SERBIA - National review no. 4
CONTENTS
Prologue
GATES AND ECHOES
The Power of a Positive Attitude
Panorama
THE HERITAGE, THE FAIR, BELGRADE, DISCOVERIES, THE ICON, THE WINE, PLUMS, BELLS, COMPETITION, BOATS
Event
SPECTACULAR BELGRADE BOAT CARNEVAL, TAKE FOUR
The Great river party
With the help of the Tourist Organization Belgrade, City Hall and downtown city municipalities which are connected to the river, Belgrade students creative idea, brought up four years ago, grew up to the extent of a attractive international happening today. That made Belgrade full member of The European Carnival Federation Cities. This year, on the rivers and its banks of the capital city, during one carnival night, two hundred vessels gathered, together with great number of participants and thousands of spectators
Road sign
SOKO SPA, THE MOST VISITED SERBIAN TOURIST LOCATION IN THE SUMMER SEASON OF 2007
An ozone shock
On the ideal 400 meters of height above sea level, with the ideal concentration of ozone and radon, this is probably the best air spa in this part of Europe. Its thermo-mineral springs help with many diseases. They knew it back in the classical period, in medieval times and in Turkish times. The great people of Serbian culture knew it as well, who were regular guests of the Soko Spa, such as Branislav Nušić (who came up with the still popular slogan), Stevan Sremac (who spent his last days in it) or Ivo Andrić (who began his famous novel ”The Bridge over the Drina” and a mysterious romance as well). And, we can see that everyone knows it now
By: Svetlana Đurić
Paths
FOLLOWING THE VEIN OF MILEŠEVKA, FROM THE SOPOTNICA WATERFALLS TO THE EMBRACE OF THE LIM
Down the Forefinger of the White Angel
Although it is one of the smaller rivers cutting through the heights of Old Vlas, on its way it shows ”extraordinary creative force and imagination”. Its very narrow and deep canyon is about ten kilometers long and protected as a natural park. The unique spruce, the colony of griffon vultures, the giddy path cut in the middle of the previous century, crosses in stone and hermitages, villages in which time has stopped, remains of the medieval city of Mileševac (Hisardžika), the seats of the Crna Stena (Black Rock) district, and, above all, the famous Mileševa Monastery, mark this picturesque landscape
Text and photographs: Dragan Bosnić
Landscapes
THROUGH THE GOLDEN SREM WITH DJORDJE KODER: ERDEVIK
Pictures from the Dream-Like Land
It remains unknown whether the fairies and ruddy shellducks from the Erdevik forests inhabited Koder’s poems, or moved from his poems to the forests. Just like the poet Koder himself is hardly known today, so are the once famous Erdevik wines, the lakes of Moharač and Bruje, the legendary (fish) catches, the unforgettable summers on the west slopes of Fruška Gora and the Transfiguration nights in the vineyard. Before us is another part of Serbia waiting to be discovered, first by Serbia itself
By: Jovo Bajić
Holy Place
CRUCIFIED KOSOVO: RENEWED LIVE IN THE RENOVATED MONASTERY OF ZOČIŠTE
The Symbol of the Great Return
After eight years of exile, the miraculous relics of the Holy Physicians Cosmas and Damian were returned there, to the resurrected shrine 40 km southwest of Prizren and 3 km from Velika Hoča. Because of those relics, before the destruction in 1999, it was the second place most visited by pilgrims in the Serbian Orthodox Church, immediately after Ostrog. The life and miracles of these saints show that it is possible to heal wounds terrible, wounds too deep
By: Kristina Džoković
Over there, far away
THESSALONICA: DORDJE MIHAJLOVICH, EIGHTY YEAR OLD KEEPING THE SERBIAN SOLDIERS CEMETARY ZEJTINLIK
Guardian of the Secret Tombs
It used to be suburb, today it is in the city center district. There, on approximately 10,000 acres, eternal peace was found for the earthly remains of the 7,565 Serbian soldiers fallen on Thessalonica front line, in the hallway of Motherland. The order upon which this cemetery was established was signed personally by King Alexander in 1926. All of the construction materials, up to the last stone, came from Serbia. Rock for the mausoleum and the crosses was carved in stone pit Momin kamen, near village Dzep in Grdelica Gorge, granite for mausoleum interior came from Kadina Luka, near town of Ljig, and cement from city of Beocin. Cypresses were brought from the Holy Mountain, from Chilandar Monastery seed-plot
Text and photographs by: Mišo Vujović
Belvedere
ROADS OF RECONSTRUCTION: TACTICS OF TRIVIAL AFFAIRS
A war without blood and rest
”Confronted with many problems, we should first turn to ourselves and our environment, applying the tactics of so-called trivial but really basic affairs. We should lead a war against corruption, ugliness, neglect and all other tracks of evil which surround us, unworthy of a man. It is probably the work of the Devil, who sleeps not, digging out and tearing down the work of the Creator. The battle against corruption is the every day duty of every conscientious man”
By: Dragan Nedeljković (Ph.D.)
