Les montagnes serbes sarplaninac

LES MONTAGNES SERBES

OD SRPSKIH PLANINA

VISITING THE BREEDERS OF SARPLANINAC

During our Easter Holidays in1990, we took the opportunity to visit my parents in Belgrade. On the way we stopped at Slavonski Brod, a small town on the banks of the Sava river to visit the kennel of Mr Mijat Matkovic who breeds Sarplaninac dogs. Mr Matkovic had several dogs including two champions: Goga od Miv-a and her daughter, Arka Marsoniska. He also showed us another female, a young male and a puppy .

His dogs were characterised by a very rich fur and an exceptionally strong skeleton. Mr Matkovic was a very pleasant man and we chatted a lot about the Sarplaninac breed. He was also the proud owner of Soni od Ljubomira, who came into the hands of Mr Poing in France and of the very famous Cer-Meda Marsoniski whom we had the opportunity to see on the property of Mrs Vesna Bojovic-Skipic.

As always, we were delighted to stroll through the streets of Belgrade. This time we made a few excursions. We visited Avala,

a mountain of volcanic origin, the nearest one to Belgrade, situated south of the city. It is covered by thick forest and from the top you have a particularly beautiful view of the surrounding mountains: Kosmaj, Bukulja, etc.

On the top of Avala stands the monument dedicated to the Unknown Soldier, made by the famous sculptor Ivan Mestrovic. It is a mausoleum fully made in black marble decorated with beautiful caryatides (a column sculptured in the form of a draped female figure). Before the existence of the mausoleum, the medieval city of Zrnov lied here and close to it was a mercury mine. Not far from where the mausoleum stands there used to be a famous television tower, 202 meters high, with a restaurant at the height of 101 meters. It was unfortunately destroyed by the American bombardments in 1999.

Apart from Avala, we also visited Topcider. It is a large park in which the palace of the prince Milos Obrenovic is located. Also look at the magnificent drawing of this palace, the work of Milic od Macva. The prince Milos Obrenovic was the founder of the Obrenovic dynasty. He was illiterate and was trading pigs. He participated in the first Serbian uprising against the Turks and was the instigator of the second one as well. He was quite dictatorial and he mercilessly liquidated his opponents, but he was also known to be a shrewd and intelligent politician. He did a lot for the independence of Serbia and for the development of the Serbian culture.

His palace was built between 1831 and 1834. The headquarters of the court of Serbian principality was located there. The prince died in the palace in 1860. Pay attention to the centuries old beautiful plane-tree which stands in the front of the palace!

At Topcider there is also a church, which was the first chapel of the court. Inside is a magnificent altarpiece.

During his period, the Prince built a palace for his wife, princess Ljubitsa, in Belgrade. The palace is also known as “Konak”.

During the reign of Milos Obrenovic a great man of the Serbian people lived and worked. His name was Vuk Stefanovic Karadzic. Apart from collecting tales, fables, and sayings he also collected folk poetry and translated it into foreign languages, which made it famous worldwide. But most importantly, he reformed the Serbian language and alphabet. Thanks to him, the Serbian people are the only people in the world who write and speak the same, phonetically.

At the Saborna church both Vuk Karadzic and Dositej Obradovic are buried. Dositej Obradovic was a writer, philosopher and educator of the people.

In 1808 he founded the first high school in this building. Later on this building became the museum of Dositej Obradovic and Vuk Karadzic. D. Obradovic was the first minister of culture. During the second part of the XIX century the High School was moved into the house called Kapetan Misa.

During this stay we also went to the island of Ada Ciganlija, which is in the middle of the Sava River. It is a well-known beach of Belgrade during the summer and out of season it is the place where fishermen gather.

We visited another breeder of Sarplaninac, Mr Nenad Orasanin. His kennel is called “od Vuka”. The dog that impressed us the most was the mature male Atlas. He is a very dark Sarplaninac, the son of Voki and Rona. We also saw the young Golf, son of Lord (Steva from Dobanovci) and from Rona. Rona was the pride of this kennel, a mother of several champions, unusually tall and quite large and an excellent producer of many fine dogs. Rona was not alive any more.

We took pictures of Vulkan, son of Karabeg and Rona, a little bit older than Golf and Ambra of Vuk-a, daughter of Atlas. Apart from Atlas, all the dogs were champions of Yugoslavia and rightly so. One can say that Mr Orasanin’s Sarplaninac dogs were of the highest quality at that moment, but Vulkan and particularly Golf weren’t fully developed yet, Golf looked very juvenile.