A beautiful town on dark water

A sunny day on the road from Zaječar to Knjaževac. Looking out the window at the peaceful villages and lovely shores, I remember reading on local portals that local drivers have occasionally seen a woman in white after midnight. Such legends have been woven in all parts of the world since there have been night travelers. Today, the unfortunate ghost in a wedding dress is gone, and we hardly saw anyone on the drive.

At the crossroads of roads leading from Zaječar to Niš and from Pirot to Aleksinac lies one of the most beautiful towns in Serbia. And we haven't seen it yet.

The street where we enter the town after crossing the bridge over the Timok is called – how else – Knjaza Miloša. After eighteen years of exile in Vienna and Wallachia, the leader of the Second Serbian Uprising and prince returned to Serbia in 1859 through the town that was previously called Gurgusovac. Miloš's second reign was therefore immortalized by renaming the entire town. The local people gladly accepted the name Knjaževac because Miloš, during his stay in Gurgusovac, ordered the burning of the infamous Gurgusovac Tower – a symbol of slavery.

We didn't even stay in the room we rented for five minutes. We immediately set off on foot towards the center. The closer you get to the historic core, the less noticeable the dilapidation of the old building substance, which is otherwise omnipresent in the interior of Serbia. When you get out onto the bridge, you can see why this town has the reputation of being beautiful.

BRIDGES AND PARK

The Stone Bridge was actually built of concrete back in 1913, on the site of an old wooden bridge. At the time, it was the first and largest reinforced concrete bridge in Serbia with a span of 30 meters. Now it is one of seven bridges over the Svrljiški Timok. The town’s nickname may be a bit pretentious – Little Venice – but its waterfront is certainly unusually beautifully landscaped. For a moment or two, Knjaževac actually reminded me of Ljubljana.

To the left of the bridge is a shady park. We sit on a bench and observe everything around us. Tombstones. Roadside men. Trees. Fountain. Wooden gates. Then I realize that this is a memorial park. The shapes of the artifacts, the combination of archaic and modern, all of that is familiar to me. Yes, that is the inimitable handwriting of Bogdan Bogdanović.

The memorial park to the fallen soldiers in the liberation wars of 1804-1945. was built over a decade and opened in 1971. It is very skillfully integrated into the core of the town. Here is a space of remembrance for all those who died for the liberation of this region – Hajduk Veljko and an anonymous Red Army soldier in a posthumous embrace. Over 6,000 people from the Timok Krajina gave their lives in the turbulent times from the First Serbian Uprising to the end of World War II.

My attention is drawn to a replica of the monument to the soldiers from Knjaževac who fell in the Serbian-Turkish War of 1876-1878. The original monument was demolished by the Bulgarian army in World War I.

CHAMPIONS OF THE TIMOC REBELLION

On Njegoševa Street we enter the courtyard of the City Museum. It is located in the house of Aleksa Aca Stanojević, a printer, rentier, godfather of Nikola Pašić and, after him, the most important leader of the Radical Party. After Pašić's death, he was the leader of that party until the introduction of the king's dictatorship. Before that, he also overturned the failed Timok rebellion against Milan Obrenović.

The villa was built from 1903 to 1912 according to the plans of a Viennese contractor, modeled after Italian villas in the Art Nouveau style. The museum houses the personal belongings of Aco Stanojević, as well as many other exhibits donated to the museum by old Knjaževci families.

Unlike Aca Stanojević and Kum Pašić, who, when the rebellion failed, managed to escape abroad, some other participants in the Timok Uprising against the tyranny of Milan Obrenović in 1883 were not so lucky. Among the twenty-one rebels who were executed were two prominent men from Knjaževac, Ljuba Božinović and Gavra Aničić. This second unfortunate man was born in Mostar and executed in Zaječar. His life path brought him from Herzegovina to a town on the Timok, and from there to the execution ground.

The capricious history leaves more visible scars in smaller communities. At the entrance to the Church of St. George, built during the reign of the same Obrenović who executed the people of Timo, there is a memorial plaque commemorating those who died in the Timo rebellion.

