Karling klub Vukovi

On Sunday, September the 3rd NUSANTARA was touring the central parts of Serbia –the selected destination for this month was Despotovac and its surroundings.

The members of the NUSANTARA Association of Serbian-Indonesian Friendship first were given a warm welcoming reception at the “Resavska škola” Public Library in Despotovac, which also included a brief presentation of this part of Šumadija and Pomoravlje. The kind hosts from the „Bela crkva Beljajka“ Association of Citizens informed their guests of the most important sights and cultural events available to tourists visiting this region – the members of NUSANTARA would see themselves some of them later that day.

After a short walk by the city streets of Despotovac, NUSANTARA provided a free lunch for its members and friends of the Association at the „TSL“ restaurant, which enabled them to taste some polenta prepared on the spot, among other dishes. For some of the visitors that was also an opportunity to learn to cook polenta in the manner of Resava tradition.

The most attractive spot of the September’s journey was the visit to the Manasija monastery, one of the most relevant holy monuments of the Serbian medieval history. The monastery was built by royal prince Stefan Lazarević as his endowment in the early XV century; for centuries, it would stand out as the centre of the „School of Resava“, whose work has been acknowledged with reason for innumerable manuscripts and translations. Besides the mortal rests of the last issue of the Lazarević dinasty on the throne of Serbia, the treasures of Manasija consist of priceless frescoes, red and white marble, which is possible to see solely here at the monastery, as well as a special shade of the blue colour, known as „the Byzantine blue“. Even nowadays nobody knows how „the Byzantine blue“ is to be produced – the only two places in the world where it can be seen are the Manasija monastery and a monastery in Armenia.

After the visit to Manasija, the members of the NUSANTARA Association of Serbian-Indonesian Friendship headed towards the Resava Cave. At the constant 7°C temperature within the cave, the members of NUSANTARA walked along a 800-meter long path, part of the total of 4.5 km allowed for visitors to cross throughout the cave. „The Hall of Joined Columns“ or „The Colonnade“, „The Hive Hall“, „The Vestibule of the history“, the third hall where some of the tools and a hearth of a caveman were found, „The Crystal Hall“, „The Concert or Central Hall“, „Boban’s Hall“, „The Coral Hall“, „The Mud Hall“… The members of the NUSANTARA Association of Serbian-Indonesian Friendship were exploring one by one the total of eight halls of the cave that falls into the list of the oldest holes on the planet Earth. The Resava Cave was formed during the „Age of chalk“, which implies its approximate 80 million-year age!

The itinerary then included a visit to the Lisine Monument of nature. A special attraction of the Lisine hydrocomplex is the Veliki buk waterfall, whose importance lies in the fact that it is one of the most important accumulative cave waterfalls in Serbia.

That Sunday, the members of the NUSANTARA Association of Serbian-Indonesian Friendship were also given a chance to discover the „Park of Scale Models“ in Despotovac, insufficiently known to a wider public, unique tourist attraction inexistent in other parts of Serbia, which represents a product of inventiveness and initiative of miner Milenko Ilić. „The Park of Miniatures“ is the 13th museum of the kind in Europe and the 47th in the world, and was open to visitors in 2009. The miniatures were displayed on 30.000 m² – perfect copies of Serbian monasteries and churches, as well as a copy of one Russian church. All of them were reduced 17 times in relation to dimensions of the real objects, all of them were consecrated and all of them were made of siporex, light building material.

The excursion on the first September’s weekend was carried out thanks to the full support of the Tourist Organization of the Municipality of Despotovac, as well as the Association „Bela crkva Beljajka“, which constitutes a good motive for the members of the NUSANTARA Association to be fully thankful for the received attention.

Biljana Đorđević