Crowns
SERBIA — THE HOMELAND OF ROMAN EMPERORS: Probus (276-282)
Worthy of his name
Aurelian had confidence in Probus that was based on his military experience and their common origin. In the battle near Tarsus he demonstrated the skills of Fabius, famous winner over Hannibal. The Senate accepted Probus by paying respect to his vigour, achievements and personal modesty, honoring him in the manner that they showed to no one since the time of the great Marco Aurelius. The following epitaph could have been placed on his grave: ”Probus, truly good, rests here.” ”Probus, et vere probus situs est.”
By: Aleksandar Jovanović, Ph. D.
Famous loves
KING MILUTIN NEMANJIĆ AND QUEEN SIMONIDA, THE DAUGHTER OF ANDRONIKOS II PALAILOGOS
A pale sun above the emptiness
She was six and he was forty years older than her when he made her his queen, as a guaranty of peace between the exhausted Byzantium and the powerful Serbia. And no one knew if it was the politics of the heart or the heart of politics. Some say that she lived ”as a prisoner of her own life”, as ”a turtle in a royal armor”, that she secretly loved Stefan, his son, to whom she was a stepmother and she could be his daughter. The Latins and the Hungarians admired her beauty and her figure was immortalized with the famous fresco in Gračanica, in Kosovo, in 1310. In Serbian legends, she is ”the symbol of beauty, chastity and women’s tragedy in the time of storms, when armies and empires disappear, not to mention the fragile body of the beautiful noble woman”
By: Milena Z. Bogavac
Road Guardians
THE ŠABAC FORTRESS, THE SEED OF THE TOWN OF SAVAC ON THE SAVA
The Bastion of Empires
On that bank, where empires touched and bit, where merchants from Dubrovnik and Hungary traded, where the Serbian Northern Kingdom was born, there was a settlement already in the ancient times, when, close to it, the metropolis of Sirmium used to be. The city flourished greatly in the Despotate, especially under the reign of Stefan Lazarević. The four-sided fortification on the bank originates from the time of the Turkish Sultan Suleiman (XVI century), while it got its present appearance in the late XVIII and early XIX century, also under the Turks
By: Vojislav Filipović
History and legend
THE SERBIAN DESPOT VUK GRGUREVIĆ BRANKOVIĆ, THE SON OF GRGUR THE BLIND AND THE GRANDSON OF ĐURAĐ BRANKOVIĆ
The sword of the Fiery Dragon
He was a despot without a country, a hero with no vice or fear, a hope without a successor. He was the magnificent and the tragic last flash of the golden Serbian Middle Ages. He had no equal from the walls of Vienna all the way to Kruševac, from Timisoara to Sarajevo and Jajce. He was respected in Vienna, in Budapest and Stambol, and the diplomatic language between these courts at the time was Serbian. He was buried in Kupinovo, in Srem, where his castle was standing
By: Jovo Bajić
Peaks
DIMITRIJE OBRADOVIĆ (1742-1811), MONASTIC NAME DOSITEJ, ONE OF THE PILLARS OF THE MODERN TIMES SERBIA
The Serbian Socrates and the Call of Freedom
His life is a journey. An adventure. An adventure of the spirit and the mind. He traveled through many countries and learned their languages, but ”dreamed only in Serbian”. From his hometown of Čačak and the Fruška Gora Hopovo monastery to Mount Athos, from the Greek Smyrna to western universities, he continuously learned and taught others. With his arrival to Serbia, exactly two centuries ago (1807), invited by Vožd Karadjordje, in the middle of the First Uprising, the modern times began
By: Milovan Vitezović
Fate and its commentaries
THE POET MILICA STOJADINOVIĆ-SRPKINJA (THE SERBIAN WOMAN, 1830-1878), ”THE PROUD DAUGHTER OF SREM”
The Tender Fairy of Fruška Gora
They came from the far to see her ”supernatural eyes”. Jovan Subotić and Ivan Mažuranić visited her, Johan Seibel dedicated her a song, Ljubomir P. Nenadović and Đorđe Rajković glorified her with their verses, Vuk called her his ”child of Fruška”, Prince Mihailo considered himself as her friend and protector, Metropolitan Mihailo personally invite her to Belgrade, a Njegoš said: ”I am a poet, she is a poet, if I were not a monk, there could be a Princess of Montenegro.” How did it happen that she died in misery and loneliness, surviving from taking away the gifts of the deceased on All Saint’s Day on Belgrade cemeteries? What has happened with her, what has happened with us?