I think about all this as I stand in front of a mural with the image of the man who gave the town its name. Miloš Obrenović, adorned with the words:

Time will dry up this bush,/ and the stone pillar will crumble,/ but Serbia will stand forever/ and Miloš's name will be remembered.

I recognize the apt verses of Ljubomir Nenadović, writer and diplomat.

The surname Obrenović has a somewhat bitter taste in the regions from Aleksinac to Zaječar, because the grandson of Miloš's brother Jevrem left a bloody mark there as ruler.

MERAKLIJ CELLAR

The sun is slowly approaching the horizon. I love the slanted light and that orange glow on earthly things. We leave the center and the town turns back into an ordinary Serbian place, a bit slow, with electricity and telephone cables strung above the streets. We climb up the hill – as soon as you move away from Timok, everything slowly turns steep. A lady with a dog is standing in front of her entrance and sees us taking pictures of the path we took. Without hesitation, with a hint of pride in her voice, she says: “We also have storks!” She points to a pillar with a nest on top.

We rejoiced at this bird, as if it would, according to the beautiful lies from childhood, solve the problem of birth rate in Serbia. It's a shame that the idea that storks are actually a delivery service where you can order a baby is a fabrication of parents who didn't know how to talk about sex. However, where storks live - there is no poison in the air, water and soil, at least that's what we like to believe. I also like the word the southern dialect used to name these birds - stork.

We ask an older gentleman about the tavern we're headed to, and he wrinkles his brow as if he's thinking hard. Then he says, "Oh, yes, that's at Sneža's." He points to the path we should take.

In the half-empty tavern, we are greeted by the landlady, who is probably already of retirement age. She confirmed that she is the same Sneža. Her tavern is called Meraklijski podrum, but no one in town calls it that.

Along with the appetizers, Sneža also serves us a life story. She was a cook in the cafeteria of a successful company. But that was a long time ago, during socialism. Then she opened a cafe with her husband. It was an even more successful story, but old age creeps in imperceptibly into bodies over the decades and begins to wear them down. Sometimes her husband can't even stand up. When he's better, he helps. But then again, he can't. And Sneža was going to Niš that very day for some filming. It's not good. It'll get better. The landlady's eyes are sad.

But what it brings to the table is among the best Serbia has to offer. As in Zaječar, we were convinced that the entire southeast of Serbia actually belongs to the luxurious south in terms of cuisine. In addition, we sat down in one of the few taverns in the country whose price list still includes domestic brandy for – 80 dinars.

We spent a lovely time in the rooms with checkered tablecloths and wood-paneled walls. We parted from Sneža as if we were part of a family. Both she and we are generationally aware that our first meeting could also be our last. So here I am framing it in words.

We headed downhill into the dusk that shrouded both the storks and the town. Cafes were open along the river, giving the impression that this was a much larger and more important place.

GERVINOV VILLA

Tomorrow we'll go to the Park café. There are few places with a garden surrounded by real greenery. And this café shows that Knjaževac has much greater ambitions than one might expect from a town with around sixteen thousand people.

We head up the gentle slope behind the Stone Bridge – a street that, even after crossing the river, is still called Knjaz Miloša. It soon turns into Karađorđeva Street in an unusual interdynastic harmony. We pass by the gymnasium, on the facade of which is inscribed the year 1871. On the other side is the Church of St. George, and slightly above it is the Local History Museum in the former house of the mine owners, the Sibinović family.

However, our goal is a little further, on a hill above the city. “Džervin’s Villa” is actually the villa of Đoka Cvetković, owner of the famous Belgrade tavern “Kolarac” and a wealthy military supplier who, by 1939, invested almost a million dinars in the construction of the building on his father Tasa’s family estate. They say he brought the idea from Karlovy Vary, but the design also included elements of Brecht Castle in Austria. Moša Pijade received medicine from Đoka in prison, and it is rumored that this was why Đoka was able to live in his villa until his death in 1947.

