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Year II  No 6, 2014  price 10 KM www.nacionalnarevija.com

Lights and builders

CITIES MADE OF DREAM AND STONE ISSN 2334-8518

9 772334 851009

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ПРИНЦИП ПРЕС СЕРБИя ◆

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ГЕОПОЭТИЧЕ

СКИЙ АЛЬБОМ

СКИЙ АЛЬБОМ

Serbia

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Руссk иЙ

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english ◆

ГЕОПОЕТИЧКИ АЛБУМ

SeRbia ◆ geo-poetical album

ГЕОПОЭТИЧЕ

Србија

Сербия

м, ом, свидетельство назвать альбом андирует, не е в руках, можно ю вы держит ь. Она не пропаг прессКнигу, котору стремится убедит дение. Она не нтов. Она не ввести в заблуж турсобранием докуме , не старается вояжер. Она не ленное мнение продукцию комми навязывает опреде на старинное ирующий свою ипы. Она похожа адвокат, не реклам не стереот ки, арь, секрет описывающий раздвигаете занавес ыми фразами сь на поезд и ывайте журналист, рутинн когда вы садите видов. Разгляд ◆ geo-po сное путешествие, вающих за окном etical album долгое прекра глазами тех, нием проплы глазами, но и иться мелька только своими ится собираясь наслад , смотрите не The book before you could Что-то вам запомн любознательно путешествии. be called an album, testimony, может этом а , об их спокойно и ывать инаний anthology of documents. does not want to persuade. будете рассказ it кую нить воспом it does not propagate, does , который pR, кому вы потом not impose, does not spin. воссоздать тонень lawyer, blabby advertising портрет Сербии нужно будет it is not a agent. Neither is it a tourist й мозаичный сразу, для чего-то reporter, steeped into phrases в один большо the type of self-termina вас сольется and tion для called не routine. Just like on a long все люди быть, мелочные and beautiful old-fashione journey, when you sit in навсегда. туры: «Лишь d a train and open curtains останется в памяти on the window, numerous ка мировой литера глаз.» unraveling in front of you. е слова класси images will be а не скрыт от Watch them calmly and Только не забудьт мир очевиден, with curiosity, as an explorer, eyes and eyes of those to . Настоящий with взгляду your у whom you will be telling about верят первом the journey. Some of these you will remember right images away, the others you will occasionally retrieve and fine connection, and maybe restore your all of them will merge into one, into a large mosaic Serbia that you will carry portrait of forever. and do not forget the warning of one of the most ill-fortuned princes in world literature: “it is only shallow people who do not judge by appearances . The true mystery of the is the visible, not the invisible. world ”

Изванредна монографија о Србији, у одвојеним издањима на пет језика! Српски, руски, енглески, шпански, француски!

Serbia

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ALBUM GÉOPOÉTIQUE

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ÁLBUM GEOPOÉTICO

Este libro que tiene delante podríamos denominar un álbum, un testimonio colección de documentos. o una No quiere persuadir. No propaga, no impone, no es un portavoz, un abogado, da vueltas. No un agente publicitario parlanchín.

Tampoco es un periodista turístico, abismado en palabrería y en aquella forma de auto-apagam Como en algún antiguo iento llamado la rutina. viaje largo y lindo cuando se sienta en el tren y abre de la ventana, pasarán aquí las cortinas numerosas imágenes delante de sus ojos. Mírelos con curiosidad, de forma descubridora calma y , con sus propios y con los ojos de otros a los que contará sobre ese viaje. Algunas de estas imágenes recordará instantáneamente, a otras vez en cuando renovando volverá de sus vínculos finos, y tal vez todas ellas converjan en un retrato mosaico grande en una imagen, de Serbia que llevará consigo para siempre.

Y no se olvide de la advertencia de uno de los príncipes más desafortunados de literatura mundial: „Sólo la gente superficial no juzga por la apariencia. El misterio del mundo es lo visible, verdadero no lo invisible.”

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Il de documents. témoignage, recueil porteappelé album, e pas. Il n’est ni e pas, il n’exagèr par e pas, il n’impos touristique, infecté ni journaliste té bavard. Il n’est beau, long voyage Comme dans un nte nommé routine. sur la fenêtre, de et écartez les rideaux ment, curieuse ez dans un train et z-les tranquillement ez nt vous. Regarde à qui vous raconter les yeux de ceux opres yeux et aux autres vous ez tout de suite, e, elles images vous retiendr subtile, et peut-êtr votre relation pour renouvellerez vous emporterez e de la Serbie que ortrait mosaïqu la littérature de princes malheureux nt d’un des plus ces. Le vrai mystère juger sur les apparen égers pour ne pas nvisible.”

SERBIA ◆ ÁLBUM GEOPOÉTICO

SERBIE

O-POÉTIQUE

Serbia

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GEO-POETICAL ALBUM Exceptional monograph on Serbia, in separate editions in five languages! Serbian, Russian, English, Spanish, French!

Ср­БИ­јА­◆­ГЕ­О­ПО­Е­ТИЧ­КИ­АЛ­БУМ

The most beautiful Serbia, on the palm of your hand!

Anthology of photo-documents on beauty!

Give it proudly, as a gift to yourself and others, here or anywhere else in the world!

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SRPSKA

NATIONAL REVIEW

THE SUMMER DOES THE TRICK AFTER ALL

Publisher “Princip Pres” Cetinjska 6, 11000 Belgrade Tel.: +381 (11) 322 70 34, 322 16 92 www.nacionalnarevija.com princip.press@gmail.com Director and Editor-in-Chief Mišo Vujović Editor Branislav Matić

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Technical Editor Aleksandar Ćosić Photography Editor Dragan Bosnić Header and Cover Design Jovan Željko Rajačić Associates Milovan Vitezović, jerej Jovan Plamenac, Nebojša Jevrić, Dragan Lakićević, Bojan Mandić, Jovo Bajić, Dejan Bulajić, Dejan Đorić, Đorđe Srbulović, Mihail Kulačić, Zoran Pejašinović, Slobodan Krstić, Sandra Kljajić, Senka Trivić, Sandra Josović, Dajana Korolija, Radmila Đević, Vesna Kapor, Aleksandra Glišić Marketing Mirko Vujović, Irena Stolić Secretariat and Distribution Jelena Jović, Dragana Dimitrijević, Milenko Vasilić Print “Portal”, Belgrade Office for the Republic of Srpska “Princip Pres RS” Aleja Svetog Save 7, 78000 Banjaluka Tel/Fax: +387 (51) 304 360 srpska@nacionalnarevija.com Dijana Petković, Director

fter the Easter snow, floods arrived in May. Another natural disaster passed through the territories of Southern Slavs, including Srpska. But its traces, enormous damage and deep scars will remain in our loves for a long time. As a challenge and warning, a gauge we will use to more rigorously measure ourselves and this world, so arrogant, but vulnerable.

But life, of course, goes on. It finds its ways, like water in the mountains. And the summer, no matter how rainy and whimsical, does the trick. It is filled with gatherings, with or without a reason. Cultural, memorial, entertainment, social and private ones, or all the above.

Thus, we attended the spectacular opening of Andrićgrad, on the Vidovdan, exactly on the 100th anniversary of the Princip’s gunshot in Sarajevo in 1914. We followed “OK Fest” on Zelengora, in amazing settings that “Orthodox Celts” compares with those from The Lord of the Rings. We checked how they were getting ready for the Herzegovina Olympic Games in Bratački lug near Nevesinje. We toasted at the “Wedding to Remember” in Banjaluka. We rode horses in Semberija, galloping to the Moon. We visited the court of Stojan Janković in Ravni Kotari and Arad, a beautiful town on the Moriš, filled with “Signs Along the Road”. We read a chronicle about the first light bulb in Banjaluka and Serbian writers from Dubrovnik. We visited museums and theaters. We talked to the famous temple builder and a woman who knows how to recover a village. As always, we dedicated our attention to successful companies and institutions because they, beyond the routine descriptions of “this disaster”, demonstrate that even now a lot depends on us, our strength, knowledge and skills.

And what are you doing or planning to do this summer? 

Office for Australia “Princip Press Australia PTY LTD”, 12/24 Loch Street, 3182 St Kilda West, VIC Jelena Janković, Director

Cover page: Andrićgrad (J. Ž. Rajačić, based on the photograph

by R. Tasić) CIP - Каталогизација у публикацији Народна библиотека Србије, Београд 008(497.6 Република Српска) ISSN 2334-850X, COBISS.SR-ID 199401228

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Life Finds the Ways

SRPSK A  БРОЈ 6  2014

Sponsor of the Publication:

PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC OF SRPSKA

Partners of the Publication:

RTS - PUBLIC SERVICE OF SERBIA

RTV VOJVODINA PUBLIC SERVICE

THIS MAGAZINE IS PRINTED WITH SUPPORT FROM THE MINISTRY OF CULTURE OF SERBIA

CONTENTS

Panorama 04 Prologue 06 Chronicle

Road Sign 10 Album: Flood and traces 16 Symbols: Andrićgrad, Princip, Vidovdan 24 Event: “OK Fest” on the Sutjeska 30 Games: Olympic Games in Bratački lug 36 Wreath: Collective wedding in Banjaluka 42 In the saddle: Horse riding in Semberija 48 Lighthouses: Court of Stojan Janković 54 Visit: Arad, on the Moriš

Culture 60 Chronicle: The first light bulb in the capital 64 Pro memoria: Božidar Đaja (1850-1914) 68 Record: Museums, not only one night 72 Stage: Theater Fest “Petar Kočić”

People 76 Views: Peđa Ristić, a temple builder 82 Examples: Slađana Ujić, woman-pillar

Introducing 86 Offer: “Merkur”, Vrnjačka Banja 90 Celebrations: Barbecue Festival “Roštiljijada” 94 Connections: “M:tel” SRPSK A  No 6  2014

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NE WS S T RE AM >> “St. Peter’s Days of Culture and Sports” marked this July in Vlasenica as well.

In a rich collage program, visitors were offered movies, paintings and handicrafts exhibitions, literary evenings, traditional folk music concerts... >> Twelve academic painters from Srpska, Serbia and Poland participated at the Art and Ecology Colony “Bardača – Srbac 2014”, held in early July at the sports and recreational center on Bardača. >> Children chorus “Vrapčići” began a series of performances in five cities of Srpska with a traditional concert at the Kastel fortress in Banjaluka.

The entire income is intended for renovating kindergartens damaged in May floods. >> The tenth “Kozara Ethno 2014” festival was held in early July in the village of Piskavica beneath Kozara and the Serbian Rulers Square in Banjaluka. >> “A Hundred Years Later...” is the name of the humanitarian concert of the City Tamburitza Orchestra of Banjaluka and City Tamburitza Orchestra “Branko Radičević” from Ruma, held in the Banjaluka Cultural Center “Banski Dvor”, within marking one hundred years since the beginning of World War I. >> “Baby Conference” of Banjaluka, seventh in a row, was organized by the City Administration of Banjaluka.

Many parents and children took part. >> Marking one hundred years since the death of great Serbian composer Stevan Stojanović Mokranjac, a mixed

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Emperor in Banjaluka Within marking one hundred years since the start of the Great War, president of Srpska Milorad Dodik and assistant to president of Russia Igor Shogolev, ceremonially opened a monument to Russian Emperor Nikolai II Romanov. This is the first monument to this holy imperial martyr in a European country (outside of Russia).

Erected in Boulevard of Emperor Dušan, the monument was created by one of the most famous Russian sculptors Zurab Tsereteli and consecrated by Bishop of Banjaluka Jefrem.

Russia entered World War I in 1914 in order to defend Serbia and only the ultimatum Nikolai II made to western allies saved the Serbian army from complete disaster at the Albanian coast in early 1916.

The Great War, Year One The Great War 1914 – Serbian Lands and Europe in the First Year of War is the name of the exhibition in the Museum of Republic of Srpska, recently opened to mark one hundred years since these events.

Realized in cooperation with the Serbian Museum of History, Military Museum in Belgrade and Republic of Srpska Archive, the exhibition has several wholes, each featured by special photographs, documents and objects. The author of the exhibition is Janko Vračar and it was ceremonially opened by Igor Radojičić, president of the National Assembly of Republic of Srpska.

Gavrilo in Sarajevo The monument to Gavrilo Princip (1894–1918) was ceremonially opened in the newly built City Park in Eastern New Sarajevo. The juvenile member of the patriotic organization “Young Bosnia”, poet, patriot, famous assassin of the Austro-Hungarian heir to the throne Franz Ferdinand in 1914, symbolically returned to the city on the Miljacka.

chorus of the Serbian Singing Society “Jedinstvo” held a concert at “Banski Dvor”. Solo performers were Radojica Žagran, Živan Živanović, Lazar Radoja and Dejan Janković, conducted by Nemanja Savić. >> An exhibition of artworks created by teachers and associates of the Academy of Fine Arts in Trebinje, part of the University of Srpsko Sarajevo, was held in the atrium of the National Museum in Belgrade. >> The international festival of amateur theater “Laktaši 2014” was recently held for the ninth time, with performances of nine amateur theaters from Serbia, Montenegro, Croatia and Srpska.

“Gavrilo Princip is a century of hope for us. We proudly remember him and the Young Bosnians”, said Nebojša Radmanović, Serbian member of the B&H presidency, while opening the monument. Two meters tall, made in bronze, the monument was created by Zoran Kuzmanović, academic sculptor and professor of the Belgrade Academy of Fine Arts.

Branko in Hašani Collecting money for building a memorial area for Branko Ćopić (1915–1984), great Serbian writer and poet, wizard of many of our barefoot childhoods, began with a fundraising dinner in Belgrade. The memorial area will be in Hašani, Branko’s birthplace. The municipality of Krupa upon Una and “Marshmallow Garden” Foundation announced that the complex will include a memorial-museum and exhibition spaces, an area for live cultural programs and, if possible, an institute for studying the writer’s language and language of the Serbian people from this area.

Big support is expected from institutions, companies, individuals, especially people from the Serbian diaspora.

>> Archeological excavations at the Roman city in Skelani near Srebrenica site are continuing. Works are in progress at the location of the farming association, on the object with II and III century mosaics, discovered in 2008. >> About three hundred works of the Banjaluka Academy of Arts students can be seen at the thirteenth annual exhibition of this institution. Best authors were awarded.

>> The area of Brod, Derventa and Prnjavor has a good basis for the development of rural tourism. This was the conclusion of the meeting of tourism organizations’ representatives from these municipalities.

Necessary are initiatives of local and republic authorities, as well as training inhabitants.

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NE WS S T RE AM >> If a man or a woman employed in “Bok­sit” in Milić get married, the president of the company Rajko Du­ kić will grant them a ten-days honeymoon trip and offer to be their best man. If both of them are employed in “Boksit”, they will get a fifteen-day trip as a gift. >> Within the “Kotorvaroš Cultural Sum­mer”, an exhibition of folk costumes and handicrafts from this area was opened in the gallery of its renovated cinema. It will last two months. >> For the occasion of marking one hundred years since the Sarajevo assassination and breaking out of World War I, the school in Lopara, in which member of Young Bosnia Veljko Čubrilović was a teacher from 1910 to 1914, is under renovation. The renovated school building in Priboj will hold a memorial exhibition about the life and work of this Serbian patriot, executed in February 1915 for his participation in the assassination. >> Twenty-second “St. Vid’s Day Poetic Encounters” in Sokolac were held in the spiritual center of Romanija Lazarica. This year’s award was granted to Blagoje Baković, writer from Vrbas, Serbia. >> International basketball camp “Hippo Three Points 2014” was held again this year in Jahorina. About 500 children participated, aged six to 16, from Russia, Serbia, Srpska, Mo­ ntenegro, Macedonia, Croatia and Tur­key. The camp was opened by famous Serbian basketball player Predrag Danilović.

