SERBIA - National review no. 7
Prologue
If the times were better, we would be sitting in some blossomed garden and looking at the map, choosing our destinations for the approaching summer. Inspired by the exciting idea of traveling, which is an ancient idea, but always new, we would be already feeling the scent of the sea or mountain herbs in our nostrils, and of gastronomy specialties and new wines. ”We would feel the old memories and the young dreams rising.” However, our reality is unfortunately not so romantic. In the world around us, nothing is certain, everything became relative. That must be why the verse of Despot Stefan is always on our minds: ”As Much as We Can, We Knit Our Song.”
CONTENTS
Prologue
Strongpoints
Panorama
“DAYS OF BELGRADE”, CELEBRATIONS, EVENTS
Sources
“NATIONAL REVIEW” IN THE TAKOVO AREA
Following the Trails of Modern Serbia
Just as Orašac, Viševac and Topola are important for the Karađorđević dynasty and the First Serbian Uprising, the villages in the community of Gornji Milanovac are important for the Obrenović dynasty. Our reporter have visited the place where the future Prince spent his longest night before the uprising, where St. Sava woke up water from rocks with his magic stick, where Vuk Karadžić admired the beauty of the new built church, not knowing that it shall keep the grave of his daughter
By: Vlada Arsić
Paths
THE AREA OF JABLANICA, NEAR VALJEVO, AWAITING THE GREAT WATER
Living at the Bottom of a Lake
The dam is being built for twenty years, faster of slower, but the work never stops. It is not certain (what is certain here, anyway) when all of this will be covered in water, forever: villages, houses, three monasteries, orchards, forests, meadows, roads. Life is moving away slowly, everything gets its doubles on higher and faraway places, or simply disappears; only beauty and stories never die
By: Nevena Mihajlović
Photographs by: Dragan Bosnić
Virtue and skill
CHARCOAL BURNERS, BETWEEN THE FORGOTTEN PROFESSION AND THE FAIRY TALE-LIKE FOREST WORLD
Silent Masters of Fire
There would not be real Serbian barbecue without charcoal but only a poor substitute in the shape of industrial fast “grilled” food. The artistic blacksmith craft would die as well. Not so much about ore smelting, softening and shaping metal would reach our times. Moreover, who are charcoal burners today, what is their life and their world like? Do we remember them sometimes, staring at the live coals of our barbecues?
By: Branimir Stanojević
Paths of wine
THE FIRST INTERNATIONAL FAIR OF WINE KNIGHT ORDERS
The Noble Blood of the Wine
In the hall of the Home of Serbian Army, one could feel the true spirit of wine knight orders. Elegancy, measure, optimism, prowess, glow, ethics. Serbian wine knight orders, from “Subotički pesak” (“The Sand of Subotica”) to “Sveti Teodor” (“St. Theodor”) from Vršac and “Monah Dorotej” (“Monk Dorotej”) from Aleksandrovac, with their strong ideas and sense, continue their honorable mission
By: Luka Petrović
Guest
PALILULA COMMUNITY, THE BIGGEST IN BELGRADE AND UNIQUE IN SERBIA
On the Wings of the Great River
Extending from the very center of the capital to big suburban areas, rich villages and vivid swampy areas, the kingdom of hunting and fishing, Palilula has great opportunities and the time before it. It is the community with the longest shore of Danube on the entire river flow (60 kilometers). The day is near when the Belgrade harbor will be on the left bank, in the new industrial and business zone, on its place the most beautiful Danube town marine from the spring to the mouth, and Ada Huja the real “Europolis on the Danube”
The greatest town
METROPOLITAN OF MONTENEGRO AND THE LITTORAL, EXCLUSIVELY FOR “NATIONAL REVIEW”: NOTES FROM TSARGRAD
The Heart of the Earth
They called it the navel of the world, the New Rome, the capital of the “vasilevs”, the Christian ruler of the universe. Its ramparts, churches, bell towers, palaces, squares, water fountains, and plumbing system are all gone today. But, even conquered and enslaved, it preserved its magnificent and mysterious powers, it managed to control its newcomers, just like the church of St. Sophia managed to impose its divine form to all important mosques around the world; tearing down the Islamic architecture in the last few centuries