By: Marina Matić
Sermon
HOLY BISHOP NIKOLAJ (VELIMIROVIĆ): ABOUT THE GREAT NAME
Fear to the Impudent and Hope to the Hopeless Ones
A great thought, gentlemen, I preach you, and a great name. Ancient is my homily, ancient and ever new. The great name that I preach you, and the one we should all preach to each other, is not difficult to memorize, not difficult to pronounce, not difficult to respect, not difficult to celebrate
Visionaries
THE UNUSUAL WRITER LAZAR KOMARČIĆ (1839-1909), ”THE FORGOTTEN PROMETHEUS OF SERBIAN CULTURE”
A Relighted Star
He has always been ahead of his time and contemporaries, walking along the unexplored paths, paying the price that has to be paid for it. Always too high, sometimes terrible. He wrote the first Serbian science-fiction novel. He was among the first in Serbia, looking up to Arthur Conan Doyle and Wilkie Collins, to write detective novels. As an editor, he had a large contribution in the modernization of the Serbian press and the first to introduce a true scientific column. Before the hundredth anniversary of his death, it is high time for this unique author to receive a place in Serbian culture he objectively deserves
By: Marko Tanasković
Trails
THE NOBEL PRIZE WINNER RABINDRANATH TAGORE (1861-1941) VISITED BELGRADE IN 1926
The profound interpreter of East
The Serbian capital was amazed by the Indian poet and philosopher, as well as he was amazed by Belgrade. He warned the Serbs that they cannot lose the support in their tradition, spiritual life and myth. He said that the cure for the spiritless Western world can be found in Eastern treasuries. He gave two lectures on the Belgrade University, had lunch in ”Serbian King”, gave an interview to Stanislav Vinaver and talked to the Bishop Nikolaj Velimirović. More than anything else, he was moved by a certain gift: an old Serbian robe hemmed with gold, made in Kosovo in the 18th century
By: Bane Velimirović
Eternal BG
BELGRADE WOMEN, BELGRADE-BORN AND BELGRADE-RELATED, TOOK AN ACTIVE PART IN THE HISTORY OF THE CAPITAL CITY
A Small Directory of Great Ladies
Even in the XIX century, when these parts just began rising out of Turkish slavery, Belgrade was not a mere backward borough, where there was no place for brave and creative women in public life. On the contrary, many of them had a significant contribution in the growing of Belgrade from a small frontier town into a European metropolis. For this opportunity, we will mention only a few of them from the long list, inevitably offending many others
By: Dragan Perić
Mansions
HUNDRED YEARS FROM THE BEGINNING OF THE CONSTRUCTION OF THE SERBIA NATIONAL PARLIAMENT MANSION
The Return to Original Skin
Biographies of cities, lands and nations – we know, seldom can be told with precision and picturesque through almanac of its most important buildings. One of them, in case of Serbia, is certainly former building of Federal Parliament. It was officially opened on October 20, 1936, exactly 58 years after it was decided that it should be built and after 29 years of building (with numerous forced interruptions), this mansion tells more about history and destiny of Serbia that volumes of books. Precisely one century after the beginning of building, finally the original mason’s idea is fulfilled, this mansion became the home. The home of the National Parliament of Serbia
By: Branimir Stanojevich
Images of the world
SHORTLY BEFORE THE JUBILEE, HALF A CENTURY OF RADIO TELEVISION BEOGRAD: THE BIRTH OF DRAMA IN THE BEGINNINGS OF TELEVISION
A rise through crisis
It happened again. An indecisive beginning can be more decisive than long preparations, full of prolonging. The uncertainty of the continuation of work requires additional efforts, which gives good results in the end