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The Celts on Zelengora The famous music band from Belgrade, “Orthodox Celts”, recently filmed a video clip at Orlovačko Lake on Zelengora in eastern Srpska. The video was made for the song One, from this band’s new album, coming in autumn.

“The nature in the ‘Sutjeska’ National Park is amazing”, says Aleksandar Petrović, Aca Celtic, frontman of “Orthodox Celts”. “All the time I was under the impression that I am in the Lord of the Rings landscape. Zelengora is even more beautiful than New Zealand, real epic fantasy. The environment completely blended into our song and the message it brings.”

Gallery in Trebinje An art gallery was opened in the Trebinje Cultural Center, first of its kind in this city. Exhibitors will be artists from Herzegovina and other Serbian lands. “Trebinje has many good artists and such a gallery has been a necessity since a long time ago”, says Miljan Vuković, cultural program manager and initiator of the opening of the Gallery.

“It will be an important element for improving the cultural offer of Trebinje, mainly high quality fine arts.” The gallery began with an exhibition of the Trebinje Academy of Fine Arts works teachers and associates.

Heart in the Flood The World Rafting Federation and Kayak–Canoe–Rafting Association of B&H granted medals for extraordinary courage, skills and sacrifice to rafters, divers and fishermen who participated in rescuing people during the catastrophic May floods, as well as to their clubs and organizations.

“This is a big day for rafters and rescue teams”, said Aleksandar Pastir, president of the World Rafting Federation and Kayak–Canoe–Rafting Association of B&H. “We volunteered to help during the catastrophe. All of us together saved probably thousands of lives and helped bring food and water. We wish all the luck to the people working in the second phase: the renewal.”

St. Vid’s Day on Top In the traditional endeavor “Climbing Maglić on St. Vid’s Day”, a large group of alpinists climbed this mountain top (2.386 meters), the highest in Srpska and B&H. Coming from all Southern-Slavic lands, as well as other parts of Europe, they wrote their names in the alpin-

>> The bust of Nikola Tesla was placed in the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia. It was officially opened by Željka Cvijanović, president of the Government of Srpska, during her working visit to the U.S. >> International scientific meeting “Lectures of the Past Times”, organized by the “Serbian-Russian bridge” Society, was recently held in Jahorina. Many reputable historians, sociologists, political scientists and other experts took part, most of them from Slavic countries. >> Music festival “Jelen Demofest” was held from July 17 to 19 in Banjaluka, at the Kastel. Instead of tickets, visitors had to give a book the first night, school supplies the second, a toy the third, and all the collected things will be donated to areas struck by May floods. >> During the recent eleventh “Bijeljina Biennale” in the Museum of Semberija, 42 authors exhibited 58 paintings. The winner was Rada Marinković with her work on silk “Dream Your Dreams”. >> “Mowing Days – Balkan 2014” were held recently at the tourism center near Mrkonjić Grad, carrying the same name. The founder of the event is Lazar Laketa, former champion in hand mowing.

ist book at the top, found in the tin box together with the alpinist seal. There were about 300 alpinists in total, while about 170 of them dared to conquer the final section. Others stayed in the camp and enjoyed swimming in Trnovačko Lake.

The Mountaineering Association of Srpska and Mountaineering Association “Zelengora” from Foča have been organizing this endeavor for twenty-one year in a row.

>> Aleksandra Radović, member of the Gradiška tamburitza band “Kozarski Biser” won a special prize as the best solo singer at the recently held “Tamburitza Fest” in Novi Sad.

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A l b u m

 The flood in Doboj and Šamac this spring

Photographs: Mladen Blagojević, Aleksandar Čavić, Vladimir Stojaković

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THE WATER HAS WITHDRAWN, FLOODS WILL LAST

Lessons from the Flood “No one remembers anything like it, and no one will ever forget it. The May flood in 2014 was a large scale natural disaster.” “The rain poured down like in Rublev, but for almost seventy hours with the same strength of a natural disaster. Meteorologists explained that it was a cyclone, this kind or that kind, but they shrug their shoulders in bewilderment when asked: why hasn’t it moved for days? The water rose, the torrents went mad, embankments gave in. The cities fell one after the other...”

For the first time in the history of Srpska, the state of emergency was introduced in its entire territory. The floods directly hit 58 percent of the population and 40 percent of the territory. Posavina and Semberija suffered the most, the cities of Šamac, Doboj, Bijeljina, Modriča, Banjaluka... Total damages and losses amount to 1.89 billion KM, plus 57.89 million KM in Brčko. (Detailed summary is available in the Uniform registry of damages of the Republic of Srpska, www.regsteta.vladars.net.)

The trouble is big. So big that we had to face it with an embankment made of the best of what we carry inside ourselves. Courage and bravery, solidarity and self-sacrifice, intelligence and goodness, knowledge and faith, love and organizational skills in emergency situations. “It seems that trouble and water sometimes bind us stronger than the bridges.”

The damages will be remedied for a long time. But under the continuous tide of unnecessary information, that “smoke screen and guided mechanism of oblivion”, the facts about the flood will fade away. Especially that embankment made of the best within us. And it should be remembered. Because of everything. We dedicate the “Album” in this edition of National Review to this.  SRPSK A  БРОЈ 6  2014

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S y m b o l s OFFICIAL OPENING OF ANDRIĆGRAD AND MARKING OF THE HUNDREDTH PRINCIP’S ST. VID’S DAY

To the Eternal Glory of Freedom

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It was a spectacle worthy of this magical city, those it is dedicated to and those who built it.

A ceremony of memory, without which people or nations would not exist. The stone city at the confluence of the Rzav and the Drina, in old Višegrad, is definitely growing into a true capital of culture. It’s no surprise any more when one meets Monica Bellucci, Nikita Mikhalkov or Audrey Tautou in these stone streets, next to the monuments to Andrić and Njegoš, in front of the Church of Holy Lazar of Kosovo. Rural areas are a psychological, not a geographical category Text and photo: Radoje Tasić

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S y m b o l s

“O

n St. Vid’s Day, Serbian soci Mosaic eties, like every year before, dedicated to organized a party at Mezalin.

“Young Bosnia”, on There, at the confluence of two rivers, the the wall of “Doli Drina and the Rzav, in the high green bank, Bel” Cinema in under thick walnut trees, tents were raised, Andrićgrad where drinks were consumed and in front of which lambs were rolling on low fire.

From the Families who brought lunch to Mezalin spectacular found their places down under the shades. performance in Loud music was already playing under the Andrićgrad, on hallway made of fresh branches… the occasion of At that moment, when the party was one hundredth just beginning, policemen appeared at the anniversary of the edge of the Mezalin plain, with black and Assassination in shiny clothes and weapons in the noon Sarajevo in 1914 light. There were more of them than in a usual patrol visiting fairs and parties. They were walking straight towards the hallway with music. The instruments became silent without harmony and one by one.

The people dancing faltered and stopped…

And the policemen continued further, towards the tents and families scattered in the grass…”

These are sentences written by Nobel Prize winner Ivo Andrić, from his novel Bridge upon the Drina. Time: June 28, 1914.

The party at the Mezalin or Jalija, as people of Višegrad always used to call the jutting part of the land at the confluence of two rivers, was stopped by Austro-Hungarian policemen, after the news about the assassination of Crown Prince Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo.

That Jalija became Sports Center “Ušće” in 1983. Exactly 97 years after the described event, Emir Kusturica, famous Serbian film director and builder of Drvengrad in Mokra Gora, walked the path around the sports center in Mezalin, down the river banks, with his friend. We will probably never find out how the idea was born in his head to build a stone city in that place and dedicate it to the only Serbian Nobel Prize winner, the man from whose works

Patriarch – In Kosovo, on St. Vid’s Day, Serbs laid their lives on their land to defend it. The tradition was continued by later generations, who have never been in war to conquer other lands – said His Holiness Patriarch of Serbia Irinej, consecrating the Church of Holy Prince Lazar of Kosovo in Andrićgrad. – Our task is to defend the holy graves of our heroes, our churches and sanctities and everything that God has given and left us.

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Shareholders Emir Kusturica has 51 percent of share in the building of Andrićgrad and the Government of the Republic of Srpska and municipality of Višegrad 24,5 percent each.

he has been receiving inspiration and signs for years. A decade-long dream to make a movie according to the book of the great writer of the Bridge on the Drina has not been realized yet, but his dream to build Andrićgrad in Višegrad has.

And exactly on the hundredth anniversary of the event at the bank of the Miljacka in Sarajevo in 1914, in the unusual city on the Drina, with five wonderful towers, above the street named “Young Bosnia”, wings of angels, the souls of members of Young Bosnia murmured. In the staged performance directed by Emir Kusturica, angels floated above the car of Franz Ferdinand, his police escort and “thrilled mass of people”. The car aimlessly wandered the streets of Andrićgrad, with a warning in German: “Attention, attention, attention!”

One of the archangels, with the face of Gavrilo Princip, flew down to the pavement and stopped the ceremonial procession. His hand was stretched, holding a 1910 model “Browning FN” revolver. He was looking for a long time into the eyes of tyrant Ferdinand, the one who “strangled wounded deer with his hands while hunting”. Then he shot the gun.

Afterwards, in front of the City Hall in Andrićgrad, the assassins, members of Young Bosnia, mainly Gavrilo Princip, were put on trial. It was a magnificent show, in which Rudolf Zistler, court appointed attorney of the Young Bosnians, proved that the assassins cannot be prosecuted for high treason, since “B&H was not part of the Monarchy”.

In history, the verdict to twenty-four Young Bosnians was announced in Sarajevo, on October 28, 1914. In the performance in Andrićgrad, the main prosecutor, played by actor Nenad Jezdić, grabbed a motor chainsaw and spectacularly cut the wooden table at which judges, members of the jury and the attorney were sitting.

The table was cut in the shape of a large cross, which was lit and put on the back of Gavrilo Princip. He symbolically carried it through the streets of the stone city and

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S y m b o l s

 Emir Kusturica.

Concert of Russian choir “Aleksandrov”

slowly, as a torch, disappeared into infinity, in the quiet St. Vid’s Day night, entering both Serbian and world history.

After that, many people rushed through the City Hall passageway to Njegoš’ Square, where the famous Russian ensemble and chorus “Aleksandrov” held a concert. In the window openings of the still unfinished hotel, in mystic light, people were hanging with an inscription on their chest: Serb.

Builder Emir Kusturica reminded that this is the only city in the world dedicated to a Nobel Prize winner.

– This city was made as the strongest organ of memory. It will be a new lesson in Renaissance, a city turning into a cultural good. I want to hear children run in these squares, sing and organize festivals – said Kusturica. – In order to make the memory last, it needs to be refreshed. In order have a good future, we must protect our identity and have a basis in this city we have built.

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HIGH CULTURE AND UNFALTERING FAITH This performance, revealing of the mosaic with faces of Young Bosnians on the wall of the “Dolly Bell” cinema, book promotions, movies and brilliant concerts were the basis of the central ceremony of marking a hundred years since the beginning of World War I, in which 1,6 million Serbs or 40 percent of the male population of Serbia died.

Exactly three years after the construction machinery was started up at the confluence of the Rzav and the Drina, accompanied by the sounds of Carmina Burana performed by the Belgrade Philharmonic Orchestra, a city sparkled here, again on St. Vid’s Day. A city within a city.

– The word freedom is celebrated in Andrićgrad on St. Vid’s Day – says Emir Kusturica.

Main engineer Radomir Stojić says that world records were made in speed and efficiency while building the Theater, Cinema, Andrić’s Institute, Faculty of Fine Arts, students’ homes, hotels, Caravan Saray, Byzantine Palace, municipality building and “Hydroelectric Power Plant on the Drina” company, and finally the Church of Holy Lazar of Kosovo.

– All buildings were constructed with the most up to date materials, according to the latest technologies and standards. The church is the only building made of material which is not from our lands: travertine – says Stojić.

Andrićgrad is nothing but the discovery of emperor Lazar’s head, said Matija Bećković, poet, here on St. Vid’s Day. And the discovery of Ivo Andrić’s poetry is the symbol of creative work in general.

– High culture and unfaltering faith are joined in this city – concluded Bećković. – This is a city where Mehmed and Makarije, pasha and patriarch of the Serbian church, restorer of the Patriarchy of Peć, who put the Serbian people under one roof, lasting until the very day, became brothers again.

Andrićgrad is and will be a city of monuments to great Serbian people. The monument to Ivo Andrić is dominant at Nikola Tesla’s Square, next to which thousands of visitors a day take photos. Njegoš’s Square, on the plateau in front of Church of Holy Lazar of Kosovo, is decorated by Njegoš’s monument. Plans are to have a monument to Mehmed-Pasha Sokolović, whose endowment is the Bridge on the Drina, and his brother Makarije, Serbian patriarch, erect-

ed in the square in front of the Caravan Saray.

Andrićgrad will also have a monument to Nikola Tesla.

The stone city at the confluence of the Rzav and the Drina is definitely growing into one of the European  Matija Bećković cultural capitals. It is no surprise any more among respectable when one meets Monica Belucci, director invitees. The of the Cannes festival Thierry Fremaux, crowded Tesla French actress Audrey Tautou or singer Square Zaz in these stone streets. Rural areas are a psychological, not a geographical category. People quickly and eagerly get used to good, beautiful and normal. 

Poet Academician Matija Bećković said that the gathering in Andrićgrad is the most visited, most beautiful and most joyful fair in the history of Višegrad.

– We are also marking 100 hundred years since the beginning of World War I, announced by the shot of juvenile G.P., whose name and surname, as Miloš Crnjanski wrote, is made of the name of an archangel and a principle – emphasized Bećković.

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Сви­та­ње у Ан­дрић­гра­ду Sunrise in Andrićgrad

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E v e n t “OK FEST” IN “SUTJESKA” NATIONAL PARK

In the Vortex of Good Music

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Rich music and accompanying programs attracted several thousands of young people in three days, from July 4 to 6. Performers were aces such as “Orthodox Celts” and “Partybreakers”, as well as younger bands, whose time is yet to come.

Stars of the regional club scene were seen too. Impressions of visitors and opinions of experts indicate that this is becoming an important event in the festival map of South-Slavic lands

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 From “Partibrejkers” to summer movie theatre: Numerous and attractive events at “OK Fest” Photographs: Miroslav Mišić, Bojan Marković, Archive of the Youth Hostels Association of Srpska

fter successfully realizing the “Friendship Camp”, traditional project of the Youth and Hostel Association of Republic of Srpska (2011, 2012, 2013), numerous participants and visitors, diverse programs and many positive reactions, we decided to take one step further – tell the members of the Youth Association to National Review. – We wanted to organize a new big event, unique in the eastern part of Srpska: “OK Fest”. The idea was to make a festival with diverse contents and programs for promoting the position of young people in our country and the region. To sharpen their awareness, contribute to having their voice heard, to bring back young people and activities to “Sutjeska” National Park, the top destination for young people in former Yugoslavia.

With its concept and program, “OK Fest” has the potential to bring back the many visitors that used to visit this natural oasis and become one of the most important regional festivals.

– Looking up to the “Camp of Friendship”, “OK Fest” is a cultural, educational and entertaining event. It promotes mobility and exchange of experiences between young people from different parts of Srpska, raising awareness and promoting the knowledge of participants.

We also promote the local tourism offer, mainly the part related to youth, adventure, mountaineering tourism… We promote knowledge and skills of young people related to environment protection. We enable more young people from Srpska to visit some of the cultural and historical sites, which used to be inaccessible or insufficiently interesting for them up to now. Thus we are creating a generation of young people who know about the cultural and historical heritage and tourism offer of Srpska.

In a non-conventional and interesting way, adjusted to their generation, they gain knowledge they will be able to use in

Films Thanks to the regional cooperation of the Youth Association of Srpska, visitors were able to enjoy films from all over the world during “OK Fest”, in the open-air movies at the cinema stage.