Holy Place
A LETTER FROM RUSSIA: THE TOLGSKY MONASTERY, ONE OF THE GREATEST SANCTITIES OF THE WORLD’S LARGEST COUNTRY
Under the Sign of Mother of God
In the year 1314, this place on the left bank of the Volga was indicated to Bishop of Rostov Triphon by an igneous column and icon of the Mother of God. Marked by a miracle, created in a miracle, it has testified about a miracle and performed miracles for centuries. Liturgies in the temples of this monastery died in the époque of darkness, in the year 1928. The bells were recast, the crosses taken down, the churches desecrated. And it remained such for the following sixty years, when the state (in 1987) returned the monastery to the church. In 1990, the first bell tolled in the restored monastery, and in 2000, the icon of Our Lady of Tolg began seeping holy oil again
By: Father Jovan Plamenac
Pilgrimage
HOLY MOUNT PATHS (2): HILANDAR
Shelter for whole fatherland
Saint Simeon, upon his arrival on Mount Athos, generously donated Holy Mount monasteries. In monastery Vatoped, among founders, his image was painted. Scene of his arrival to the Greek monastery was also portrayed, where he accompanied his son – monk Sava, who after monk’s tonsure in Old Rusik in 1193 became brother in faith to Vatoped. Their encounter in Vatoped was painted in XIV century by Đorđe Mitrofanović on the wall of the refectory in Hilandar
By: Mišo Vujović
Road Watchmen
SERBIAN MEDIEVAL FORTRESSES: THE MINING COMPLEX OF FORTIFICATIONS AND CHURCHES
The Ramparts of the Silver Mountain
Fortresses Ostrovica, Kotraža, Majdan, Srebrnica… and the entire system of independent towers were used to secure the town, treasuries, mines and smelteries in the mountain in the heart of Šumadija, the mountain that was the center and one of the symbols of Serbian power in the golden ages of the Despotate
By: Vojislav Filipović
Crowns
SERBIA — THE HOMELAND OF ROMAN EMPERORS – GALERIUS (293-311)
The Key to the Secret of Gamzigrad
The Caesar of Diocletian, the peacemaker on the Danube border, the conqueror over the Persians in 296, August since 305, he reigned in Sirmium, then in Thessaloniki (where still stands a triumphal arch dedicated to him, in front of the former palace). However, we remember him for Felix Romuliana, the endowment palace that he built in his homeland and besides which he was buried in 311 AD
By: Professor Aleksandar Jovanović (Ph.D.)
Famous Loves
EMPEROR DUŠAN THE MIGHTY AND EMPRESS JELENA
To the Bottom of the Transparent Universe
He was the most powerful Serbian monarch in history. His empire was bordered with three seas (Adriatic, Ionian, Aegean), ten nations lived in it, each using its own language, and the conquerors and the conquered enjoyed equal rights. Although he indebted the Serbian nation, state and church with his great deeds, he remained the only uncanonized monarch from the Nemanjić dynasty. Many historians, although without firm evidence, ascribed this to his wife Jelena, sister of the Bulgarian king Jovan Aleksandar
By: Milena Z. Bogavac
Lineage
JELENA BALŠIĆ (1369-1443), DAUGHTER OF PRINCE LAZAR, LEADER AND POET, RULER OF ZETA AND UPPER ALBANIA
I Saw the Reflection in the Mirror
She was raised at the palace in Kruševac, she received supreme education and spiritual bringing up, just like her brother Stefan, the future famous sovereign. Three years before the Battle of Kosovo, she married Djurdje II Stracimirović Balšić. Montenegro and the Coast are full of her traces pleasing to God. On Beška, a picturesque little island in the Skadar Lake, she raised the Church of Virgin Mary, where she rests
By: Milica Kralj
The Forgotten Ones
IVAN JUGOVIĆ (1775-1813), THE MOST TRUSTWORTHY ASSOCIATE OF VOŽD KARADJORDJE AND WRITER OF THE FIRST HISTORY OF THE UPRISING
A Man of Great Mission