Later, it became the property of the agricultural combine "Džervin". This unusual name, which sounds like the name of an Irish football player, is actually an abbreviation: Jam, brandy, wine. For a long time, the villa served as an administrative center, but in the 1980s it was converted into a restaurant with rooms. Some locals remember it fondly, a time of high splendor on the eve of collapse. The agricultural giant did not survive the fateful decades. After bankruptcy, the villa fell into disrepair. Renovation has only recently begun. At first glance, it is clear that this building is unique in Serbia.

We stay here for a while. There is no one. Not even a bird to fly by. The access roads to the villa have not yet been renovated. I imagine Đoka writing a will. In it, he leaves the villa to his maid Milica, the woman who served him faithfully. And in 1967, two decades after Đoka's death, she exchanges the villa for two apartments. From the point of view of today's value of the building – a bad trade. But back then, she certainly didn't even have the money for maintenance, let alone for more serious investments.

From the balcony of the villa, you can see the fertile Timok Valley and the marshlands, a godsend for vineyards. In some parallel world, where there were not so many mines, this town would be bigger and richer.

This way it has preserved some of its historical beauty, but it has remained far below its real potential. I hear that the brand "Džervin" has survived as the name of a private wine cellar. But outside the town, few people remember the name Đorđe Đoko Cvetković.

OLD MARKET

In 1910, the architect Charles-Édouard Jean-Grégoire, known worldwide under his artistic name Corbusier, visited Knjaževac. The picturesque views of Knjaževac inspired him to create a drawing of the town, which is kept in the National Museum in Belgrade.

Descending back towards the river, I can feel the same kind of admiration that the famous Frenchman felt while observing these scenes. Of course, Sombor, and other towns in the north, are generally more well-groomed. But in the south and east of Serbia, there are few places that can touch a traveler's aesthetic chord.

In fact, the unique appearance of the Knjaževac Old Bazaar can be attributed to historical ruptures and the transformations that resulted from them. It was created during the Turkish period as the craft core of the city. However, wars and the great fire of 1886 destroyed a large part of this historical entity. Then the first row to the water was renovated in the European style, so this oriental-occidental alloy took on a unique charm. At the beginning of this millennium, the city authorities renovated the facades, and a recognizable visual identity of Knjaževac was created.

It is worth remembering that this part of the city was long called Gypsy-little, since the craftsmen in the area – renowned craftsmen – were mostly Roma.

Maybe on my first walk I had the feeling that I had already been to Knjaževac because I loved Živojin Pavlović's films. In 1969, he shot his film here. AmbushMilena Dravić, Slobodan Aligrudić, Pavle Vujisić were hanging around. Some of the scenes in the film were filmed in the Old Bazaar.

My inner urge to embrace a place, which always comes over me when I like a town at first sight, may not apply to Knjaževac, because I definitely saw it for the first time – in the cinema.

Surprisingly, the most famous Knjaževci actress – Neda Arnerić, who was born here – was not on the closing credits. Ambush.

DEPARTURE FROM GURGUSOVAC

There is still time to take another walk through the city. This time I look at the town as a dear acquaintance, whom I have recently met, and it is already time to say goodbye. I reach the shore and reach a place where the Cultural Center can be seen on the other side of the river. I know towns of this size where, judging by their condition, no one needs cultural institutions anymore. Fortunately, things are different here.

The modern architectural shell of Knjaževci culture looks vibrant. The building was built from 1977 to 1981. The project was signed by architect Ivan Golubović, a man who came from this area and left his architectural mark on it. Today, it sounds a bit bizarre that until 1990, the Cultural Center was called "Edvard Kardelj".

But the essence outlived the ideological form.

We are already in the car. We leave the city on an upward path, towards Niš. We leave the valley of the Svrljiški Timok. I remember that Timok is a word that is probably older than the Roman Empire. In their language, the Tribals called the river Tamna voda. Timok. And the centuries-old name of Knjaževac – Gurgusovac – is supposedly derived from Grgur, the eldest son of Despot Đurađ. Either the place was named after the gurgusan pigeons. Or the Turks translated the name of the nearby toponym Đurđeve voda as Gjurgu-su.

These thoughts follow me all the way up to the viewpoint on Tresibaba. From above, the distant town looks like a stork's nest sheltered by the palm trees of the hill.