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Video Clips Within the promotion of the beauties and incomparable natural values of the “Sutjeska” National Park, video clips were filmed during “OK Fest” in the most attractive locations for bands “Sopot” (for their song “Infinity”) and “Orthodox Celts” (for their latest single “One”).

their further life and career. And have fun as well. The entire project is realized in according with the guidelines of the Republic of Srpska Youth Policy 2010-2015.

CAUGHT IN QUALITY “OK Fest” had a rich music program this summer. Famous bands from the Southern-Slavic lands performed: “Orthodox Celts”, “Atheist Rap”, “Partybreakers”, “Zoster”, “Sopot”, AZPA, “Aurora”, “Tupas Mene”, “Grasshoppers”, “Ispad”…

Furthermore, there were also stars of the clubbing scene: DJ G Edd, DJ El Mano, DJ Tibor & Kazo. Along with numerous accompanying events, of course. Adventure lovers, for example, had the opportunity to enjoy rafting on the Tara and hiking from Prijevor to Trnovačko Lake.

In order to stimulate cultural cooperation, as well as mutual support in promoting local and regional festivals, “OK Fest” made a partnership with the Banjaluka “Beer Fest”, held from June 20 to 22, and “Fresh Wave” planned in August in the city on the Vrbas. A partnership was also made with the “Lovefest” in Vrnjačka Banja, one of the highest quality festivals in the region. Thus there was a promotion of “Lovefest” in Tjentište, with famous young DJs Calavera & Manya performing. “OK Fest” will be promoted during “Lovefest” in Vrnjačka Banja, from August 7 to 9, when “Sopot”, a famous band from Srpska will perform.

Several thousands of young people enjoyed the programs of “OK Fest” for three unforgettable days. Their impressions and opinions of experts indicate that this is becoming one of the highest quality cultural and entertainment events for young people in the SouthernSlavic lands. 

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“The company of the rings” before the peaks of Zelengora and Maglić

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Gam e s BRATAČKI LUG, NEAR NEVESINJE, EVERY AUGUST

Herzegovinian Olympics

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It has more disciplines then the Olympics of Coubertin. Both usual and unusual ones. Hill horse race, climbing a greased pillar, running in bags, jumping on blown-up sheep bellows. They have purebred horses, purebred fighters and purebred poets. Let alone the beauty of people and landscapes. Who once comes here, never actually leaves. And it is not only important to participate, it is also important to win.

Victories are counted and celebrated, people live for them, they shorten years and prolong memories By: Nemanja Tepurić Photographs: Siniša Stanišić

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 Climbing up the pillar covered with grease and high jump

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unday, mid-August. Great cloud of dust, visible from all surrounding hills, rises from Bratački Lug, the central and flattest part of the Nevesinje field.

Rows of cars slowly drive down macadam roads from early morning, to the place where the Nevesinje Olympics are held, the main event of the year in this area.

Caterers, salesmen and artisans arrive first to prepare their stands and tents for tens of thousands of visitors. After them come horse owners with their animals and, since early morning, start preparing them for the final and most important point of the entire event: horse races. Then, around 9 a.m., the first visitors arrive. They are the most passionate ones, who want to see everything, from the egg in the spoon race, jumping on the blown-up sheep bellow, climbing a greased pillar, to the horse races. As the competitions haven’t started yet, they take the opportunity to take a look around the stands, where artisans and merchants show products awarded at the fair of food products and handicrafts held the previous day at the city green market.

As the price negotiations take place, the average age of visitors slowly begins drop-

The Biggest Award As member of the Sports Society “Gun of Nevesinje”, Rašo Andrić from Bratač competed with people from Nevesinje, Brod, Teslić, Apatin and other places. He doesn’t even know how many medals he won in different competitions. The biggest award for him, he says, is that his fellow citizens see him as a living legend of the “Nevesinje Olympics”.

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ping. The contesters are here too. The improvised sports arena with a hippodrome, opposite the stands and tents, will soon come to life.

The voice of the official speaker from the main stage in the arena circle outtalks the music from the tents at twelve o’clock, inviting professional sportsmen and amateurs to apply for competitions. Then it all begins.

Cheering is first heard from the mass of observers during the competitions in high and long jumps. Interesting solutions of contesters for gaining medals in the egg in spoon and running in bag races are watched with roars of laughter. And when laughter seriously threatens to overcome decibels from the loudspeakers, every experienced visitor knows that the competition in jumping on the blown-up sheep bellows has begun. The objective of the competition is to break the bellow. Since it is very hard to achieve, the second criteria is the attractiveness of the jump. Thus acrobatic moves are created, followed by thunders of laughter.

Rašo Andrić from the village of Bratač has been unbeatable for years in almost each of these competitions, especially climbing a greased, fifteen meters high pillar.

– Luckily, the Olympics are in August, not in spring. Otherwise I don’t know if my mother would collect enough eggs for Easter – tells Rašo. – I break dozens of them practicing for the egg in spoon race.

It’s important to run on your fingers, otherwise you have no chance to win.

LAUGHING IS AN IMPORTANT DISCIPLINE TOO Rašo wasted a lot of bags as well. Many of them were torn during his preparations for the running in bag race.

– My parents were mad, especially my father, but he forgets everything and feels very proud when he sees me on the winner podium.

His favorite discipline is climbing a greased pillar.

– The friction during the climbing is so big that you cannot go without serious bruises. This discipline is considered the hardest. In the past fifteen years, I won it more than ten times. Perhaps that’s why I like it most.

When cheering becomes more serious, it means that the competitions in traditional disciplines began: stone throwing, tug of war. The rivalry between neighboring Herzegovinian municipalities becomes obvious both among supporters and contesters. Guests from Serbia, Montenegro and other parts of Srpska are lately threatening to take over. These disciplines are a matter of prestige and more than a game. State champions in shot put and participants of the Olympics, the real, Coubertin one, also used to apply for these competitions.

Those who rather spend the day under the tent, eating and drinking, or at the bank of the nearby river in the shade of the willows, all turn their eyes to the starting point of the improvised hippodrome when the beginning of the horse races is announced.

The first is the “small race” of Bosnian hill horses. Rare Herzegovinian households, which still keep horses, are the only ones to thank for the fact that these races, around which all other games are created, are still held. When a tall Herzegovinian man, amateur jockey, climbs them, the small strong horses seem as if they have a pair of legs too many.

A growing number of Arabian horses give hope that the tradition of breeding horses in Nevesinje will continue. Some of them are specially bred for the “middle race”.

– Before the arrival of mechanization, there was not a single house without a horse – tells Stevan Teletina from Šurići near Nevesinje, lover of horses. – After purchasing a tractor and a harvester, there was no need for horses, but my love for them and the wish to own one remained.

Finally, in 2007, I bought my first Arabian horse in Rogatica in the “Borike” stables.

It came only two and a half months before the Olympics. We trained only a short time and won third place. Since then, we always return from competitions with

 One of the horse races and “race with an egg in the spoon”

Hippodrome Despite all difficulties, Stevan Teletina from Šurići is an optimist. He is a visionary and thinks about building a hippodrome and forming an equestrian club.

– I wrote a draft of the Articles of Association of the equestrian club and distributed it to those passionate for these noble animals – he says. – I hope we will, for the beginning, succeed in establishing the club. Then, if possible, I hope we will collect money for building a hippodrome.

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Gam e s

 Jump on inflated sheep’s mellows

medals. Later I purchased another Arabian horse in Ravni Kotari. Since two years ago, I have two grown-up “English” horses in my stable, bought for the race of thoroughbred horses, and one foal.

IF THERE WERE NO HORSES

 One must eat something: The fair of food products and handicrafts

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The cherry on top is the thoroughbred horse race. They begin provoking looks and comments much earlier. When they start, everything becomes silent for a moment. It is a pleasure to watch these noble animals in gallop, two circles in the field, 1.600 meters.

Not long after the “big race”, dust rises again above Bratački Lug. Same cars, now in the opposite direction, take away people from Nevesinje and their guests, full of anecdotes and impressions. Winners will stay a bit longer to fulfill the tradition under the tents: leave part of the earned money to buy drinks for competitors and friends.

And it has been going on for 140 years, officially. Unofficially, who knows.

There, in Bratački Lug, eight kilometers from Nevesinje, it all began as a humble competition of Nevesinje peasants: who is stronger, faster, more agile. And, what’s most important, who has a better horse.

One story says that the competition was only an excuse to bring together the greatest men during the Ottoman occupation.

Some, therefore, relate the beginning of the event to 1875 and the famous “Gun of Nevesinje”.

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survived world wars. Today, the “Nevesinje Olympics” has a rich program and seven days of competitions in various disciplines.

Its organizer, the municipality of Nevesinje, likes to say that it has more disciplines than the modern Olympic Games. Football, basketball, table tennis, chess players, fishermen, athletes, even those who believe that brains are above muscles (for about ten years, part of the Olympics has also been the “Olympic Quiz”), all have the possibility to fight for medals and money prizes.

The Olympics is also a cultural event.

Books are promoted, exhibitions, concerts, fairs organized, young gusle players compete. Dog owners also have the opportunity to show their pets at an exhibition. Hunters and fishermen from Nevesinje prepare fish and wild game stew for visitors.

– Like all these years, the municipality of Nevesinje is trying to preserve and improve this event – says Jovan Vasiljević, municipality president and member of the Organization Board of the “Nevesinje Olympics”. – We are proud to have such an event, important in terms of culture, history and tourism. We want to cherish and continue its tradition. We have a budget for it, but we also try to attract sponsors. Our wish is to make the “Olympics” a sustainable project in the future, to increase the municipality budget.

In the meantime, while the organizers and competitors are working hard on preparations, people of Nevesinje and other parts of Herzegovina scattered around the world, plan their holidays so that they could come to Bratački Lug again in August. 

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THIRD COLLECTIVE “WEDDING TO REMEMBER” IN BANJALUKA

Celebrating

Life and Hope Love and joy, family and offspring, healthy people and healthy society – these are values promoted by and making a basis for this wonderful event. About forty couples began their life together through this joyful gate. The first party for their babies was already organized and next year the party will be even more crowded

By: Senka Trivić

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hey wished to make their wedding different. During the previous three “Weddings to Remember”, at three collective weddings, about forty couples got married. This year brought many novelties.

For the first time, the main event was held in the Republic of Srpska Children Theater, where couples had their performances on scene. Also new were tickets, with part of the turnover intended for children and babies who suffered from floods, so, besides its cultural and artistic features, the event was also humanitarian.

– “Wedding to Remember” promotes love and joy of living. It supports the family as the most important pillar of the so-

ciety and offspring as crucial for its survival – says Olivera Ratković, manager of the event. – Couples can be from Srpska and abroad, the only precondition is that they accept such values. The event has both symbolic and practical importance for the city and the Republic, as well as for our fellow citizens, especially the younger ones.

Photo: Archive of “Wedding to Remember”

For Bogdana The money collected at the wedding was donated for little Bogdana from Čelinac. Her family, struck by floods, is in a bad financial situation, and the girl has serious health problems and needs help.

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A Bit of Jazz, a Bit of Kolo The celebration was decorated by performances of children from the “City Jazz” Dance Studio. Members of the cultural and artistic societies “Veselin Masleša” and “St. Sava” brought the spirit of folk tradition with their costumes and dancing, reminding of the beauty of wedding ceremonies from the old times.

CREATIVE AND JOYFUL

Among 174 couples who applied, ten of them had the opportunity to make their ceremony of marriage original and unique.

– My husband Aleksandar and I easily decided to become part of this year’s collective wedding. We filled the application as soon as it had appeared – says Drinka Stevandić. – We wanted a different wedding, one we would remember for life. We wanted it to be only ours, yet to share it with as many friends as possible. Our experience was beyond all our expectations.

Dancing, new friendships, new ideas for our private parties after the ceremony, plans for traveling. The wedding ceremony itself is extraordinary: the joy of so many young couples, positive energy and hope…

There was also anxiety, indicated by wet palms when placing rings on the fingers.

– I saw on the recordings that there were many photo reporters, but, to be honest, I didn’t notice them at all. The sponsors were fine, always had a nice suggestion what to choose, how to prepare. You see better when looking from aside. I’d advise all young couples planning a wedding to apply. I’m sure they won’t regret it.

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Walking through the city, throwing and catching the bouquet in front of the City Hall, cocktails…

– There were many touching moments that day, but we remember two: when we exchanged wedding rings in the Children Theatre and the first dance – tells us Ivona Radulović.

The circumstances, especially the spring floods, created additional difficulties to the organizers. Without the support of sponsors, as well as the local and republic authorities, it the event could not have been organized.

– There were certainly problems, especially financial ones, but the event really justified its name – adds Olivera Ratković.

– As we had promised, we were creative and different. Both the couples and numerous visitors are very satisfied.

Aleksandar and Goranka Vukobrat crowned their ten-year relationship in this way. And they say it was fantastic.

– Experiences and emotions are very positive. We learned to waltz and dance kolo, met new people, participated in a beautiful play. We had a cocktail party, received gifts, had fun – describes Aleksandar.

TIME FOR BABIES It’s a great happiness, but also a responsibility, especially at the time when there are less and less marriages and childbirth rate is dropping. Thus the collective wedding emphasizes the support for family and offspring.

– “Wedding to Remember” is an impulse in fighting for childbirth. One of our main messages is: “It’s time for babies” – explains Olivera Ratković.

The couples who got married at this event in the previous three years had about twenty babies and five more are expecting offspring. An integral part of the collective wedding is the big party for children “Gift for Babies”, attended by couples from the previous year who had babies in the meantime.

– We hope that this year’s ten couples will remember June 21 as the most beautiful day in their lives. The organization board was honored to be with the couples and see them off their road of joint happiness. We will try to make this cultural and artistic event a traditional mark of Banjaluka. s

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S a d d l e THOROUGHBREDS RETURN TO THE SEMBERIA PLAIN, TOGETHER WITH THE HORSEMEN

Gallop to the Moon

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Semberia has a long tradition in breeding horses and organizing races. The first horserace following international rules was held in 1897, and in 1900 in Sarajevo, a horse from Semberia won over the best ones from the Austro-Hungarian stables. Today, Semberians are planning to build a large sports and recreational complex with a hippodrome in Obrijež. And dream of winning the future derby of Srpska Text and photo: Jelena Bodul

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avo Mojić, a fifty-four year old from Sremska Mitrovica, spent forty years in equestrian sports. Today he trains racehorses in the “Intergaj” breeder in Bijeljina and dreams of winning at least one derby of Srpska with them.

Every country, he says, has its derby. The winner of that supreme race is the best horse of the year in the country. With each victory, the value of these thoroughbred animals rises progressively, reaching millions.

He also hopes that the Republic of Srpska will soon organize its derby, right there in Bijeljina, which has a tradition in equestrian sports and perfect field for building an upto-date hippodrome.

– During forty years in the saddle, I broke all my bones, some even several times. Horses broke more of my teeth than dentists pulled out.

But it was worth it! That minute and a half of flying on the track, that feeling of freedom and victory… Every time it’s like landing on the Moon, like conquering the world! – explains Mojić. He cannot find words to describe the beauty, so he uses his hands to depict the “gallop to the Moon”.

The coach caresses young Berner, English thoroughbred. He has just been bought at an auction in Baden Baden, Germany, and this is his first time to rush over the Semberia plain. His traces are imprinted for the first time in the light snow,  Some of the which made the landscape between the numerous trophies Drina and the Sava white only for a few of kennel “Intergaj” days last winter.

Titles Horses from “Intergaj” participate in races in Srpska, the Federation and Serbia. Up to now, they won two derbies of B&H, the “Champions Race” in Belgrade, Zobnatica Equestrian Games and dozens of races in the region.

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Ilda, another English thoroughbred, bought at the same auction, obediently trots wherever the coach wishes. Workouts in winter, says Mojić, last one hour a day, and the horses are prepared for two races most in the second half of the year.

