Tour Sirogojno, Stopica cave and Gostilje Waterfalls
Visit Sirogojno, Stopica cave and Gostilje waterfalls with travel Agency Navigator Zlatibor. Our tours starts from Zlatibor city center, near Avantura Park. There is our office. Read more and found tour plane at our tour section.
The meaning of the name Sirogojno has not been deciphered yet. It is believed that the village was named after a sort of fruit – pears called ''sirenjak''.
Since 1960s Sirogojno has become a village that has a prominent place in the world’s fashion, tourist and cultural map. The most important role in its development had Agricultural cooperative founded in 1924. The Cooperative did not stop its work even during the Second World War. Immediately after the liberation, it was engaged in buying and marketing the livestock and agricultural products, and later, during the 1960s, it dealt with improving agriculture, road construction, electrification of villages, establishing industrial enterprises, organizing handicrafts and raising retail and catering facilities.
Building skills and interior facilitation, as well as the way of organizing business and family life of people in the hilly - mountainous areas of the Dinar region are presented in 55 buildings (of which 32 are in permanent museum exhibition) which are relocated from mt Zlatibor’s villages.
The process of transfer, setting-up and reconstruction of Zlatibor log cabins in the "Old Village" was initiated by architect Ranko Findrik and the Republic Institute for Protection of Cultural Heritage in 1980.
The selected buildings represent a wealth of architectural and cultural development of Zlatibor region housing, also showing social and economic relations in rural settlements. Knowledge and skill with which timber was treated reached a high level, which places these buildings among the major architectural achievements.
The Dinar log cabin is basically rectangular and placed on a stone foundation. Walls are made of logs - hewn beams placed horizontally on top of each other. At the corners, there is a characteristic connection in the shape of a cross – ćert. The four-sided roof is steep and high, covered with straw, timber - shingles or stone. On the roof slopes, there are openings - badža, through which smoke comes out from the house. At the centre of the roof there is a distinctive chimney - kapić, which is of conical shape with a carved spindle on the top. The house has two doors, set opposite one another.
The permanent exhibition consists of two Zlatibor households, with residential and commercial buildings, such were owned by cooperative rural families in the second half of 19th and early 20th century. The commercial part consists of structures for the storage and processing of fruits and buildings for livestock, while Shepherd's Flat is a separate entity.
In 2012 the museum exhibition included a reconstructed classroom, as well.
All the buildings are furnished with authentic furniture.
Memorial complex of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul Church from the eighteenth century and the open-air museum, in 1983., has been legally protected as cultural heritage - cultural monument of exceptional importance.
The Commission formed by the Government of Republic of Serbia and the National Council for Culture recognized the importance of the work this institution is engaged with and in 2013, the Museum was declared a cultural institution of national importance for Republic of Serbia. In order to continue thorough efforts in cultural heritage preservation and fostering the Museum received a special jury award of the European Unionin the field of cultural heritage 2012,in the category of education and awareness raising, for the project “Houses of Zlatibor from the nineteenth century up to the present.”
Stopića cave
Stopića cave is situated on the north-eastern side of Zlatibor Mountain between the villages Rožanstvo and Trnava. It is 250km away from Belgrade, 30km from Užice and only 19km from Zlatibor tourist centre. The main road Zlatibor-Sirogojno goes above the cave and there is an access path from it to the very cave.
Stopića cave is a river cave with the Trnavski stream flowing through it. It consists of three speleological and hydrologic horizons: the periodically flooded horizon, the river horizon and the youngest horizon the crack. Without its youngest system Stopića cave is 1,691.5m long, it covers the area of 7,911.5 m2 and its volume is over 120,000 m3.
The cave has got an impressive entrance hole from the right side of the Prištavica River. The entrance is at 711.18m above sea level; it is 35 m wide and 18 m high. Limestone layer in the cave dates from trias period and is over 100m thick. The climate in the cave is under the influence of the outer climate, it’s cold in winter and hot in summer.
The cave got it name after the settlement Stopići that belongs to the village Rožanstvo. The first written data about the cave were given by Radoslav Vasović in 1901 in the Serbian Geologists’ Association report and the first speleological researches were done by our great research worker and father of our scientific speleology Jovan Cvijić in the years 1909 and 1913.
There are five units of Stopića cave: the bright hall, the dark hall, the great hall with baths, the canal with baths and the river canal. The tourist part of the cave has got some attractive elements like: spacious entrance, “dugure”-the openings on the ceiling, sipar arch “Dog’s cemetery”, “The source of life” waterfall and a number of “siga” tubs.
Because of their uniqueness, the "siga" tubs are the greatest attraction of the cave. They were made by deposited limestone. They are dents bordered by walls of stone or by winding vermilion “siga” wrinkles in which water collects and later flows over the tubs to the lower ones. "Siga" tubs are periodically flooded and they stand out from the others in Serbia by their size and depth (some are up to 7m deep).
In the River canal there is a whirlpool above which “siga” toboggan arises. It becomes the “siga” cascades between which there are the “siga” tubs and “enormous pots”. Water is pouring down the cascades forming waterfalls when there is little water, while when there is a lot of water one unique waterfall, whose height is 9.44 m, is formed.
You can’t hear the person you are talking to because of deafening noise of water. It looks as if the foamy water mass is falling down from the heaven, the air trembles of tiny drops, cold comes from the wet walls and the visitor feels horror-stuck in the pitch darkness of this cave. In spite of this the waterfall has been called “The spring of life.”
Gostilje Waterfalls
Gostilje waterfall is certainly one of the most attractive hydrologic values of Zlatibor. It is situated in the village Gostilje, about 25 km away from Zlatibor centre.
Before the confluence of the river Katušnica the water of Gostilje river pours down the 20 m high limestone cliff, forming thus a unique waterfall. Downstream the brook forms some smaller waterfalls and cascades until it joins the river Katušnica.
