Serbia's 'Eastern Gate'

The Negotinska Krajina region is situated in the easternmost part of Serbia. Its territory corresponds to that of the Municipality of Negotin. It is surrounded by Mts. Miroč, Deli Jovan and Crni Vrh, on the one side, and on the other, by the Danube and Timok Rivers.

Text & photo by Stanko Kostić

The Negotinska Krajina region’s geographical position accounts for its rather specific climate - very warm summers and rather harsh winters – which affords orchard growing, and especially winegrowing for which this region is famous far and wide. In this context, three villages stand apart -Rajac, Smedovac and Rogljevo -all of which have a long history in viticulture. Ancient, stone cellars in which wine is made and stored can still be found in and around these villages. Such cellars are locally known here as pimnice – wine houses. The specific spatial layout and construction solutions of these structures testify to the ingenious spirit of folk architecture. Also, visitors may sample and purchase wines at them. The city of Negotin is the region’s economic, spiritual and cultural center and has earned the name of Serbia’s ‘eastern gate’, connecting it with Bulgaria and Romania by land and Danube.

In terms of economy and culture, the city flourished in the 19^th century as at the time it had a main school, a middle school, a girls’ school (one of the first in Serbia), a reading room, a choir, the Church of Holy Trinity, the core around which the city developed and which, together with the old church from 1803, forms a protected cultural and historical whole.

Negotin’s rich history, cultural heritage, interesting and colorful environment have all played a hand in the development of all branches of tourist industry in this region. Places to tour are the Krajina Museum, comprising the Archaeological Museum, the Stevan Mokranjac House and the Hajduk Veljko Museum, which is currently in the 19^th century house of Knez Todorče and is the oldest preserved town house in the city of Negotin. The prominent figures that have made the Negotinska Krajina  region and the city of Negotin famous include Hajduk Veljko Petrović (hajduk meaning freedom fighter) and composer Stevan Mokranjac. A music festival called Mokranjčevi Dani is held in Negotin each year to memorialize the latter.

Also to be found in the city’s surroundings are the following: the Monastery of Bukovo (King Milutin’s endowment) and the Monastery of Vratna. The two are the jewels of Serbian medieval architecture. To this should be added also the late antiquity site called Šarkamen, which is dated to the 3^rd century AD.

Natural beauties to be visited and enjoyed include the fascinating Vratnjanske Kapije with a hunting reserve abounding in fallow deer, mouflon and wild boar as well as Mokranjske Stene and the Rajska Pećina cave.

A waterfall on the Mokranjske Stene is a favorite outing destination of Negotin residents. It is on the Sikolska River, some 5-6 kilometers south of Negotin, in the area of the village called Mokranje. The waterfall is about ten meters tall and the pool has formed at its foot through erosion that bathers use in the summer.

The Vrelo Šarkamen (the spring of Šarkamen) is 25 kilometers west of Negotin. Near the spring of the Šarkamenska River is the late antiquity site of the same name Vrelo Šarkamen. It has been dated to the late 3^rd and early 4^th century AD, during the reign of the Emperors Galerius and Maximinus Daia. The residential and memorial complex with the imperial palace covers an area of twenty-five hectares. In one of the still standing facilities -the Mausoleum of the Queen Mother -a gold imperial jewelry set was discovered in 1996. The jewelry is currently kept at the National Museum in Belgrade.

The Vratna River, which flows into the Danube, has created in its basin a valley dotted with gorges and canyon-like sections  with natural arched rock bridges straddling the river. There are three of them, and they are called Vratnjanske Kapije. They are a must for all tourists arriving in the area.

The Rajska Pećina cave is also known as the natural stone bridge of the Zamna River. The cave is in the Zamna River valley and for its entire length is in fact a grandiose underground tunnel through which the river of the same name flows. This is eastern Serbia’s unique form of underground karst morphology - a specific early stages of a tunnel cave transforming into a natural stone bridge. This makes it a site of great significance.

The tradition of winegrowing, making ample use of the favorable climate, dates back to the Roman times. Winegrowing flourished here in the mid- and late - 19^th century, when, owing to disease and dying out of vineyards across Europe, especially France, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Germany and Russia imported wine from this region alone. Winegrowing, making and storing wine is accompanied by special technology, application of certain tools and other specific paraphernalia. Wine production requires a certain type of facility for maturing and storing. Such special-purpose facilities are called here pimnice - cellars, dug into the ground with stone walls and wooden beams, covered with ćeramida (a type of semicircular grooved roof tile) that ensure ideal conditions  – stable air temperature and humidity. This unique architectural complex and spatial layout of wine cellars is clustered around a central square with a water fountain in the middle from which narrow, winding little alleys that spread out and connect the cellars with the central square. Nearly every village here had one of these complexes. The only surviving and still operational ones are the pimnice in the villages of Rajac, Rogljevo and Smedovac.

Whether you may be an explorer, archeologist, ethnologist, architect, historian, naturalist, hunter, fisherman, mountaineer, gourmand and wine lover or merely a tourist but have a burning desire to learn about the culture of eastern Serbia on the spot  – do not hesitate, come to Negotin and to Negotinska Krajina region and you won’t regret it!

You can take any one of the following routes to reach Negotin from Belgrade: follow the main road along the Danube River via the cities of Smederevo, Veliko Gradište, Golubac and Kladovo; take the road across the town of Žagubica, Mt. Crni Vrh, Borsko Jezero lake, Brestovačka Banja spa and the city of Bor or hit the highway to the city of Paraćin, then towards Gamzigradska Banja spa and the city of Zaječar.