The breeder and owner of these horses is Slobodan Jovanović, businessman from Bijeljina. His first racehorse Prince is 14 years old and in deserved retirement. Only his owner rides him.

Many trophy-winners passed through this breeder: Plamen, Singapore, Prince Sechansky, Poseidon, Palisad… Awards

from races in the country and the Balkans fill the showcases in the Boarding House for Horses, located next to the “Semberia Salash”, an ethno-style restaurant on the road from Bogatić to Bijeljina.

The Salash has a riding school, recreational riding for children and adults, and organizes a ride in a horse carriage through Semberia, even in the wintertime, in sleighs pulled by Lipizzaner horses.

People from Dvorovi (Palaces), a settlement with an appropriate name for English thoroughbreds in the Salash, are used to these pets weighing up to 500 kilograms. Horses sometimes trot to the shopping malls in the vicinity and calmly watch themselves in the shop windows. Horses are not afraid of people, nor are people

afraid of these beautiful animals, which have supported peasants and inspired artists for centuries.

HIPPODROME IN BIJELJINA

Equestrian sports lovers from Bijeljina say that the restoration of the existing hippodrome would cost about 140.000 convertible marks.

Building of a sports and recreational complex is planned on a 30 hectares area in Obrijež, with a racetrack, equestrian museum, restaurants and playgrounds for children, sports grounds, as well as kilometers of hiking and bicycle tracks. This area is naturally slightly elevated, surrounded by abundant forests from three sides.

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 A training session last winter

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The hippodrome area, only three kilometers from the center of the city with a population of almost 120.000, could become a tourism attraction of the region. According to the documentation of the “Semberia” Equestrian Club, the location is suitable for holding all kinds of open-air events, in an area which can host about 50.000 visitors.

Secretary of the Equestrian Club Đojo Krstić says that Bijeljina will have two racing days this year, in May and the already traditional one in August, on the day of St. Panteleimon, the patron saint of the city.

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– Semberia has a long tradition in breeding horses. There are more than a hundred of us race lovers, and we attempt to return the glory, popularity and reputation of the oldest sport in our area – says Krstić.

He says that about 50 heads from Srpska, the Federation and Serbia raced last year.

– There are about a dozen thoroughbreds in Bijeljina and about at least 50 parade Lipizzaner horses, working horses and ponies. With guests from the region,

 Waiting for the Serbian derby: A modern stable on a Semberia grange in Dvorovi

it is enough for organizing high quality horseraces, popularizing sports and friendship, tourism and tradition of this nation and this country – believes Krstić.

MEMORY OF THE ARCHIVE

Due to the extraordinary geographical area, the Semberian horses were famous beyond the Balkans as well. There is a several centuries long tradition of breeding Arabian horses and the autochthonous breeds of Posavac and Bosnian-

Hill horse, had excellent results in working on the fields.

After introducing machinery into agriculture and modernizing transport, breeding and keeping horses became uncompetitive. The number of heads has been continuously decreasing since 1970, although the development of equestrian sports can elevate the tourism offer of the region and the country to European level.

According to the accessible archive materials, the first equestrian club in Bijeljina was founded in 1931. The first official horserace following international rules was held in this city in 1897 and in 1900 in Sarajevo a horse from Semberia won over the best horses from Austro-Hungarian stables.

Lately, horseraces and horse carriage shows are held in Bijeljina in August. 

Price The breeder manager Branko Sofrenić says that keeping one racehorse costs about 1.500 KM a month. Each head eats 10 kilograms of oat every day, half a bundle of shamrock, carrot and apple, raisins, quail eggs, honey and vitamins as food supplements.

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In the Centre of Ravni Kotari JANKOVIĆ COURT IN ISLAM GRČKI

Stojan Janković, the famous Serbian uskok, received the tower and fortified court in 1670 from Venice for his contributions in the struggle against the Turks. From 18th century, a Serbian educational and cultural center is located here, with a valuable library , art collection, collection of icons and church books, and later with a school. Simo Matavulj used to tech here, Vladan Desnica lived, wrote and was buried here. In the attack on Krajina, in the last war, the complex was destroyed, but most of the collection was preserved. And it could be available to public again, after the ongoing restoration

By: Sandra Kljajić

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n the place where, for centuries, three religions and two civilizations have been meeting, where turbulent historical events have been alternating, in a picturesque village in Ravni Kotari area with unusual name, not far from Zadar and Benkovac, the Jankovića tower has been standing proudly for almost 350 years.

Janković Court or the Tower of Janković Stojan, as it is also called, in this turbulent

area has been, for decades, a center of cultural and educational values, under cultural influences both from the West and from the orthodox East. For centuries it has been home to many renowned people – from a legendary hero, uskok and serdar Stojan Janković, to famous author Vladan Desnica.

The complex in the village of Islam Grčki (Greek Islam), which has been for three and a half centuries owned by families Janković SRPSK A  No 6  2014

Photographs: Sandra Kljajić and Archives of the Desnica family

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 Uroš Desnica with visitors of the Jankovića Court

and Desnica, is impossible to miss when visiting this area. The Jankovića Tower is made of an assembly of buildings with unusual architecture, with a spacious yard encircled by walls, right next to the main road, and in the vicinity, outside the walls, there is also medieval Romanic Church of St. George where, at his own wish, Vladan Desnica was buried.

Below the Tower there is a spacious kitchen, and below it a dungeon and one room with hidden entrance. The only collection currently available to the visitors is the Ethnographic one, in its original space – the “Old Kitchen”.

In Islam Grčki there is almost not a single person who cannot tell you everything about the history of the Tower, about the Janković and Desnica families. Also, everybody will proudly emphasize that the offspring of Stojan Janković, children of Vladan

Matavulj The first teacher in the school that was founded in Islam Grčki by the last Janković, Ilija Dede, was Simo Matavulj. This, later well known, writer, used to spend many days in the Tower of Stojan Janković. With in the “Open Days of the Jankovića Tower”; in 2013, the Matavulj’s monument was unveiled, which had been sitting until the past war underneath the village school that carried his name.

Life with Ilija Jankovića had great influence on Matavulj and his work. Islam Grčki, the Jankovića Tower and Ilija Janković himself are described in his works.

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Desnica - Nataša, Olga, Jelena and Uroš, are giving back the old glow to the Tower, which was destroyed in the past war.

– Thanks to them, people from all over the world come here in the summer. Then this desolate place comes to life. They have big plans for the Tower – the residents of Islam Grčki say.

OLD AND NEW TIMES OF USKOCI And the story about the Tower begins as far back as in the 16th century, when the Venetian-Turkish border was right before the gates of Zadar, and a series of Ottoman fortifications stretched from Zemunik to Novigrad. The biggest one was called Seddi-islam, which means the wall of Islam, and in the 18th century the villages of Islam Grčki and the neighboring Islam Latinski were named after it.

At that time, this area was an important stronghold of uskoci, who fought on the side of the Venetians after the Ottoman Turks during the Candian and Morean War. In the 17th century, Janko Mitrović and his three sons Stojan, Zaviša and Ilija excelled in these wars. As he triumphed in war campaigns and defense of Kotari, in 1670 Stojan Janković receives from the Venetian Republic the title of a serdar or knight of St. Marco (cavaliere di S. Marco). Along with the title he was given an estate with a fortification

in Islam Grčki. That is how the Tower came into possession of the Janković family.

In the 18th century, after withdrawal of the Ottoman Empire, the Janković Tower was a place of the spirit of restoration – a library is being created there, collections of artworks are being gathered, collections of icons, church books and liturgy objects...

In the 19th century, Ilija Dede-Janković, Stojan’s descendant, opens a school in Islam, writes poems, travel writings, philosophical and political articles, mostly in Italian, but also a play in local Serbian dialect.

With the marriage of Ilija’s daughter Olga to Vladimir Desnica in the second half of the 19th century. the Tower is transferred into the legacy of the Desnica family. The members of this family will continue to cultivate the cultural and educational values, and special role in this in the 19th century had Vladimir Desnica, and in the 20th century brothers Uroš and Boško Desnica. And Vladan Desnica wrote some of his most valuable works here, even parts of the novel The Springs of Ivan Galeb.

In 1991, just like three centuries before that, the first line of the front opens up here.

The tower was bombed, and after the war it was set on fire and almost destroyed to the ground.

– A big part of the complex is severely damaged. All roofs, except for the Storehouse building, and all wooden floors and

floor structures were destroyed in the fire.

Still, the parts of the complex that had been restored by the Institute for the Protection of Monuments in Zadar between 1989 and 1991 remained in a relatively good condition, as well as the little Church of St. George, which suffered minor damages. Exceptionally valuable is the fact that a big part of the most valuable inventory of the Jankovića Tower is preserved, although even today it is scattered in various locations –says Uroš Desnica.

In 2002 the restoration of the complex begins and a lot of work has been done since then.

– It is realistic to expect full restoration, refurbishing and functionality of the Tower in the next three years, namely by 2017, when they will celebrate 50th anniversary of the death of Vladan Desnica – says Uroš Desnica.

 Interior of the Jankovića Tower in Islam Grčki

Notes of a Writer “And so, one moment in a poetic frenzy because of memories that seemed like they happened yesterday, another moment overcome by grief looking the reality around me, I arrive in Islam. When through the dusk I saw the Jankovića Castle, when I thought that I would live near that heart of the entire Kotari past, next t the last descendant of Janković Stojan, I was numb with joy and melancholy. (...) The day after I realized that all conditions for life are much more favorable that I could have hoped for”. (Simo Matavulj, in the “Notes of a Writer”)

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Li g h t h o u s e s  Stojan Janković (around 1635–1687), oil on canvas

ANOTHER RETURN INTO LIFE In the period of three centuries, the Tower owners collected several precious collections. Among others, about forty icons from the period between 16th and 18th century, old weapons, library with as many as 5,000 books in various languages, archaeological collection, collection of Roman coins, Roman glass, rich ethnographic collection, beautiful examples of furniture, paintings, old cadastral and geographic maps... There were also individual archives of Ilija Deda Janković and Uroš Desnica.

– The most valuable parts of the inventory survived the war destructions. In this way, the collection of icons is fully preserved, and partially the collection of sacral objects.

The collection of old weapons that is located in the Croatian Historical Museum is also preserved. The archaeological collection is partially gone, and the fate of the collection of Roman glass is unknown. The library has been preserved, as well as documentation about the Tower – says Uroš Desnica.

Milorad Savić, curator of the Museum of Benkovac until 1995, had a unique role in saving a big part of the collections, as well as the archives and the library. First he moved all more valuable inventory from the Jankovića Tower to the Museum of Benkovac, and then he moved a large part of it to Belgrade, to the depot of the Museum of Serbian Orthodox Church.

– Everything that had remained in the Tower was burnt together with the roofs of the Tower. A bigger part of the inventory that had remained in the Museum of Benkovac, except for the ethnographic collection, which was taken by the Museum in Belgrade, was looted after the war in a dozen consecutive burglaries – says Uroš Desnica.

Vladan Desnica wanted to make the valuables and beauty of the Tower available to everybody, and in the 1950’s and 1960’s he opened for public the oldest part of the complex. His successors continue to implement this idea.

– Our intention was to refurbish and open for public the biggest part of the build-

Poems Stojan was immortalized in some famous Serbian folk epic poems. Poem “The Marriage of Janković Stojan” inspired the famous Lamartine from France to write his poem “Fall of an Angel”. The best known poem “The Slavery of Janković Stojan” describes his escape from the Constantinople dungeon and return to Ravni Kotari.

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The Hero Turks captured Stojan Janković and took him to the dungeon in Constantinople, but he fled fourteen months later. The fact that he was sent to the dungeon as far as Constantinople, historians say, tells us that he was regarded as a very significant personality. It is recorded that in one military campaign he was leading 5,000 infantry troops and 1,500 cavalry.

He was killed on August 23, 1687, and the legend says that he was buried in the church in the settlement of Budim, not far from Islam.

ing, so we encourage and support every initiative that leads to restoration and revitalization of the Jankovića Tower – says Uroš Desnica.

Thus, in almost completely destroyed complex and the village with practically no inhabitants, in September 2005 they celebrated the 100th anniversary of the birth of Vladan Desnica. Many literary experts and artists were present, but also a big number of displaced residents of Islam Grčki and neighboring villages. Most of them came to the village for the first time after the war, and this event is still talked about today.

Already the year after, a part of culturalscientific gathering “Desnica Encounters 2006” was organized here, and it was the first time that volunteers came, who would for the following few years work on restoration of the complex.

From 2007, they also organize summer schools in English and French languages on cultural heritage, especially of North Dalmatia.

This year, there will be the Festival of Culture and Dreams, “The Days of the Tower”, exhibitions...

– Since 2008, we have been visited by numerous personalities in the area of culture, science, higher education and politics.

We also discussed the possibilities of restoration, the methods of revitalization of the Jankovića Tower, as well as possible future programs and activities – says Uroš Desnica.

He emphasizes that their priority is restoration and revitalization of life in the Tower.

– I see the restored Tower as a centre of scientific, educational, cultural and development projects. We want this valuable cultural heritage to serve the public good and to be used for the development of this area, as it did before – concludes Uroš Desnica.

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Visi t Serbian Church of Holy Apostles Peter and Paul on Serbian Square, today the oldest preserved building in Arad (from1702)

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ARAD, UPON MORIŠ, A CITY OF LONG MEMORY AND BRIGHT HORIZONS

In the Golden Serbian Mirror

On the joint between Krišan and Banat, near the Hungary-Romania border, cultural and historical threads of many nations are interwoven in this city. Today, after everything, there are only a few Serbs and many Serbian traces left. Serbian annals in Arad were written by Tekelija, Tabaković, Aleksić, Tenecki, Tapavica, Ivković families... Painters, writers, merchants, benefactors, masons, warriors… Even today, if you take the Sava Tekelija Street from Boulevard of Revolution towards Serbian Square, you will re-experience and understand many things Text and photo: Miodrag Grubački

G

eography says that Arad is located in the west of Romania, only about twenty kilometers from the Hungarian border and 550 from the capital city of Bucharest. According to the last

census, it has a population of about 170 thousand, making it the thirteenth biggest city of that country. The river Moriš, right tributary of the Tisa, flows through the city. Downstream from Arad, near the SRPSK A  No 6  2014

 City House in Arad

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 Serbian palace on Serbian Square, built by Milan Emil Tabaković (1860–1946) Tomb of Sava Tekelija in the Church of Holy Apostles Peter and Paul

town of Nadlak, part of the Moriš creates the border between the two states and then continues flowing through Hungarian territory, all the way to its confluence near Szeged. The Moriš also makes the natural border between historical provinces, so the northern part of Arad belongs to the Krišan area and the southern to Banat.

History tells more about Arad, going all the way to 1156, when the place was first mentioned in preserved documents.

In the whirlpools of frequent changes of conquerors and liberators, its strategic position in the Moriš valley imposed its fate of a military and frontier fortification.

Attempting to provide solid defense from the Ottoman Empire, the Viennese court formed the Tisa-Moriš frontier in 1701.

The center of the Moriš valley boundary was in Arad.

Later history notes events from the revolutionary year of 1849. Thirteen generals of the Hungarian army were hung on October 6 in the Arad fortress, including Jovan Damjanić, Serb, and Kiš Erne, from an Armenian aristocratic family from the village of Elemir near Zrenjanin. The remains of Kiš Erne were later moved to Elemir and buried in the family crypt in the local catholic church.

Grandfather and Grandson The iconostasis of the Church of Holy Apostles Peter and Paul on the Serbian Square was created by Nikola Aleksić, another reputable Serb, whose origins and creative work are related to this city. His works were renewed by his grandson Stevan, also artist, who successfully found himself in painting.

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Arad remained in Romania after the breakdown of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy in 1918 and lost its prevailing Hungarian character. Today, it has a Romanian majority, there are about 13% of Hungarians, and Serbs make one the numerous minorities, about 600 of them in the city itself and a bit more than 1.100 in the Arad province.

