THE EXCURSION TO TITEL
For May 2017 NUSANTARA selected for itself a tour to Titel – the region of Serbia that The Association hasn’t visited by now.
That Sunday, May 21st 2017, the excursion started with a visit to the Special Nature Reserve „Titelski breg“. The peculiarity here is the fact that the Reserve is so close to the city; peculiar was also a revealed fact that there exist even 315 archaeological sites in the area of Tutin. The members of The NUSANTARA Association of Serbian-Indonesian Friendship also saw the remains of an Augustinian monastery from the XI century, in which Emir Kusturica filmed his 1988 “Time of the Gypsies” movie. The viewpoint of the Reserve, known as Kalvarija, gives upon the confluence of the Begej river to Tisa.
The excursion also included the sightseeing across the city, as well as a visit to The “Stojan Trumić” Gallery. In the gallery it is possible to see most of the total of 640 works, donated to the city of Titel by Stojan Trumić. Walking down the streets of Titel gave the members of The Association of Serbian-Indonesian Friendship a clear picture of what a Sunday afternoon in the city looked like; it also showed where The Technical School „Mileva Marić“ was located, named after the eminent Serbian scientist, born precisely in Titel, the Public Library „Stojan Trumić“, the building of the City Municipality, in front of which are still visible the remains of Roman sarcophaguses from the I century, testifying to the great importance, commercial in the first place, this small town of just 5.000 inhabitants used to have during the Roman era. The three Roman sarcophaguses, still remaining in front of the building of the City Municipality, are known among the residents of Titel as „The big stones of Steva“, named after Mr. Stevan Gečevski, former director of the Special Nature Reserve „Titelski breg“, who acted as the host and guide to the members of The NUSANTARA Association of Serbian-Indonesian Friendship.
A three-hour long cruise along the Tisa river ended with a lunch at the restaurant of the “Titel” Hotel, followed by the music, ambience and good time typical of Vojvodina.
That Sunday, NUSANTARA also visited a nearby monastery of Kovilj, built, as the legend claims, by St. Sava. With the monastery of Visoki Dečani, it has the vastest number of members – nowadays 20 monks and novices live in Kovilj. Besides the iconostasis in the style of Renaissance, which certainly does not represent the Orthodox style of icon-painting, the members of The Association of Serbian-Indonesian Friendship had an opportunity to also admire rich, Byzantine-style frescos in the central church.
The peculiarity of the work of the Kovilj monks, presented to NUSANTARA that Sunday, is their effort to cure drug addicts.
Biljana Đorđević