to orientatethemselves better. Also the upcomming of more and more international brands make the latinic writing more present.

Recently I was watching the entries for the competition of the Belgrade Water Front Center
an International architecture competition for the new waterfront shaping and design near the historic center that took place in 2011.

I noticed that one of the two 1st entires, a really good work from ARCVS made all the illustration with latinic writings...I was a little surprised as I think that such a tourist landmark should be spelled in cyrillic. I immagine how good a really modern building would look with an adequate cyrillic inscription.

Cyrillic and Non-cyrillic is also often used as a discussion of ethnic affiliation, during the last centuries cyrillic was often forbidden by rulers (as in Austro-hungarian time, later in the kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, then in WW2 by the Ustasas again). Keeping that in mind it's understandable that there is an anxiety to preserve the cyrillic. In these days there are forces that do a lot of persuading to turn people to latinic writing, as latinic is seen as modern, practical and EU-friendly. Those forces like to see cyrillic devotees as stubborn and closed minded.

A bit of annoying discussion, the smart thing is to keep both, latinic when it's more practical, cyrillic when identity is in foreground.
Here a discussion between two linguists about this theme.
http://www.politika.rs/rubrike/Drustvo/Srbija-razgovara-Da-li-je-cirilica-zapostavljena.lt.html
Here a great site where you can learn and exercise the "azbuka" and download cyrillic fonts:
http://www.cirilica.com/cirilica/Strane/dobrodosli.html

Happy Serbian New Year! Срећна Српска Нова Година!

Backa Topola in winter

My best moment of Winter is when I leave Zurich toward South-East and usually I spend much of my stay in Serbia in the Vojvodina region (the flat northern part of Serbia). 

There are a lot of pretty towns that are really worth visiting, and once when my husband showed me where he went to college I had the opportunity to meet Backa Topola (Бачка Топола) a municipality in the North Backa District.(above a postcard from Backa Topola of 1964)

(Backa Topola Postcard from kasina at skyscrapercity)

Due to its favorable geographical location this place was settled from very early on. When in the middle age its inhabitants were all Serbs, after being destroyed by kuruc rebels in 1704, around 1750 it was populated by Hungarians and Slovaks and still today its population is around 60% Hungarians and 30% Serbs (the rest is composed by other ethnic groups).

It's a picturesque town shaped by its austro-hungarian buildings.

Near Backa Topola is a pretty lake called Zobnaticko Jezero (Зобнатичко Језеро). 

There are lots of protected plants, species of insects and birds around the lake, an oasis of nature and peace. 

 

On the other side of the lake are structures for tourism: beaches, a restaurant and possibilities for camping.

The windmill (Vetrenjaca; Ветрењача)

Until 1969 there were more working windmills that were used for grinding corn and wheat. The mill was in the ground floor, the second floor was the apartment of the miller and in the third floor was the mecanism of the mill. Now it's used for museum purpose.

Horse-racing was a popular sport among austro-hungarians, and one of the few racing-tracks of Serbia is located here. Above one of the peculiar buildings at the entrance of the track.

Here the official website of Backa Topola:

www.btopola.org.rs

Here an older post about travelling in Vojvodina:

http://www.sajkaca.blogspot.com/2009/10/best-travel-tips-for-serbia-ethno.html