The number of Serbs in this city could hardly depict their former significance.

Still, their traces, inevitable footprints of Serbian spirituality, art and masonry, are eternally imprinted into the tissue of Arad.

Testimonies about it are mainly present in the city center, especially when one takes the Sava Tekelija Street from Boulevard of Revolution, the widest street, to the Serbian Square...

Sava (Popović) Tekelija (1761–1842), one of the greatest Serbian intellectuals in the late XVIII and first half of the XIX century, is enlisted as one of the most reputable historical persons of Arad, proven by the mentioned street, as well as his large portrait at the very entrance of the City Museum. This aristocrat, writer, lawyer and benefactor, president for life of Matica Srpska, enabled education of many Serbs in Hungary with his endowment “Tekelijanum” in Budapest and contributed to the general cultural ascension of his nation.

AROUND THE SERBIAN SQUARE Sava Tekelija was buried inside the Church of Holy Apostles Peter and Paul, on the Serbian Square, edifice erected in

1702, today the oldest preserved object in Arad. The church was raised by captain Jovan Tekelija, Sava’s great-grandfather, after fighting for the Austrian army against the Turks and settling in Arad. The Tekelijas, the frontier family Popović, which gained an aristocratic title and this name, were owners and managers of the church until their last male descendant in 1844.

Opposite to this church, the Serbian Square is closed by the “Serbian Palace”, built by Milan Emil Tabaković (1860– 1946), member of the old Serbian aristocratic Tabaković family from Banat. Emil designed important architectural works in Arad, including the Roman-Catholic Cathedral of St. Anthon, at the already mentioned Boulevard of Revolution. The city is also ornamented with his School of Commerce, Najman’s and Feldes’ Palaces, Minorite Church, Palace of the AradCanad Railway Headquarters. His sons, Đorđe and Ivan, the first also an architect, the second a painter, born in Arad, died in Novi Sad (Đorđe), and Belgrade (Ivan), left a strong artistic imprint in Serbian lands as well.

Talking about reputable Serbs of Arad, one mustn’t forget the Tenecki family and its most significant member Stefan, baroque painter and icon painter.

The Boulevard of Revolution most impressively testifies about the achievements and tendencies of Arad. Palaces erected on its both sides would make even much bigger cities proud. One can notice the influence of Neo-Renaissance, Neo-Classicism and Secession, architectural styles

well harmonized in the area from the City Council, mentioned Cathedral of St. Anthon, to the “Joan Slavići” Theater and Avram Janku Square, dominated by the Monument to the Heroes of Arad. This square revives the spirit of past times, not only thanks to edifices surrounding it, but also to the special way of marking dates and events important for the city. Horsemen and carriages parade through the Square, followed by brass music, evoking memories of the times of turmoil, fighting for national liberation and eternal longing for freedom and advancement.

 Serbian school in Fenlak, 25 kilometers east from Arad

DIFFERENT TEMPTATIONS OF MINORITIES Before leaving Arad and going to the nearby town of Fenlak, one should visit the promenade along the Moriš, where the picturesque and green Zrenjanin Street ends, named to honor the twin city in the Serbian part of Banat. Many decades of cooperation between these two towns, which the border has long ago stopped separating, just like the common belonging to Banat, was made official by signing

The Tabaković Brothers Đorđe Tabaković is the greatest name of modern architecture of Novi Sad. He left the city edifices such as Tanurdžić’s and Klein’s Palaces, Sokolski Dom, “Park” hotel, “Red Cross” building.

Ivan Tabaković is member of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts, one of the founders of the “Earth” and “Six” painters’ groups, winner of numerous artistic and social recognitions in our country.

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 The Moriš River an Hotel “Park” in Arad

 Square of Avram Janku Celebration of the Day of Arad

the Decree on Twinning in 2002 in Arad.

One can also meet friends everywhere in Fenlak, 25 kilometers east of Arad.

There are 280 Serbs living in this village, with about 2.500 inhabitants, in one of their most compact communities in the Romanian Moriš valley. Fenlak also has a Serbian language class in the four-year elementary school, unfortunately with fewer students every year. Not far from the school is one of the most beautiful and biggest Orthodox churches in Romanian Banat – Church of the Nativity of Virgin Mary. It was built in 1900 and 1901, according to the design of architect Momčilo Tapavica, shaped as a ship, with three towers, the central being more than twenty meters tall. The iconostasis was painted by the Ivković workshop from Novi Sad.

Sixfold Fortress The Arad fortress, one of the symbols of this city, is today a favorite place both for people of Arad and their guests. Raised within the river meander, it has the shape of a sixfold star. It was built between 1763 and 1783, upon the order of Empress Mary Therese.

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Fenlak, as well as other settlements in the vicinity of Arad, in which Serbs still live, are inevitably subject to assimilation, while the remaining Serbian population is growing older. Despite the much more favorable social environment for expressing ethnicity compared to earlier periods of Romanian history, members of minorities, not only Serbian, are aware their population is decreasing and that they must be more organized and united in order to cherish and preserve their communities.

Such a conclusion is inevitably present when parting from the Fenlak Serbs.

Returning to Arad is a reunion with a modern medieval city, with rich masonry heritage and lucidly realized architectural and spatial solutions. New and old edifices interweave, charming narrow streets fit into wide boulevards, and the spacious banks of the Moriš are turned into promenades, parks, sports centers, city bath… It is pleasant to walk through this city, knowing that part of its historical, architectural and cultural annals was also written by Serbs. Arad remembers it and is thankful for it to the present day. 

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A HUNDRED AND FIFTEEN YEARS OF THE FIRST LIGHT BULB IN BANJALUKA

And There Was Light Trappists, the Roman Catholic monastic order, came to Banjaluka in 1869 and founded the monastery of Mariastern. They built a brewery, started manufacturing the famous cheese, opened artisan schools, a printing house, a hospital. In 1899, on March 27, electricity began flowing from their hydroelectric power plant “Delibašino Selo” on the Vrbas, which would soon lighten up both them and the city. Among the first in the Balkans By: Sandra Josović

 Construction of the first dam on the Vrbas, in the 19th century

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his year of 2014 marks 115 years from lighting the first light bulb in Banjaluka. In 1899, on March 27, it was one of the first electric bulbs in the Balkans. Chronicle writers say that the first one in Zagreb was only eight years later, in 1907.

The first light was turned on by Trappists, monks of the Mariastern monastery, who came to Banjaluka on June 21, 1869.

They built a brewery in the city on the Vrbas, the famous cheese production, artisan schools, printing houses, hospital. They SRPSK A  БРОЈ 6  2014

were pioneers in many things, including the building of the first hydroelectric power plant here.

As the archive documents state, the big mill on the Vrbas was built from 1871 to 1874 by Franz Pfanner, monk and founder of Mariastern Abbey. “… a dam was built on the bank of the Vrbas for the safety of the mill, and with it a special sawmill. A separate sawmill was erected in 1873 on the bank wall near the mill. All the works were completed by Easter of 1874. A water driven pump was

merged with the sawmill for bringing water to the monastery, garden and brewery”, wrote B. Gavranović.

The documents following the stated one mention that monk Bonaventura Baier placed a big wheel on the Vrbas in 1893 for driving industrial objects, however electric illumination was not mentioned until 1899. The first 50 horsepower steam machine was purchased that year. When they realized it did not satisfy the needs of the mill, brewery and textile workshop, the Trappists built the first hydroelectric power plant: “… the steam power drive in the brewery, textile factory and the mill was enhanced, but since this didn’t satisfy their needs, the abbot built 60 horsepower turbines in the Vrbas in the late 1899. The Vrbas had to be crossed with a dam to have a higher fall. The monastery got its electric illumination on March 27, 1899, and after 1902, some houses in Banjaluka received electricity from it…” states B. Gavranović.

Therefore, the first official source of electricity in the area of Banjaluka is the hydroelectric power plant on the Vrbas, “Delibašino Selo”. The same year, the city

administration of Banjaluka built its first network for households and public illumination in the city center.

 Trappistine monastery in Banjaluka, today

PIONEER AGE OF ELECTRIFICATION “… The concrete foundations for the new plant and dam were made by Viennese experts. The turbine and its mounting were done by experts from Budapest. After that, on June 20, 1902, both railway stations got electrical illumination, in the city and in Predgrađe, and a bit later other administrative offices in the city and households…” writes N. Zamola in his article.

Pray and Work The Trappists are a contemplative order in the Roman Catholic Church, serving God and people with silence, prayer and physical work, following the motto of St. Benedict: “Pray and work.” They got their nickname Trappists from the reformation movement began in the XVII century in the French Cistercian monastery Notre Dame de La Trappe. The female branch of the order has 72 monasteries, mainly in Europe. In 1869, a group of Trappists came to Banjaluka and founded the Mariastern monastery. Today two brothers live in this monastery, the last Trappists in the Balkans.

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Illumination from 1878 Svetozar Glamočlija’s monograph about the century of electrification in this area mentions the possibility that the light bulb in these lands was lit even earlier, in 1878. Glamočlija states a very interesting article written by N. Zamola, based on the Trappists’ chronicles: “... We found a document stating that Trappists made a land purchase agreement in Delibašino Selo, between May 15 and 30, 1869, and made electric illumination nine years later, introduced electricity in their plants and different workshops, such as the mill, brewery and cheese manufacturing...”

That would mean, writes Glamočlija, that the use of electricity here began even before Tesla’s departure to America in 1884.

Upon the request of citizens, the power plant was soon expanded and the mill rearranged. Light bulbs were gradually turned on from one house to another in Banjaluka. “… The monastery management built a new mill in 1910 with a modern machine, with a 2,5 wagon capacity, and the power plant had new 300 horse power turbines.

After the Vrbas demolished the wooden dam in the spring of 1913, the construc Banjaluka tion of a new, concrete dam began imtoday is a modern, mediately, completed in the summer of well illuminated city 1914…” writes B. Gavranović.

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Due to the impossibility of efficient transfer of electricity at the time (direct current, low voltage, big distances…), only one part of the city was illuminated after 1910, when the capacity of the power plant was expanded by installing two turbines, with 300 horse power each.

“Delibašino Selo” hydroelectric power plant was the only electricity supplier of the city for a long time, until 1922, when the “Lauš” thermoelectric power plant was built in Banjaluka, one of the large capacity power plants in B&H. The construction of power lines and transformer stations expanded from the power plants towards the center of Banjaluka. Almost at the same time, the first transformer stations were built. Today, the “Elektrokrajina” company owns about 4.000 transformer stations and supplies 248.000 consumers.

One hundred and fifteen years later, life without electricity is almost unthinkable.

The strength of the first light bulb lit on March 27, 1899 was a mere weak reflection of an average flashlight. Still, its light enlisted Banjaluka as one of the first illuminated cities in the Balkans. 

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SERBIAN DUBROVNIK: BOŽIDAR ĐAJA (1850-1914), WRITER AND SAILOR

That Wonderful Horrifying World He sailed oceans and commanded in four languages. He sailed on his and other people’s ships.

As the captain of ship “Deligrad”, he helped the development of river shipping in Serbia. He knew that oblivion is a form of death. His six-volume “Our Sailors”, an elegant, documentary and poetic prose, is kept in the Archives of SANU. His brother Jovan was a respected writer and translator in Belgrade, and his son Ivan was the third Serb in the French Academy of Sciences (after Ruđer Bošković and Jovan Cvijić)

By: Zdravko Krstanović

S

ailor and writer Božidar Đaja was born on May 24, 1850 in Dubrovnik.

His father Ivo, a sailor, then merchant, from the village of Mravinac; his mother Petrunjela, born Grgurević, from merchant family in Mokošica. Božidar attended elementary school in his hometown and helped his father in trading. When he was sixteen, he embarked in Trieste on a ship of one of his uncles, as a seaman. He sailed for

twelve years on Dubrovnik and Pelješac sailboats, climbed through all the ranks, from ordinary seaman to commander.

He took exams for lieutenant and captain of the ocean liner in Dubrovnik, the last one in 1873. In 1878, he becomes the commander of the Dubrovnik barge “Happy”, built in Rijeka in 1871, with load bearing capacity of 565 tons, which was owned by Božidar’s father Ivan and uncle Grgur. On this ship SRPSK A  No 6  2014

 Božidar Đaja in his younger days and later with his family

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 Božidar in his garden and with his wife

 Pictures from the Belgrade album of the Đaja family

he sailed and did business happily, and on the New Year’s day in 1881, he arrived in French harbor Honfleur, with a cargo of grains. There he met a niece of a ship-owner, Delfina Auger, and he soon married her. He brought the ship “Happy” to Dubrovnik and handed it to the ship-owners. He settled in Le Havre, where his mother in law had a manufacture shop in which he entered as a partner. They split up, and Božidar then worked as a marine-trading middleman, bit did not have much success.

He returns to his vocation. He purchased barge “Nicolo G.” and in 1887, with a cargo of coal, he sailed to West Africa, and from there to the Antilles. There, on the island of Haiti, he took a cargo for England. At that time, sailboats had limited life, the business was growing weaker. After a long journey, captain Božo realized that it would not be profitable to repair his old ship. He abandons it in Glasgow, where on July 19, 1888, it came into the hands of an English ship-owner.

Captain Božo decides to move from Le Havre to Argentina, but at that moment, by

Children With his Wife Delfina, Božidar had four children: Ivan, Robert (who died young), Aleksandar and Olga. Ivan Đaja (Le Havre, July 21, 1884 – Belgrade. October 1, 1957) is one of the most important Serbs in modern times. He was a scientist with reputation around the world, rector of the University of Belgrade, a member of the Serbian Royal Academy, French Academy of Sciences with honorary doctorate from the Sorbonne, as the third Serb with this title (after Ruđer Bošković and Jovan Cvijić). He was also an excellent writer, his meditative prose is at the top of Serbian literature. The second Božidar’s son, Aleksandar, an agronomist, author of a series of scholarly articles, was a scientific advisor in the SANU.

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coincidence, he gets in touch with his brother Jovan. This respectable Serbian politician, writer, journalist and translator (he translated Tacit, Montaigne, Hugo, Mancini), lived in Belgrade. Božo accepts his brother’s invitation to come to Serbia where in March 1890 he takes over the command over the steamship “Deligrad” from captain Marko Đurić, who had been sailing the Danube for fifty years. Upon the proposal of the new commander, “Deligrad”, previously a tugboat, was restored into a passenger steamship.

No longer in state ownership, it becomes a part of the newly founded joint stock company “The First Royal Serbian Steamship Company”. Political and economic circles in Serbia realize that river shipping should be developed, and new steamships are being built and purchased.

Božidar Đaja stayed in Belgrade until 1911, and then he goes to Vienna with his second wife, Anna von Ziegle. He spoke Italian, French and English. He cooperated with the Trading Gazette (1906-1907) and Srđ (1908). He was decorated with Takovo Cross. The capital work of Božidar Đaja Our Sailors was preserved as a unit thanks to his granddaughter, Olga’s daughter, Mrs. Emira Živković. The first three volumes of the six-volume Our Sailors were published by the Endowment of Ilija M. Kolarac: Little (1903), Young Man (1904), Timunjer (1909).

The remaining three volumes – Nostromo, Captain and Old Age – remained in manuscript. Mrs. Emira, who took loving care of the legacy of her grandfather, tried to find a publisher, but there was no understanding. She took our advice and offered the original manuscript to the Archive of the SANU; the manuscript was purchased.

DESCRIPTION OF THE LIFE OF A SERB FROM THE SEA In 1935, the then director of Maritime College in Kotor, Miloš Lipovac, offered to the Association “Adriatic Guard” from Split to publish Đaja’s Our Sailors, but the offer was not accepted. Ignjatije Zloković in his work “A forgotten maritime fiction writer” (Yearbook of the Maritime Museum in Kotor, XX, 1972) assessed Đaja’s prose as precious and expressed the need that it should be published, but the six-volume has not appeared until the present day.