By: Vasilije Popović
Ars sacra
MASTER OF ARTS, DRAGOMIR JAŠOVIĆ, THE PAINTER, THE ”NEW ASTRAPA OF MODERN ORTHODOX ICONOGRAPHY
Following the great masters
Forever marked by its homeland, Kosovo and Metohia, he spent the most of his life on scaffolding, with the saint whose faces emerged in front of him, with his paintbrush. He gave them the appearance of human beings which stand in front of us not only as illustration of a book but as living sermons which are fixing in our mind, in our heart
By: Ranka Stanišić
Beliefs and Perceptions
WITCHES’ BREW (4): FROM A HEAD IN WHICH MADWINGED BUGS CULTIVATE
Three Faces of Sin
None of them will leave you alone. Neither the yesterday one, nor the present one, nor the tomorrow one. Rotten by their efficiency, a human is mustier than mouldy bread. Lucky is the one who gained his wisdom watching someone else’s trouble. Whom you cannot restrain, you cannot urge. When he hears a prayer, the Antichrist starts shaking. It freezes his evil heart, like an egg on naked frost
By: Jovan Aleksić
Achievements
MIROSLAV RADOVANOVIĆ (M. A.), THE MANAGER OF ”PUPIN TELEKOM AD”, ON THE OCCASION OF THE 60TH ANNIVERSARY OF THIS IMPORTANT COMPANY
The speed of technological changes
Established by the decision of the Government of Serbia, back in 1947, this prominent company, the main part of Serbian industry of telecommunications, survived the country’s breakdown and the breakdown of the market, as well as wars, sanctions, transition, operating in the private sector. And that is not all: during a very harsh competition on the market, the company kept its development and its technological track with the most prominent world producers. In collaboration with the American company ”Navini Networks”, this company is on its way to work with the technology of mobile internet access
Leaders
SLOBODAN JANJUŠEVIĆ, FOUNDER AND MANAGER OF ”KIRKA CORPORATION”
Manager with the Soul
Simplified materialistic view on the world, dangerously favored globally, brought to brutal race for the money with god-like status, to the stamped robbery of the nature which is now unbearable for the eco-system and human race alike. But, against all odds, it is possible even in the sphere of contemporary business hold to the Christian principles, God-humanly and human-loving, and to stay maximally successful by the most modern standards. The example of ”Kirka Corporation” proves it in a clear and persuasive manner. Anyone personal fortune, if it is accomplished leaving wasteland behind or if it is against the interest of the motherland, is not only without the meaning, but it represent the sin and curse
By: Miodrag Radomirović
MTS, REGIONAL LEADER OF MOBILE TELEPHONIA, MTS
The Greatest Network of Friends
Three states, three integrates systems, more than six million connected. MTS practically abolished roaming between Serbia, Republic of Srpska and Monte Negro, building communication unity of those regions, Only from the beginning of this year the number of users grew for 710,000 (480,000 prepaid, 230,000 postpaid). Over 340,000 most successful business people their professional functioning base of the communications over the MTS
Years
”THE IRON ROAD”, 123RD YEAR
Nostalgia and modernity
Since the initiative of Prince Miloš from 1837 and the silver pickax of Prince Milan from 1881, ”Serbian Railways” have covered a great distance but the one that is waiting for them is neither smaller or less epochal
By: Mile Lokas
Gastronomy
”VARIANT” OF ALL VARIANTS: OCTOPUS MADE UNDER IRON PAN FOR THE READERS OF THE ”NATIONAL REVIEW”
Mediterranean in Belgrade |
