Western Serbia

Western Serbia’s landscape is one of many different shapes and colours. Starting with the fertile plain Mačva, over the low Cer Mountain, up to the first mountains of Povlen and Maljen from where the land rises to the higher peaks of the Tara, Zlatibor and Zlatar mountains. In contrast to this geographical diversity, the people of this region are nearly all the sons and daughters of settlers that came centuries before from the west - from Bosnia, Herzegovina or Montenegro. The winding river Drina and narrow valleys could not stop the traditional migration pathways from the heart of the Dinaric Alps towards its edges and flatlands, and so the cattle-breeding population constantly spread to the more fertile areas. The Ijekavian dialect used here has been influenced and transformed over the decades by the literary Ekavian dialect. The heroic tradition of battling against the Turks continued into the 20th century with fierce fighting against the Austro-Hungarians and then the Germans. These parts sacrificed much for freedom in both the World Wars, reminders of which can be frequently seen throughout the Cer and Suvobor mountains where monuments and tombs are scattered over the landscape marking the Serbian victories in 1914 and 1915. Moving south one comes across monuments to the uprisings against the German invaders. The city of Užice is known as the centre of the territory called “Užička Republika” (Republic of Užice) freed in the autumn of 1941. This included nearly the entire region of Western Serbia and was much celebrated in postwar communistic ideology. In the last decade, the royalist call for an uprising in May 1941 is regularly celebrated on Ravna Gora Mountain.

Yet some good has come out of all these horrific wars. The tradition of military bands from 19th and 20th century wars created trumpet orchestras that played folk songs on trumpets on ceasefire days Today, the small town of Guča is called the “trumpet capital of the world”. Every year in early August, famous trumpet players gather here at a festival that attracts tens of thousands of visitors. Tradition playing of gusle, the Serb national string instrument, is well worth experiencing for its archaic sounding melodies that date back to the Middle Ages when they accompanied epic poetry reciting. Of musical interest too are the groups of elderly men singing in the traditional style.

The daily lives and gruff spirit of Western Serbia is unimaginable without mentioning local brandy rakija, primarily šljivovica, plum brandy that accompanies a Serbian from morning till night, or juniper brandy (klekovača), made in the high mountains. The area is still predominantly used for cattle breeding and thus famous for its cheeses, a cream called kajmak, smoked ham (pršuta), and also potatoes, the best one being considered the one from Ivanjica and the vicinity.

Nature to be found in Western Serbia deserves special attention. Green meadows stretch for kilometres alongside dense forests. Lowland clearings are spattered with steep-roofed wooden houses that are then replaced by rocky peaks over which soar eagles and hawks. The cultivated land around scattered villages quickly transforms into unexplored wilderness such as the primeval forests of Tara and Zlatar, where bears and wolves are still a common phenomenon.