The first three volumes (originally poorly printed, with many errors) were edited for printing by the signatory of this article.

There is still hope that Đaja’s six-volume will find itself in front of the readers in a near future. Every volume of this six-volume is special and, at the same time, all together they form a unit. It is difficult to define it in terms of genre. It is literature with all elements of a novel, but also a kind of auto-biography and travel writing of a world traveler. In the short Preface, at the beginning of the first volume, Božidar Đaja says: “With a desire to enable a Serb on the land to peek into the life of a Serb who is a sailor, and to evaluate his brother sailor, I have decided to describe the life of our sailors, with which I am very familiar, having spent twenty four years on the salty water, and I hope that my full knowledge of the subject will complement for my weak quill is not able to garnish.”

For Đaja’s quill anything can be said except that it is weak. Not only individual pages, but entire chapters of Our Sailors have high, even anthological value. This prose is a huge live image that captures, in its many forms, not only the hard life of Serbian sailors filled with challenges, but also people and customs in big world harbors. The author is an incorruptible witness, he reveals in detail the cruelty of masters in the colonies of that time, emphasizing that a man should be a brother to his fellow man, and not the wolf.

On the other hand, Đaja’s writing does not lack humor and lyrical tones. The world is horrifying, but also wonderful, after all experiences, as if the writer tells us. On his table, everybody can find what suits them – from document to poetry.

He died in Hinterbrühl near Vienna, on October 3, 1914.  SRPSK A  No 6  2014

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More than a Night

THE INTERNATIONAL CELEBRATION OF MUSEUMS IN SRPSKA

By: Aleksandra Glišić

It is as clear as day that it is a soaring night.

And that it should be transferred to the entire year. The Museum of Srpska was full of children. They sailed through the “Folk Glossary” and researched “The Stone World of the Ice Age”. They were fairies and hayduks.

Some people of Banjaluka exhibited their most valuable private collections to their fellow citizens. Everything was accompanied by the noblest music. And Branko Ćopić, standing as a bronze guard in front of the national library, kept smiling

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ords should be measured, not counted. This proverb welcomes us at the entrance of the Museum of Srpska, where we find many children of Banjaluka curiously going through the Folk Glossary, sailing through the international “Museum Night” (held this year in June, because of the floods). Vladimir Đukanović, custodian and ethnologist from the national museum of Srpska, included in this book proverbs and short inscriptions about objects used in the life of people in the past, as a kind of a time machine.

While a group of boys is competing in who knows more words from this glossary, the rest of the troupe is walking to the sculpture of a Neanderthal, central figure of the exhibition Stone World of the Ice Age set by custodian and archeologist Ivana Pandžić. As if he had stepped out of a page of a history textbook, this hero and symbol of the past times draws the attention of all visitors. We are trying to make it through the cave, also part of this exhibition, but it is almost impossible due to a river of big and small visitors rushing towards the Neanderthal. The youngest ones suspiciously watch the bearded man and hide behind their older escort.

Nidžo the Curious from RTRS is guiding the children through the permanent exhi-

bition and they are all eager to see how Mr. Flintstone was living. Trapped on the way towards the cavemen family made of cardboard, illuminated by the light of the artificial, yet convincing fire, we are a also somehow included in the promotion of the Folk Glossary.

– If you are fairy Ravijojla, I am a hayduk – tells a proud boy to a girl of his age while going through the picturesque book.

Other children interestedly repeat words, which some of them heard for the first time, and wonder what these things were actually used for.

We finally reach the entrance to the cave, but we have to be very patient there as well.

The exhibition about the stone world of the ice age was created after long studies made by a team of local archeologists, together with their colleagues from the Cambridge University, in the area of north-western Srpska.

Workshop During the programs, young talented artists are creating new paintings. A small art colony was organized especially for this night, and all the works will be left as gifts to the Museum of Srpska. Students of the Banjaluka Academy of Fine Arts Painting Department are painting on the subject “Museum Night” in different techniques.

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Humaneness Nikola Zagorac, documentarist of the national museum and one of the organizers of this event, reminds that everyone can bring books, which will later be distributed to libraries that suffered from floods. In cooperation with the RS Special Library for Blind and Visually Impaired Persons, a tactile exhibition was opened, with inscriptions in Braille letters, so that these people could also participate in the programs.

NEW CULTURAL PATTERNS Melodies and reverberating voices of musicians from Banjaluka glide through the permanent exhibition. High school students are in charge of the music and dancing. Also performing are experienced artists, opera singer Maja Manojlović Dobrijević and pianist Arsen Čarkić.

Students of the Middle School of Music “Vlado Milošević” and Medical School are playing the piano, guitar, trumpet, accordion. The entire band of the Catholic School Center is also performing. Gymnasium students are holding video presentations.

Students of the Academy of Fine Arts and conceptual artists are performing in the third part of the program, closed by Albert Bojan Savić playing jazz. The audience listens carefully and rewards them with a big applause.

– This is our ninth time at this event in Republic of Srpska – says Goran Mutabdžija, minister of culture of Srpska, indicating the significance of the “Museum Night” – Mu Growing up seum of RS is an institution with which with culture: The we are building new cultural patterns and youngest citizens of Banjaluka in the needs, with the objective to make them recMuseum of Srpska ognized in European proportions.

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The director of this institution Nada Puvačić says that she is proud of the group of creative and able young people from the Museum, who did their best to realize all ideas for the “Museum Night”.

– This event must be cultivated. I felt really happy when a parent came up to me and said that his child was in the Museum ten days ago and wanted to come again – says Ms. Puvačić. – In ten years, those children will the audience with knowledge about real artistic values. When they go into the world, they will feel the need to see something really beautiful. In this way, we are creating their taste, feeling for aesthetics, waking up their creative potentials and bringing the best out of them.

COLLECTIONS AND CONNECTIONS Visitors are crowding, in order not to miss any part of the program. Some people of Banjaluka exhibited their private collections, corresponding with this year’s subject of the International Museum Day: Museum Collections Create Connections.

Cameras, old ethno-objects, wonderful ceramic figures, told the story about the history of this city without a single word.

Nina Stanarević and her father Marko, photography enthusiasts, exhibited part of their collection.

– Only a small part of our collection of 120 cameras is exhibited here. It’s important for us to be here, because this is a unique opportunity for us to exhibit – says Ms. Stanarević.

None of the participants and guests in this house of history left without sending a postcard from the “Museum Night”. The info-point of “Srpska Post” enabled sending postcards with motifs of the Museum of RS for free. We are patiently waiting in line, writing greetings to our friends, sending messages with a seal of art. That is when the first rays of sun penetrated into the hallway. It is as clear as day that this was a good night and that it shouldn’t be the only one. This is how it should be always or very often, not just for one day, one night.

We leave this particular history lesson and walk down a lit path. We soon come upon the monument to Branko Ćopić, the “bronze guard” in front of the national library. The sun is shining on the arms of the greatest and most joyful writer of Bosanska Krajina. He is smiling.

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S t a g e

THE SEVENTEENTH THEATER FEST “PETAR KOČIĆ” IN BANJALUKA AND ITS ECHOES

We Know Each Other from Somewhere, Man Six days and as many performances, five cities, a lot of people. The old cathartic power of theatre has been confirmed, just like the great love of the people of Banjaluka for it. Tears and laughter, joy and sorrow, violence and compassion, eternal drama of humanity under the sun. Theater enables us to observe our position through the eyes of others and prevents us from learning only from our mistakes. And that is not insignificant at all By: Vanja Vojinović

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very June, the temple of goddess Talia in Banjaluka is crowded with visitors. Months in advance, the audience asked about productions that will be performed in June at Theatre Festival “Petar Kočić” and tried to purchase tickets in time. The announcement that the event

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will be marked by 150th anniversary of the birth of Branislav Nušić, the greatest Serbian comediographer, additionally attracted the audience. And theatre makers from Belgrade, Kragujevac, Zagreb, and Zenica arrived in this city on the Vrbas.

A large number of young people, includ-

ing students from the Academy of Arts in Banjaluka, gave a touch of optimism to the entire event.

This year, the charm of the festival was also reflected in the fact that the curtain was raised by the drama classic Henrik Ibsen with his play A Doll’s House / Nora, with entire local cast, directed by Nebojša Bradić, who placed the story in the 21st century. Sandra Ljubojević starred in the lead role as Nora, and Nora’s husband Torvald was played by Boris Šavija. Other actors also attracted applause with their bravura, and especially children Ana Vrećo and Uroš Šatara. The story about the heroine as a contemporary woman trapped in a golden cage had a powerful impact. Handkerchiefs were taken out of the purses.

– I had special responsibility for this production, because I am on the stage all the time. With help from my colleagues who did a great job I managed to enjoy in this play, to enjoy Ibsen and my Nora – says Sandra Ljubojević.

The cast also includes Zlatan Vidović, Ljubiša Savanović, Snježana Štikić and Maja Kolundžija–Zoroe. Two children also appear on the stage, Andrija Purković and Zara Šurlan.

Production of the host, the National Theatre of Srpska, was not included in the competition program for ethical reasons, and the true competitive race started on the second evening, with the production of The Wizard of the National Theatre from Sombor. The selection included six productions, and actors of Knjaževac-Serbian Theatre from Kragujevac appeared in the honor of the laureates, performing Leading Ladies.

Mister Dollar of the National Theatre from Subotica, Birthday of Mr. Nušić of “Zvez-

Books The side program of the festival included promotion of the book “When the World Had Moustache” by Ana Radmilović, and new edition of theatre journal “Scena”. Also presented was monograph “Kralj” by Anita Panić, dedicated to the great bard of Serbian theatre, Petar Kralj, as well as the book “Kiš like Kiš” by Milenko Stojičić, a writer from Banjaluka.

dara Theatre”, Deaf Wedding of the Bosnian National Theatre from Zenica, Endured of Belgrade Drama Theatre, and Miracle in Poskokova Draga of the Satirical Theatre “Kerempuh” from Zagreb also competed for the awards. Individual ticket price was 20 marks, and a package of tickets was 100 marks. (The package did not include the production of Nora, because it was sold out before the premiere, but it included Leading Ladies by American playwright Ken Ludwig, directed by Milić Jovanović.)

The Wizard by Fedor Siliya, directed

by Boris Liješević, talks about the life and work of the great German writer Thomas Mann, starring Saša Torlaković in the leading role. Roles of Johan Wolfgang Goethe and Samuel Fisher were brought to life by actor Svetozar Cvetković. The cast also included Radoje Čupić, Tatjana Šanta– Torlaković and Marko Marković.

– The very fact that Thomas Mann defied the powerful Nazism makes us wonder about what our decisions are like in turning points in our lives – says Saša Torlaković.

 Both quantity and quality: Great interest of the audience

 Crowded auditorium of the National Theatre

During the break: Minister of Culture and director of the A theatrical cold shower was brought National Theatre to the audience by play Endured of the in the audience

TO BRANISLAV FOR HIS BIRTHDAY

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Reciprocity An extra ticket was sough for also for the production of “The Miracle in Poskokova Draga” by Satirical Theatre “Kerempuh” from Zagreb. The play by Ante Tomić was brought to life on stage by Krešimir Dolenčić.

– The audience was fantastic. We could not have wished for more than what we received today – actress Ana Maras who is strikingly acting in the role of waitress Lovorka from Split, is filled with excitement.

 Scenes from the production of “The Wizard” and “Endured”

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Belgrade Drama Theatre, directed by Boban Skerlić, who was also the playwright together with Milena Depolo. The audience on their feet greeted the cast who did their job with precision, and with fervor. The story about violence against women was based on authentic stories of the victims. The main material included transcripts from interviews with women from Serbia who killed their partners-abusers.

About fifty characters alternate on the state, interpreted by Milica Zarić, Slađana Vlajović, Nataša Marković, Milena Pavlović–Čučilović, Jadranka Selec, Danica Ristovski and Paulina Manov.

On the first night of the competition, the audience watched the production Deaf Wedding of the Bosnian National Theatre.

Director Lajla Kaikčija found the dramatic plot in the Romanian film Nunta muta

by Horaciu Malaele. Still, while working on the adaptation with Hasan Džafić, she changed the story so much that t hey ha to sign it as author’s work. The plot follows two families with different worldviews, who overcome differences and accepted

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the decision to become one, connected by the love between their children.

– We worked for two months on stage movement. Every performance is a new challenge, and all those who are working in theatre must have courage to face what the world brings – says actress Sabina Kulenović.

True craze for tickets occurred on the fifth and sixth evening for productions Mister Dollar and Birthday of Mr. Nušić.

Many returned from the box office with disappointment because they did not manage to buy a ticket for the production of the play by the famous comediographer and for the theatrical version of his private party. And those who managed were thrilled with the stage expression of Branislav Lečić in the role of Branislav Nušić.

Dragan Petrović Pele also conquered the audience with his acting charm, as well as his young colleagues Tamara Dragičević and Petar Benčina.

MANN AND OTHER WIZARDS The most excitement, of course, came on the last evening, when the winners were announced. The jury comprised of Selimir Radulović, Luka Kecman and Nemanja Ranković made all the decisions unanimously. (The selector was Željko Stjepanović.)

Production of The Wizard by Fedor Siliya, directed by Boris Liješevića, was proclaimed the best. “This play of the National Theatre from Sombor is characterized by exceptional harmony of collective play, su-

perb acting skills, clear and perfect director’s poetics that is in absolute harmony with the set design and costume design solutions”, explained the jury.

The “Kočić’s Book” award” for the best play went to Dušan Kovačević for Birthday of Mr. Nušić directed by Nebojša Bradić, in the production of “Zvezdara Theatre”.

“Dušan Kovačević is the most authentic successor of Nušić’s dramaturgy. With a special dramatic recording of his 60th birthday, he immortalized a writer who represents the European key of Serbian drama literature”, says the jury.

Boris Liješević was declared the best director at the festival. “By creating an empty space on the stage, stripping it naked to the bone, he opens up the stage for actors’ play from dream and reality, which he led with precise movements, thus bringing to life the magical world of Thomas Mann.”

Saša Torlaković for the role of Thomas Mann in The Wizard and Dragan Petrović for Spasoje in Birthday of Mr. Nušić equally shared the award for the best male role.

“With their acting, they justified the long spoken phrase about His Majesty the Actor, who was given this title because with his acting he is raising this vocation to

the divine heights, in the face of which  Award ceremony at this year’s one remains speechless.”

Theatre Fest The entire cast of the production of Endured by Milena Depolo and Boban Skerlić, produced by Belgrade Drama Theatre, received the award for the best female role.

All seven actresses, mentioned above, play the Woman. “With extraordinary acting instruments, primarily controlled expression in acting, the seven of them evoked an image of a complex woman ready to destroy everything that exists, top her own tragedy, only to preserve the typical attitude toward family, understanding of marriage and female role in it.”

Interestingly, the jury did not award the awards for set design, costume design and music. “We are especially pleased because we had a lot of trouble to, among excellent productions, discuss details and specificities that made them stand out for the award. With pure heart and fully convinced we acknowledge that this year’s repertoire of the festival was not behind the last year’s... In the world that leads us to believe that every one of us is guilty in front of everybody else, because of everybody and because of everything, it is quite comforting.“  SRPSK A  No 6  2014

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H o r i z o ns

SRPSK A  БРОЈ 6  2014

PREDRAG RISTIĆ, PhD, ARCHITECT, ONE OF THE GREATEST LIVING SERBIAN BUILDERS

Deep Is the Secret of Masonry He is 83 years old, but says it’s still early to speak about his peers from Belgrade. Masonry is based on a geometric sign, pre-literacy having the revelation of the creator within. Strong faith is necessary to see into the obvious. Mathematics prevents an edifice from collapsing. A church object is a form of prayer. A nation with a name and culture is related to heavens. Only cattle, whose circle is completed in a slaughterhouse instead of in Resurrection, can be satisfied only with being full-fed. Much work awaits us before we return to our Kosovo

By: Maja Radonić

H

e graduated from the Faculty of Architecture in his hometown of Belgrade (1956), gained his PhD degree in Graz (1980). Held lectures and exhibitions in Vienna, Rome, Paris, Toronto, Sidney… Was professor at the Serbian Orthodox Church Academy of Conservation. About a hundred churches in all Serbian lands and the diaspora were built or renovated according to his design. Many of them are new inevitable symbols, such as Gračanica of Herzegovina in Trebinje or Church of the Resurrection in Podgorica. We should also add numerous public institutions, fortresses, folk-architecture objects, cultural and historical wholes. Worked for films, TV, was member of “Mediala”. Winner of multiple medals and rewards, both in Serbia and abroad. Speaks English, German and Russian.