The most educated Serb in Karadjordje’s Serbia. He was a lawmaker, establisher of the state, the ideologist of the uprising and secret diplomat, knower of European manners, brilliant polyglot, with an aristocratic appearance, Karadjordje’s man for the most delicate assignments. Exactly two centuries ago, in 1808, when the Imperial University was founded in Paris, he founded the Great School in Belgrade and was its first headmaster and professor. As the immediate and extraordinarily well informed witness, he wrote the first integral history of the Uprising, which, translated into contemporary Serbian, we are discovering again today
By: Milovan Vitezović
Friends
HOW THE renowned LEO NIKOLAYEVICH TOLSTOY WROTE HIS FAMOUS “SERBIAN ARTICLE” IN 1908
The Apostle of the Oppressed Voice
The memory of her beauty remains in the caryatides on the Avala Monument to the Unknown Hero, which Meštrović created according to her image. Her sister Nadežda painted her famous portrait, and her brother Rastko left tender verses about her. The heart of the seventeen year old Andja Petrović burned with flaming patriotism, like the whole Serbia, when, at the time of the dramatic annexation crisis, she wrote to the “giant from Jasna Poljana” asking for support for her people. And he, touched, answered her
By: Jovan Pejčić
Pro memoria
GABRIEL D’ANNUNZIO (1863-1938) WROTE PERHAPS THE MOST BEAUTIFUL POEM ABOUT SERBIA, WHICH HASN’T BEEN CREATED IN SERBIAN
Ode to the Serbian Nation
The great Italian poet, multiple war hero, favorite of beautiful women and high class salons, an unusually striking personality, dedicated Serbia touching verses of admiration, encouragement and support during World War I. “Corriere della sera” from Milan published them as a whole on November 24, 1915. His deep knowledge of Serbian history and understanding the Serbian being is striking. He personally wrote one copy in calligraphic letters and sent it, along with the printed copy, to the Serbian king Petar I. And do you know: does D’Annunzio have a monument or a street in Belgrade?
By: Bela Draganić
Fate and Commentaries
ANICA SAVIĆ REBAC (1892-1953), AN EXTRAORDINARY HELLENIST, POET AND TRANSLATOR, A WOMAN WHO FINALLY CHOSE THE GREEK TRAGEDY FOR HERSELF
An Epilogue with a Mythical Pattern
She grew up in the “very Serbian atmosphere of Novi Sad”, she was the godchild of Simo Matavulj, literary baby of Zmaj, Sremac, Laza Kostić and Uroš Predić, friends of her father. She was very close with young Milan Kašanin. She studied in Vienna, spoke six languages as her mother tongue; Thomas Mann, Rebecca West, Crnjanski, Dučić wrote to her… On October 7, 1953, on her birthday, she shot herself in the heart. Why?
By: Dragana Bukumirović
Life, novels
ONE HUNDRED YEARS FROM THE DEATH OF SIMO MATAVULJ (1852-1908), THE GREAT SERBIAN WRITER
The Eternal Invader of Serbian Literature
The most important period of his forming were the years spent on the praised court of Janković Stojan, in Ravni Kotari, whose ancestor was his most valuable teacher. He spent the most beautiful time of his youth in Herceg Novi, for him “the most beautiful area of Serbian land”. He started writing by the command of Prince Nikola, the ruler and poet, who saw a great writer in him. At the end of a long, winding road, there was the long-desired Belgrade, where he will find his place among great people of Serbian culture and where he will stay forever
By: Jovo Bajić
Capital
BELGRADE TOPONYMS: TIME AND SPACE STORED IN A LANGUAGE (3)
Cobblestones Polished with Foot Steps
Towns, as well as people, change their faces, interests and centers, names and nicknames, fashion and longings. Sometimes, as in the case of the Serbian capital, it seems that a change is really the only permanence. Continuing our voyage through the topography of Belgrade, below the chaos and the changes, we reveal the eternal heart of this town which still beats for us as our own
By: Dragan Perić
Belvedere
CULTURE AS LAST DEFENSE
In the Light of five Gračanica
Life flow and build new beauties. Kosovo Gracanica, beautiful for Serbs as Taj Mahal in Agra for the great nation of India, has its great-great sons in Serbia and in the world (New Gracanica in Libertyville, Canadian in Windsor, Herzegovina’s in Trebinje, Belgrade’s in Tasmajdan…)What does generally Serbian XII and XIV century mean in world heritage and what are, there, obligations of this generation?
By: Professor Dragan Nedeljković (Ph.D.)
