Communist Style Hotels 2

Hotel in Kolasin (Montenegro)

Last summer I posted about communist style Hotels in the Balkans with good example of state own Hotels built in the communist past. 

To the list of Hotels I'd like to visit I will add also these 6 eye-catcher:

Bianca Resort & Spa in Kolasin (Montenegro)

Bianca Resort in Kolasin: Jumbo Alpin Architecture

The Hotel also featured in this old postcard get my thumbs up for its appereance! (The main picture is from here) 

Hotel Merkur in Vrnjacka Banja

Vrnjacka Banja a Spa town in Central Serbia has a couple of cool buildings to offer. This is just one of it.

The garden side of the Hotel (Picture here)

The street side of the Hotel

Hotel Zubor in Kursumljska Banja

This building from 1982 is actually empty, as the country can not keep up with maintenance costs. 

Hotel "Žubor" in Kursumlijska Banja (picture from here)

Hotel Internacional Zenica (Bosnia and Herzegovina)

Hotel International Zenica (picture from here)

A masterpeace of a Hotel...and it still looks good today!

The Hotel today (picture from here)

Hotel in Vranjska Banja in Vranje

Unfortunately this one never got finished, started in 1973 it was about when the economical crises stroke the south of Serbia.

Just 50% completed (picture from here)

And at the end a little interior detail of a bathroom in Hotel Slavija in Belgrade

tile paradise (picture from here)

Links to other posts about interesting Hotel Architecture in the Balkans:

Hotel Donat in Rogaska Slatina (Slovenia)

Hotel Sirmium in Sremska Mitrovica

Hotel Petrus in Paracin

Hotel Palas in Mojkovac (Montenegro)

Hotel Srbija in Vrsac

Interesting Architecture in Rogaska Slatina (Slovenia)

Hotel in Rogaska Slatina (street side)

Rogaska Slatina is a well known Spa in eastern Slovenia. Usually touristic pictures from Rogaska Slatina show some belle epoque clinics and wellness centers and would not really grab my attention. But when I ran into this old postcard from the 70's of Hotel Donat I became curious....

An new picture from Hotel Donat (garden side) from here

The Hotel still loos like a huge concrete boat and the brutalist facade was preserved. Just added housing technology and sunshades were added on the roof. Also the interiors have been renovated and is now a wellness Hotel (Grand Hotel Donat)

Cultural Center of Rogaska Slatina from here

Also the Cultural center of this Spa town got my attention: a cluster of octagonal buildings with mint green facades!  Rather daring but interesting!

A floor plan of the complex

In the Spa complex the medical center with the drinking hall (Rogaska Slatina is wellknown for its magnesium rich spa water) are another interesting buildings.
The overhauled condition of the structure needs a renovation but the starting situation is good: a neat modernist ensemble.
Maribor based architects from Styria Arhitektura d.o.o. made an inspiring suggestion in 2011 for a make over. A pergola and outdoor pools will be also added. I like that the existing vibe of the architecture will not be lost, it will be just slightly adapted.
What follows are the before/after pictures of the Styria architects (from the architects website):

Medical Center Rogaska Slatina today

Medical Center Rogaska Slatina proposition

See also a good renovation of a mid-century hotel in my post of Hotel Avala in Budva (Montenegro)

Stara Planina Mountains

 

Stara Planina

The Stara Planina (that means old mountains) is a part of the Balkan mountain range and lays in Eastern Serbia on the border with Bulgaria. The Balkan range runs 560 km from Vrška Čuka Peak on the border between Bulgaria and eastern Serbia eastward through central Bulgaria to Cape Emine on the Black Sea.

The Stara Planina is remarkable for its flora and fauna, and also with steep cliffs, the highest waterfalls in the Balkan peninsula and lush vegetation. 

Geologically, the Balkan Mountains is a 'young' part of the Alp-Himalayan chain which stretches across most of Europe and Asia. 

It can be divided into two parts: the main Balkan Chain and the Pre-Balkans to the north, which intrude slightly into the Danubian Plain. 

On top of the Serbian part is this rock called "Babin Zub" (Grandmother's Teeth).

The surrounding are part of a ski recreational area in winter and full of nice hiking trails in summer.

I just took a few pictures while cruising around. I arrived by night at Babin Zub's Hotel after a drive through dark roads and the navigation telling that theres nothing further along. I really had no idea were I landed. 

The next day I was surprised with a nice scenery while driving to see the newly errected just opened Hotel Stara Planina.

Also the new Hotel was a pleasant surprise, instead of an overstated giant facility with no relation to the surrounding, the building looks solidly adapted to the rough mountain setting from the outside and the interior is appropriately stylish.

After visiting the area in summer, I now would like to visit the area in winter. 

Eastern Serbian mountains are as beautiful as the Western Serbian mountain (I wrote about those mountains here in my posts about the unique National Park Tara "Best travel tips for Serbia - TARA/KOPAONIK" and "Tara National Park in Western Serbia", the Ethno Village Sirogonjo "Etno Selo - Sirogonjo", the posts about the Zlatibor region: "More Ethno in Zlatibor", "Mokra Gora" and Ethno Village Mecavnik "Kusturica made it!".