How much did your family origins shape and orient you in your life and creative work?

My orientation was probably determined before my birth, because I am the fourth generation of graduated architects in my family from my mother’s side. She was born in the Tabaković family in Arad,

present Romania. My father was an engineer, for central heating, so I often drew him plans for buildings’ installations. Finally, in that unfinished chain, I am inherited by my son Sava, and it seems that he is surpassing me. Now we most often work together, intensely. There are exceptions, of course, but, in order to be successful, these skills must be cherished for generations.

In your Belgrade generation, there were people who later became important artists and authors. Who do you remember most and how?

Although I am 83, it is still early to speak about my Belgrade generation.

Most of them died, so I feel a bit guilty for not being dead yet. Most people from that generation became artists, painters, ballerinas, engineers, lawyers, writers, but also several no-goods. That’s why it’s uncomfortable for me to speak about my generation. I rather speak about my idealized ancestors and especially idealized grandsons. I feel communion with them.

During your travels throughout the world, how did you remember your country and what did you miss most?

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 Predrag Ristić in front of the portrait of his mother, oil on canvas painted in her younger days

by Ivan Tabaković (1898–1977). Later a famous Serbian painter, Ristić’s uncle, used this portrait to apply to the Academy

Photo: Aleksandar Dragutinović and guest’s archive

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 In his studio and (on the monitor) in front of the new Temple of Ascension of Christ in Podgorica, which he designed

Perhaps it’s banal, but it’s true: I missed grilled meat, peppers, tomato, grapes and boza, the beverage of my childhood. In England it seemed that the grass is not as green as ours and the sky not as blue.

In Australia I was almost completely lost, because I couldn’t recognize a single star in the sky and the sun was rising upsidedown. Already as a boy, I used to make telescopes and knew all constellations.

Greatest Serbian Achievement – I used to make plans for restoring the monasteries of Holy Archangels in Prizren, Novo Brdo, Banjska, Hvosna... I made the designs, there were benefactors powerful enough to realize all this, but everything collapsed due to sick vanity and silent atheistic opposition.

Holy Archangels in Prizren, endowment of Emperor Dušan, are the greatest Serbian architectural achievement ever, one of the Serbian wonders. If we don’t restore it, Serbs will never know who they are. Although our greatest artistic, political, spiritual and architectural work was destroyed, there must be enough material traces of such a grandiose piece, an inscription of the Holy Secret in the underground foundations, material scattered in the surrounding. I had a complete solution for the recomposition of the Holy Archangels, but the endeavor was stopped. For now. The new church in Ub, however, was built in that spirit.

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KITSCH IS A SIN TOWARDS THE HOLY GHOST The secret of masonry is great, especially the one of builders of churches. How do you see it, since so many churches were built according to your design?

It is very difficult to explain. Still, the answer is very simple and short: it is a Holy Secret. It is a geometrical sign, a preliteracy including a rule. Someone is given to understand it even without instructions for reading it. He only needs strong faith to see into the obvious. I personally do not mind the dogma at all; on the contrary, it is the foundation of my free architectural creativity, a border between it and kitsch, which is an unforgivable sin towards the Holy Ghost. I use mathematics, so my constructions would not collapse. One doesn’t go without the other. When you have a dome on a square foundation, for example, you have four pendentives, creating the broken tomb of resurrected Christ.

For us, a church is part of the prayer.

Which one of your ecclesiastical architectural undertakings do you consider

most important in your “sacral geography of Serbian lands”?

They are all important for completing the mosaic. Only then we can get the picture of what we are. A human is a mortal being, but people, nations, that have their name and culture, are related to heavens.

The axiom built into a human with his birth, the one he simply knows, is more important to him than anything he learns in school. Therefore, I don’t think that Serbian pride, or when people say we are the heavenly nation, is for mocking or joking.

Only cattle, whose circle is completed in a slaughterhouse and not in the Resurrection or in heavens, can be satisfied only with being full-fed, day to day.

Among the churches you designed, as much as fourteen of them are enlisted as “desolated, damaged or plundered churches in the 1991-1995 war.” How does an architect feel when his edifice is torn down? Do the desolated churches live somewhere? Who are the destroyers of churches and alters?

My churches are not only mine. They are ours, risen from the dust of those ancient ancestors whose particles of genes we carry.

I always explain: I’m not building anything  The Gračanica new, I’m only trying to heal wounds and fill of Herzegovina, holes of our unfortunate history, which gave on Crkvina in us more destructions than average in other Trebinje, one of numerous nations. So that we could present ourselves at the Final Judgment, equally with other na- temples designed tions, with our deeds, regardless of whether by Predrag Ristić they are destroyed at the moment or restored for the nth time. The church in Slavonski Brod, for example, was destroyed twice, in 1941 and 1992. I also draw your attention to our design of the Church of Sepulchre in the crater of the mined church in Prebilovci, Herzegovina. Minimized, it has all features of the sanctities in Jerusalem, Serbian Yad Vashem. The construction will finally begin, not for retaliation, but so that the innocent victims of the greatest and most ruthless crime in the First and Second World War, as well as in the third, local one, could wait for the general Resurrection with dignity.

MISUNDERSTOOD GEOMETRY OF LEPENSKI VIR You gained your PhD degree at the University of Graz in 1980, with the thesis “Reconstruction of the Prehistoric ArchitecSRPSK A  No 6  2014

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Until We Return – Since our capital endowments in Kosovo will be inaccessible for an indefinite period of time or are already completely destroyed, my idea is to build churches in our lands in the same spirit. Not copies, replicas. To constantly preserve the memory in the people – until, whenever it may be, we return to Kosovo and renew our endowments in situ. Thus, the replica of the destroyed church in Mušutište is now built in Gornji Dobrić near Loznica. Also, Gračanica of Herzegovina, on Crkvina in Trebinje, is designed in the same spirit as the original Gračanica in Kosovo, undestroyed, thank God. At first glance, some think it’s a real copy, but obviously it isn’t. The 250 years old music of Bach is still played today, even better than at the time of Bach. What would remain in the living world culture heritage if this was not done? So, may the echo of the Kosovo and Metohija bells ring in all our lands and within each of us!

 Serbian Yad Vashem: Model of the Church of Christ’s Tomb in Prebilovci, in Herzegovina, the place of one of the most horrific Croatian crimes in World War Two. The construction of this church began in 2010, in the crater of the former one, bombed in the 1990’s.

 Builder in the temple: Are those tears in the eyes of the old master?

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ture of Lepenski Vir”. Is there sufficient awareness of the importance of Lepenski Vir and Vinča in Serbian culture today?

Unfortunately, undergraduate students were appointed drawers (as well as secret police controllers) during the archeological excavations in Lepenski Vir. They misdirected the explorations of Dr Srejović, who was also weak in mathematics. That catastrophic geometrical setting reduced the genuine importance of this archeological finding for world cultural heritage and led to great material damage and postponement. Unfortunately, they didn’t recognize even simple high school geometry, so they concluded that the shape is a trapeze and not a circular segment. They performed almost all excavations based on that wrong evaluation. They thus massacred scientific material, destroying the subjects of geometric proportions. The settlement was on a ridge, and it was moved to a cove. The moved originals were undermined and slowly glided, so technically it was impossible to build any kind of solid museum. Even the later buildings were not a triumph. Professor Deroko stated that the moving of Lepenski Vir was the greatest scientific catastrophe of the XX century. That is why the Lepenski Vir culture was outside of international streams for 40 years and could not be enlisted as world heritage. After my exhibition of reconstructed housestents of Lepenski Vir and published book (which magically disappeared from all libraries), I received insulting comments from Dr Srejović and had to find my forSRPSK A  БРОЈ 6  2014

tune abroad. So, at the University of Graz, where I was guest professor, I defended my thesis with the highest grade, again using my basic geometry knowledge. My final thesis, not only about architecture, but also about the religion and Holy Secret of Lepenski Vir, must wait just a little while. Three probation booklets have already been published.

One of your unrealized projects is the development of the Sava and the Danube banks. What is your relation to the Belgrade rivers?

After father’s house had been confiscated and as soon as the corpses from Jasenovac passed down the rivers, I took off into the uncontrolled wild nature of our rivers. To have at least some freedom. I built a tree house in Ada. I was a sportsman, so this small house of mine was the only locker room of “Red Star”, prestigious swimming club. Driving a boat on flooded Ada was the most beautiful daydream. The tree house was always full of young people, but, the devil never sleeps, it wasn’t controlled by communists. The authorities ordered tearing down the house, because “the behavior and appearance of the young people gathering in it do not correspond with the image of Tito’s youth”. Then I came down from the tree to a riverboat and, legally, moved to another location.

I began my new battle for a place under the sun. I founded the Society of the Sava and the Danube Lovers with Pera Vučetić, which still exists.

In 1982, on behalf of the Society, I defended my elaborate on developing the banks of the Sava and Danube in the Institute of Urbanism. Among other things, I also advocated houses on water and pile dwellings, banks fortified with willows. The then director of the Institute decided that I was fighting for “dilapidating Serbian bourgeoisie” and that “those ugly houses should be removed from the city”. Now the lovers of the Sava and the Danube from our Society are taking care of the Ada Međica Island, and anyone coming to Belgrade never misses to visit one of the hundreds of its river boats. The former Institute of Urbanism director is now teaches at one of the privately owned universities. 

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SLAĐANA UJIĆ, FROM GUČEVO NEAR ROGATICA, THE WINNER OF PRESTIGIOUS INTERNATIONAL AWARD FOR FEMALE CREATIVITY

Woman as the Pillar for recovery of Villages She knew that nobody else would take up both her job and the jobs of those around her.

And that a village cannot be driven and defended with convenient phrases. She has founded Women’s Association “Snop” and through it she has successfully realized about fifteen major projects.

They have restored thee school and water supply system, purchased greenhouses, furnished the weaving workshop, ensured income for many women and their families, participate in the preparation of the Strategy of development of villages of Srpska,... And if it was not seen from up close, this bright string was visible from a great distance

By: Sandra Josović

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omen’s World Summit Foundation has been awarding since 1994 the international “Award for Women’s Creativity in Rural Life”. In the past 19 years, more than 300 awards were awarded to women and women’s organizations around the world who have moved things from ground zero in their rural environments and worked hard to secure that women in villages have access to education, economic development, owing land and participating in decision making process, courageously braking deeply set stereotypes about the role and place of a woman in the village.

Slađana Ujić from the village of Gučevo, near Rogatica, is the first recipient of this prestigious award from Bosnia and Herzegovina.

President of the Women’s Association “Snop” from Rogatica and the Minister for Rural Development in Alternative government of B&H, with her personal example, energy and achievements has proven that things can be changed with one’s will and strength.

Since 2005, when she founded Women’s Association “Snop”, together with other members she has successfully implemented about fifteen major projects. Thus, among others, she has enabled adaptation of the village school and water supply system, purchasing of 14 greenhouses and securing income for women and members of their households,

purchasing of three weaving machines and startup of the weaving workshop. Among numerous achievements of “Snop” we can single out the participation in the preparation of the Strategy of Rural development of Republika Srpska, Strategy of Rural development of LAG area “Devetak” as well as contribution in the work of network “Progress” (Association of Women from Villages).

Bringing back life to the village, and economic, cultural, educational, social and political empowerment of women who live in villages, are her mission. She has been successfully overcoming the obstacles on this road, but she says that it can always be better.

AGAINST POVERTY IN THE VILLAGE – This award has arrived for the first time Photo: in B&H, and I have the reason to be happy. I Marija Vuletić

There is Perspective Although life in the village is not easy, Slađana does not think that there is no perspective for a young man. She emphasizes that a lot of will is needed on all levels where the course of a society is being created and determined.

– My husband and I enrolled one of our daughters in the Faculty of Agriculture. We want to educate her not so that she would not have to work, but so that she learns how to work. We focus the future of our child to the village and life in it.

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E x amp l e s am not happy only because of personal recognition, but because it was given for the concept I have been pushing for all these years. It is the concept of emphasizing the role and significance f of women in the development of village communities. I also advocated that more attention is given to rural issues in our society, continuously talking about small family estates and their special but neglected role – says Slađana Ujić.

Very often, she says, it is up to the community whether they could do better, it depends on to what extent it really wants to invoke the best in us.

– Members of my organization are motivated, women believe in what we do. Standing in front of them, all this time I have had strength and wind blowing into my wings. The recognition that was given to me is the recognition to all of them, all I did was representing them – says Ujić.

Women’s Association “Snop” (Bundle) with its very name reminds us of that moral story about how unbreakable we are when we are together, as well as of a bundle of wheat, bread. This name is also acronym of strength, hope, optimism, progress. It is exactly with hope, strength and optimism that the members of the Association are leading in the struggle against numerous problems.

– The problem of all problems is poverty. Rural poverty. What is included in this phenomenon? It is what many organizations involved in issues of women are addressing: from violence, economic dependence to social exclusion of women. All this is much more pronounced in villages – explains Ujić.

She also emphasizes that the stereotype about the place and role of woman is extremely pronounced in rural communities. But she does not see disadvantages of life in the village against the one in the city: – Village is the source of our tradition, culture and identity. Family, as the only non-desecrated institution and thee sanctity of every nation, is the most fiercely defended and preserved in the village. And I see myself in that village as someone whose task is to be there and live the life with everything it brings and takes away. That is why I don’t want to say that there is a disadvantage of living in the village. Everything I do is directed at improving these conditions, so that people would live there because that is what they love

The Old Can Learn from the Young Women’s Association “Snop” has more than 20 active members. They are not only from Gučevo, where the seat of the organization is located, but also from other villages and from the city. The youngest member is 23 years old, and the oldest 65. Slađana Ujić is especially proud of the girls who support activities of the Association. In many areas, she says, older people could feel inferior before their position and defense of the traditional values of the village.

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and not because they have to. All of us, individually, must find solutions for what was presented to us as a problem in life. Nobody will do this for us.

FOR FAMILY VALUES Born in Rogatica, Slađana spent her childhood in Borike, “a beautiful village 18 kilometers away from the city”. The main guiding principles in her life are the values she brought from the family into which she was born.

– The intuition that leads is through life and is rarely wrong has its spark in childhood and first learning. My first joys are connected to the village.

Due to marginalizing rural areas by the social community, a lot has changed.

Therefore, she has dedicated a big part of her life to raising awareness of the significance of rural communities. She interrupted her education because of getting married. Although in that period that was the only correct decision, it still had negative consequences as well. When she realized that they also affect her children, she has decided that she had to eliminate them herself.

– I decided to work a lot on myself and not to let the time to run me over. I have realized that nobody will and cannot solve my problems, but in order for me to know how to solve them myself, I had to learn a lot and educate myself informally in different ways – says Ujić.

On this journey, her family was her greatest support.

– I am proud of my family. Of my daughters whop grew up to be the people I wanted them to be.

Of my husband who is my support in everything.

Of my father in law who understands and supports me. Of the fact that we are a family for better or for worse. Because we believe in the same values and because we firmly carry the burden of local life.