Heritage
THE MINISTRY OF WORK, EMPLOYMENT AND SOCIAL POLITICS CONTINUES ITS RECORDING OF SERBIAN WAR MONUMENTAL HERITAGE OUT OF SERBIA
Taking Care of the Identity
Preserving monuments from Balkans Wars and World War I, but from other periods as well, represents an obligation to, not only the passed generations, but to young ones as well, to which we must make possible to learn and strengthen on examples of their ancestors
Heritage
THE PATHS OF GROWING UP OF THE SERBIAN ART SCHOOL
Founders as Visionaries
From 1857, when Steva Todorović opened the painting school, then the school which was opened 30 years later by the painter Kiril Kutlik, to the artistic and vocational school opened by the returnees from Munich, Rista and Beta Vukanović in their “House with blue irises”, this kind of business meant swimming upstream, having a visionary passion and conscience about a mission and (of course) paying a personal price which often has to be paid
By: Vladimir Božinović
The Eye
GORAN BANKOVIĆ, PAINTER, AND HIS BAGGAGE OF ARCHETYPE MEMORIES
An Observer at the Link of Worlds
With deep roots, there under the Vlaška Mountain and the Stolski Kamen, snatched away in one of the numerous migrations to the north, they started being born in the plane of the Serbian Dukedom. Highlanders in their hearts, with the image of the peaceful plane in one eye and the restless mountains in the other. There, in that crossroads of homelands, pensive over itself and the world, this art is born and ascends
By: Brano Pavličić
More than a craft
THE ART FOUNDRY OF THE JEREMIĆ BROTHERS, A FAMILY TRADITION OR THE ALCHEMY OF THE CRAFT WHICH BECAME AN ART
Craftsmen With an Artistic Soul
Founded back in 1927, this unique foundry made over 150 big monuments which decorate the parks of Serbia, Europe, Africa and America, more than one million artsitic castings, taking a ggreat position in the history of art of Serbia and this part of the world
Serbian World Music
THE EXTRAORDINARY ENSEMBLE “RENAISSANCE” MARKS FOUR DECADES OF ITS CULTURAL ACTIVITIES
Forty Springs of Early Music
The ensemble performs music from the oldest notes to late baroque, including traditional motifs from the Serbian (Balkan, Byzantine) lands. The projects and themes of this unusual ensemble are, for example, Byzantine and old Serbian songs. Music of the old Adriatic. Carnival in Venice. Music from the time of Boccaccio and renaissance Italy. Renaissance Paris. Music of squares and streets, inns and Shakespeare’s theater. Spiritual songs and dances of the crusaders. Ballads of the troubadours and trouvères. Mineseter songs. Journeys of Marco Polo. A journey through old Dalmatia. A journey through Jerusalem
By: Sladjana Ristić
Models
THE COLLEGE OF TOURISM ON THE FAIR OF TOURISM
The world as an Open Book
Very creative and dynamic appearance from one of the most prominent colleges in Serbia in the field of tourism drew great attention and has shown superiority of the knowledge that was put to use in real life
Traveling
TWO GREAT TOURIST BRANDS OF “SERBIAN RAILWAYS” THIS SEASON IN ONE OFFER
“Romantics” on the “Šargan Eight”
Last year, about 70 000 tourists traveled on the narrow railroad of Mokra Gora, mostly in May and October, among which many foreign tourists. It is certain that in 2008 the month of May will beat the record
Leaders
BELGRADE INSTITUTE OF TRANSPORTATION CIP
Always in the Center of the Scene
Many projects of construction and modernization of infrastructure were started in Serbia, especially in the railway, on the highways and in residential construction – precisely in areas where this respectable Serbian Company for decades is among the best
Leaders
SAVA KOVAČEV, THE MANAGER OF “KOLUBARA METAL”, ABOUT ONE HALF A CENTURY OF WORKING
Finishing the Race and Being the Winner
Adapting to business trends, the younger team of experts of this eminent company is projecting, producing, installing, maintaining and revitalizing the devices in the mining industry after the “turn-key” system
“BEOGRADSKE ELEKTRANE” STILL BEAT RECORDS AND LOOK INTO THE FUTURE
Finding Alternative Fuels
The digital management of consumption, using waste and biomass as a source of energy, installing gas turbines in Novi Beograd, using solar energy in Cerak, building remote heating stations from the power plant in Obrenovac to the capital – these are some of the great development projects which are planned in this public company
Gastronomy
“CAREVA ĆUPRIJA” RESTAURANT: VENISON STEW FOR THE READERS OF “NATIONAL REVIEW”
The Irresistible Origin
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