Temska a beautiful village of eastern Serbia

Temska

While traveling through Eastern Serbia I particularly loved some of the characteristic and soulful villages driving along smaller roads. Those villages are far enough from urban centers so they're totally quiet, but still near enough to benefit from trade oportunities and public infrastructure the cities can offer. Temska is one of those really picturesque villages without being too glamed up.  

Typical example of moravian style rural houses in Temska

 beautiful barns, traditional wood construction

Temstica river

 With around 900 inhabitants, a ground school, postal office, a few stores and a coffee shop it looks like a lively neat place along the Temstica River (a affluent of the Nisava River). 

Beautiful wood constructed barns with tile roof (and a couple of goats on Temska's streets)

Near the settlement there is a small hydroelectric plant and the small Monastery dedicated to the Holy Martyr Saint George called Temska Monastery.

 
Erected on ruins of a fortification of the 11th century, the monastery was built in the second half of the 16th century by the Dejanovic Family (nephews of Tsar Dusan).

 The Konak (Guesthouse) is beautifully restored

 The monasterie's dormitory and living quarters built in the 18th century represent an excellent example of the local folk architecture 

On the porch of the building various natural balm and balsams with curative effects and produced in traditional way from medicinal herbs of the Stara Planina are sold. People stop by to buy such balms for curing eczema, psoriasis, dermatitis, neurodermatitis, atopic dermatitis, skin allergies, acne, burnt skin, insect bits, hemorrhoids, varicose veins, alopecia, sinusitis, inflammation of the ears and open wounds. 

The Temska Monastery church has a three-nave basis with a semicircular altar apsis and a low eight-sided dome. The monastery church itself was constructed of white stone and covered by stone layers. In 1654 a vault was added above the narthex instead of the old wooden construction and the porch was painted with beautiful frescoes.

Iconostasis of Temska Monastery Church

 Temska Monastery cimetery

 
To give you some more information on village architecture in Serbia I post the links of my 6 Lessons on Serbian Rural Architecture. 

Lesson 1 in Traditional Serbian Rural Architecture
Lesson 2 in Traditional Serbian Rural Architecture:Style by Regions
Lesson 3 in Traditional Serbian Rural Architecture: The South Serbian Village
Lesson 4 in Traditional Serbian Rural Architecture:The Family Homestead
Lesson 5 in Traditional Serbian Rural Architecture: The Moravian House and its Interior
Lesson 6 in Traditional Serbian Rural Architecture: How does "new" rural architecture looks like?

Donkey Cheese from the Zasavica Nature Park in Serbia

From this donkey comes the most expensive cheese in the world

When I visited the famous Serbian wildlife and nature reserves Zasavica one year ago while visiting Sremska Mitrovica (my post about it here) I didn't know that the world's most expensive cheese, made of donkey milk, is produced there!

I read here that the Nr.1 tennis player Novak Djokovic is buying an entire year production of this cheese to make it one of the key attractions at a chain of restaurants the Wimbledon champion and world number one is opening in his Serbian homeland.

Beside this interesting cheese story, Zasavica Park is indeed worth a visit. For all traveller who enter Serbia by the Zagreb-Beograd speedway Zasavica is on the road and makes a nice stop. 

Mangulica Pig

Mangulica is the only surviving autochthonous Serbian breed of domesticated pig. Other two, Šiška and Šumadinka died out. A breed, also known as "woolen pig", due to its good qualities, is considered a "noble", but it almost died out in the 1980s. 
Its fat has up to 80% less cholesterol and triglycerides than a common, white pig. In 1998 Mangulica was introduced in Zasavica, and are left to roam free in the reservation.

Goats

Sheeps

 
Agriculture:  
The concept for Zasavica Nature Park ist that Agriculture helps local farmers to gain income from the reserve and at the same time it is an essential tool for the management of specific habitats and species. Agriculture is restricted to grazing and hay making and famers are not allowed to use of pesticides, herbicides and chemical fertilizers. Preferably farmers use domestic cattle typical for the region like the Manguliza pig and Podolian cattle for grazing. 

Cattles

Podolian-Cattle 

In 1998 the cattle of the Podolian breed was introduced in Zasavica. First animals arrived in the spring of 1998 from Mionica, in western Serbia. Pasture "Valjevac", near the small Goransko-ribolovačko lake was chosen as their home. The pasture has an area of 3 square kilometers and today numbers 50 cattle. Breeding of Podolian cattle is being part of the program for the preservation of the animal species, developed by the Serbian Ministry of agriculture.

 Ethno architecture from Srem Region and Vojvodina

 

Biodiversity
In this habitat types and species (including meadows and pastures, open water, marshes, wet forest patches and upwelling water springs) of European and Serbian importance are settle here and live in a favorable conservation status. 

 
Educational program for schoolchildren, educational work camps and research camps are being organized with the purpose of increasing the awareness and knowledge on value and importance of protecting the wetland in general and Zasavica wetland in particular.

Here the official Website of the Zasavica Nature Park