For them, the award recently handed to her was not a surprise: – Only they know what my journey was like, how many sleepless nights, lack of understanding, lack of support in places where it should not have been withdrawn. Aware of the extent in which this award was well deserved, they are also, together with me, disappointed because with everything that led me to this award I did not deserve support of the community when it comes to my personal livelihood – says Ujić.

Because of her decision to fight for positive changes in the society, the family has suffered and still suffers a lot, but there is no lack of support.

Slađana’s mission continues, and she compares her work with that of a steam engine: – Steam engine is only driven when the steammeter shows that the water is heated to 100 percent.

It is not possible to do this with lukewarm water. The same is in this line of work.  SRPSK A  No 6  2014

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O f f e r

AS OF THIS SPRING, “MERKUR” HAS SIGNIFICANTLY EXPANDED ITS OFFER

For

Awakening of Health

Numerous possibilities and services offered by this renowned institution are now available to all guests and residents of Vrnjačka Banja, regardless of whether they are accommodated in one of “Merkur’s” facilities. The procedures are so simple that they are practically non-existent. By doing this, “Merkur” belongs even more to Vrnjačka Banja, and Vrnjačka Banja is even more recognizable for “Merkur” By: Ljiljana Rebronja

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ll spa centers in Serbia, including Vrnjačka Banja, have become to grow from water, nurturing and medicinal, water from the very heart of the earth, and t envelop around special hospitals, which are SRPSK A  БРОЈ 6  2014

the recognizable centre of their offers. In this way, the entire Vrnjačka Banja has grown around “Merkur”, its special hospital, one of the strongest and most recognizable pillars of local tourist infrastructure.

Because “Merkur” is not only a modern, well equipped and internationally recognized health centre, in which doctors and natural medicinal factors work in unison, achieving excellent results in diagnostics and treatment of illnesses of the digestive system, skeletal-joint system, as well as in prevention and treatment of diabetes. Actually, “Merkur” is also an excellent place for all those who are searching for relaxation, complete relaxation and revitalization, as well as for preventive physical activities. The place in which the health is being awakened, in many miraculous ways. Wellness Center “Fons Romanus”, Aqua Center “Waterfall” and Peloid Center “Limus Romanus” will reveal, quite certainly, in everybody who give themselves to them, a new hedonist, finally awakened from a long sleep. Exactly in “Merkur”, the spa resort guests feel over and over again that coming to Banja does not only mean taking a walk down the promenade and beautiful Ban-

ja parks, attend ceremonies and cultural summer, but primarily means coming to get health that comes directly from nature.

Medical services The following medical services are available in “Merkur” to all guests of Vrnjačka Banja: Examinations by specialists and sub-specialists (endocrinologists, gastroenterologists, cardiologists, nutrition specialists, physiatrists, neuropsychiatrists, gynecologists, ophthalmologists, urologists, internists, specialists in occupational medicine and sports medicine, diabetologists and general practitioners).

All laboratory analyses. Highly specialize examinations and diagnostics – EKG, ultrasound diagnostics, endoscopy diagnostics (gastroscopy and colonoscopy), testing of hormones, EMNG examinations, computerized ergometry, color Doppler and measuring bone density on the device for osteodensitometry. Physical therapies (ultrasound therapy, electrotherapy, diadynamic currents, interference current, magnetic therapy, hydro therapy, paraffin therapy, kinesitherapy, laser, peloid therapy). Balneo therapies (drinking, bathing, inhaling, dewing and enemas with thermal-mineral water).

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O f f e r

A REAL LITTLE REVOLUTION “Merkur” is comprised of an interesting mosaic of different inspirational possibilities. It is also an attractive hotel, with rich restaurant offer, and a congress centre, wellness, spa, fitness... Everything in “Merkur” is adapted to those who come to Vrnjačka Banja driven by the need to find cure, or desire to restore energy and smile, and maybe even to fall in love! And this does not only apply to those who stay in “Merkur”, so already on this basis have many benefits. As a socially responsible institution, “Merkur” this spring opens its doors also to all guests of Vrnjačka Banja.

And this is a true little revolution in this spa centre. The step because of which Merkur” will belong even more to Vrnjačka Banja, and Vrnjačka Banja will be even more recognizable for “Merkur”.

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All Services All guests of Vrnjačka Banja, regardless of whether they are placed in “Merkur” facilities or not, will now have the following available in this special hospital: medical services, services of Wellness Centre “Fons Romanus”, Aqua Centre “Waterfall” and Peloid Centre “Limus Romanus”, Balneo Centre “Fons Medicus”. The procedures are so simple that they are practically non-existent.

From now on, even those who are not staying in “Merkur” facilities will be able to use all services of this institution, including medical services, at commercial prices, as well as a little more favorable through “Merkur’s” partners (facilities with which Merkur has cooperation), by following a very simple procedure: direct payment at the cashier desk.

As it has been developed and expanded for years, invested, enriched its services, acquired modern equipment for diagnostics and treatment, in parallel with investments in people and their professional knowledge – “Merkur” also has a big and well defined offer for the market.

Finally, it is not in papers, but maybe it is much more important: those who search for a partner in “Merkur” in their struggle for health and better quality of life will acquire, above all, something unexpected. A friend forever! 

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са Вама

C e l e b r a t i o ns

“BARBECUE FESTIVAL” AND CARNIVAL REMAIN THE MAIN BRANDS OF LESKOVAC TOURISM

Spiced up with the real South The skill is transferred from one generation to the other. The meat must be of best quality, and it is grilled on coal. Ćevapčići must jump on the grill, hamburger must be juicy like ripe apricot, and pork steak must be white and soft like cotton. The rest you will discover yourself. Every year, more than 500,000 people come to Roštiljijada - the Barbecue Festival. And Carnival is a game, a large annual ritual, colorful and ambiguous. Masks are afterwards worn only as a souvenir and memory

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eskovac. Grad of trade and village fairs, the city with the most trades, city of culinary specialties, textile, a fair city, city of cosmetics, until World War Two one of the biggest in Serbia.

Along with its other old symbols, it is today also recognizable for “Roštiljijada” and Carnival.

Tradition of Leskovac barbecue is more than two centuries old. Already in

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the 18th century the travel writers mention ćevapčići as exceptional delicacies they had tasted in Leskovac. The best were those prepared by butcher and restaurant owner Dimitrije Mita Gligorijević, grandfather of the king of Leskovac barbecue Miodrag Gligorijević Bure. Delicacies of Dragi Bure inspired awe and respect around the world, on numerous international culinary exhibitions: in Munich, Frankfurt,

Vienna, Stresa, on world exhibitions in Brussels and Montreal. Bure’s specialties were tasted by many celebrities, statesmen, diplomats, including British queen, Brezhnev, Carter, Nixon... He learned the trade in his family-run ćevapčići shop called “Bure”, which was always full, and served only ćevapčići, kebab and sausages.

Drinks were not served, but were brought over from other taverns. At that time, the city was known for teferič, night life in 105 taverns, hotels, gardens and wine cellars.

During the allies’ bombing, at King’s birthday in 1944, in addition to Bure’s ćevapčići shop, most taverns and all hotels were also destroyed.

The secret of Leskovac barbecue is preserved and transferred from one generation to the other. Two well known elements are the selection of the best quality meat and grilling on coal. Ćevapčići must jump on the grill, hamburger must be juicy like ripe apricot, and pork steak must be white and soft like cotton.

From 1965 to 1969, the famous Leskovac barbecue school existed (it was restored again later). From this school, and from the long tradition of Leskovac hospitality industry, and based on the idea of Drago Bure, the “Roštiljijada” of Leskovac was born. The first one took place in 1965, but it was canceled only two years later. It was brought back to life again in 1989. In the first ten years after restoration,

the dates of this festival were frequently changed. Because of weather conditions, from mid-October they were moved closer to the summer, and the jubilee, twenty fifth festival this year will begin on August 25. All contemporary “Roštiljijada” festivals have been organized in the area of the main Bulevar oslobođenja Street, the popular Big Street, with participation of 20 to 30 caterers with 40 stands and gardens. The basis of the offer, of course, includes barbecue specialties: ćevapčići, hamburgers, sausages, pork steaks... In the past years, with the arrival of participants from other areas in Serbia, specialties that are not characteristic for South Serbia also appeared.

There are also traditional competitions of students of hospitality schools of Serbia and masters in preparing barbecue specialties. “Roštiljijada” is accompanied

The Biggest in the World The “Roštiljijada” of Leskovac, its competitions and side programs, are visited every year by over half a million local and foreign guests. The greatest interest is for competition in preparing the biggest hamburger in the world. They break record almost every year. the last official record is from 2013, when they made a hamburger of 55 kilograms of barbecue meat, 147 centimeters in diameter and two centimeters thick. At the competition from the biggest “hand made hamburger” in 2013, they made a record breaking example of three kilograms of meat, 37 centimeters in diameter.

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Novica From 2000, this competition has been organized under the name “Memorial of Novica Stanković Šaponja”, after the master of barbecue who broke his own record as often as six times, and three times in the row was the winner of the competition for the making of “hand made hamburger”. The last time Novica made the biggest hamburger was in early 1999 in Moscow. He was killed during the bombing of Serbia by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in 1999, in Kosovo.

by numerous cultural and entertainment programs, seminars, counseling, exhibitions, fairs... Unavoidable are concerts of brass musicians, who are also a brand of Leskovac and South Serbia.

TEARS AND LAUGHTER OF CARNIVAL MASKS Between two world wars, people in Leskovac had intensive social life. Dance evenings and tea parties, evening parties, great annual balls, costume balls and carnivals.

Rich and idle people from Leskovac, primarily members of the Sokol society “Momčilo”, organize Carnival in 1929. The Leskovac Gazette from that time says: “The entire city was on its feet to see colorful costumes and masked faces... The procession moves in accordance with the defined program through almost all streets of Leskovac.”

And so on until 1939. In the week between the Meat and White carnivals , before the Easter lent, members of society “Tradicija” organized a carnival. A chronicle says that these events would end with

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a “wedding celebrations on the city streets”.

In that time, Leskovac was one of a few cities in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia in which carnivals were being organized. But years and ideologies came that would put these romantic times in oblivion.

In 2001, the first majorette group in Serbia was created in Leskovac, with the idea to serve as the beginning of restoration of the Leskovac carnival. The carnival was restored in 2006. For three years it was called “Roštiljijada” Carnival and was organized as a side activity of the barbecue festival.

Since 2009, It has been called se Leskovac Carnival, and then this city became a member of the Federation of European Carnival Cities. The Leskovac Carnival combines ethnic and contemporary carnival trends.

It is the longest one in Serbia, and by the number of direct carnival events it is the largest in the region.

Ninth Leskovac Carnival will be organized from, July 7 to 12, 2014. During six carnival evenings, there will be as many as sixteen carnival events and about thirty side programs (concerts, performances for children and adults, art workshops and exhibitions, international workshops for the creation of carnival masks, fashion shows...).

The central event – International Carnival Procession, with fireworks and carnival ball – still takes place on Saturdays. Over 1,500 people participate, in about fifty carnival groups, more than a half are from abroad. The carnival days are followed by more than 70,000 observers, with numerous dignitaries, businessmen, diplomats... 

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C o nn e c t i o ns

“M:TEL” – A ROLE MODEL FOR CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY AND SOLIDARITY

Humaneness Is Courage After the May floods, the large scale natural disaster, with a series of humanitarian actions this company has again showed that it is firmly novo standing next to its social community, all users and employees. In “M:tel”, words Friendship and Humaneness are written with capital letters

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M

ay of this year will remain inscribed in our memory for horrific floods that hit our country and countries in the region. When the majority of B&H was hit by this natural disaster of enormous scale, company “M:tel” directed all its efforts at maintaining the functioning of its capacities, because communication in the areas affected by floods became a crucially important issue. The company employees invested huge efforts to ensure that the system is functioning, despite the fact that many capacities were damaged and flooded.

For many of them, personal property was endangered in the floods, some of them remained without their homes, but they saw maintenance of communications as their primary task.

At the same time, company “M:tel” was involved from the every beginning in helping the endangered people and became an important link in humanitarian actions across the country.

The sme day when the state of emergency was proclaimed in several cities and inhabited places in B&H, “M:tel” activated short humanitarian number 1458.

With a single call to this number, the users of mobile and fixed network of this company can donate 1 KM for people affected by the flood. Already on the first day there were more than a hundred thousand calls.

The humanitarian number will be active in the upcoming period as well, and all income will be donated for helping the victims.

Also, employees at the Call Centre of company “M:tel” received calls from the flooded areas for days, helping people in trouble. They notified the Civil Protection on where it was necessary to save a person from the flood, brought families together, and provided the most necessary information at the given moment.

– In the first days of the flood, our operators had three times as many calls but, unfortunately, not the typical ones, when a user is requesting a particular service, telephone number or other information. They were quick intermediaries between the affected people and rescue services. At any moment they were ready to do anything in order to establish communication between family members, collected information on missing persons and submitted it to the right address – says Vinka Lončar,

Help for Colleagues Too “M:tel” is currently leading a major campaign called “Let’s Be Humane – Let’s Help Our Colleagues”, because a large number of employees in the company was also hit by the floods. Friendship, humaneness and solidarity have always been nurtured in this team. In the upcoming months, the employees will donate funds from heir personal income and help their colleagues to remedy the damages and to return to their homes and continue with their lives as soon as possible.

controller at the Call Center of company “M:tel”. She adds that she was proud of her colleagues, the operators who, in difficult moments, showed how we should be humane and self-sacrificing. In only three days, this centre received more than 114,000 calls.

THEY THINK ABOUT US Since the social networks were the fastest way of communication and spreading the news during the natural disasters, “M:tel” provided for its users the free of charge use of these networks through mobile internet, in the territory of the entire B&H, with a goal to connect people in affected areas and spreading information about the aid.

With the first in the series of humanitarian actions, with emergency donation of 100,000 KM for victims of the flood, and purchase of mattresses, pillows, blankets and linen for endangered families in the amount of 50,000 KM, “M:tel” got actively involved in helping the most affected victims.

Additionally, it enabled free calls to tele By means of phone numbers of the Institute for Public humanitarian Health of Srpska in Banjaluka, through number 1458, to which the people from the flooded arhelp the victims of eas could learn everything abut the procedure of disinfection, Disinsection and the flood, substantial sums have been Deratization, and get professional advice collected and epidemiological assistance. All users have been provided with free of charge calls to all emergency services, as well as to numbers for the searching of missing persons and for information about the floods. Additionally, free of charge SOS number 051 / 303303 was activated for all citizens affected by the floods in Republika Srpska who needed psychosocial assistance and support.

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C o nn e c t i o ns

 In emergency situations too, serving the citizens day and night: Call Centre of company “M:tel”

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For the most endangered businessmen and their business group a sufficient number of mobile phones were provided for a symbolical price of 1 KM, in order to maintain communication in these difficult circumstances as well.

As of June 10, 2014, business users of “M:tel” can use the internet access service (Officenet), under favorable terms and conditions, as well as the package of services of fixed telephony and internet access (Officeline plus). For all areas in which the fixed network is interrupted, “M:tel” enabled these services through mobile network, and provided all necessary equipment free of charge and without contractual obligations.

Users of “M:tel’s” fixed telephony, Open package or internet in the area of Doboj, Bijeljina, Brčko, Šamac, Zvornik, Banjaluka, Prijedor, Tuzla and Zenica canton, may submit an application for tempo-

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rary suspension of service. This will be approved to them for a period of three months, free of charge, i.e. without payment of subscription. After expiry of the period of temporary suspension, the service will be automatically activated. If the technical conditions are not fulfilled after the period of three months, temporary suspension of service will be approved for additional three months, upon request of the users.

Many employees in “M:tel” immediately after the disaster got to work, helping in the cleaning of flooded houses, donating the most necessary food items for the victims. The section of voluntary blood donors in this company created the plan of their help to hospitals.

Solidarity is what makes this company look like a big family, which is always guided by positive values, in both life and work. 

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