Mokra Gora and The Šargan Eight magnificent trip into the past

Mokra Gora meaning the Wet Mountain, is a village and the protected park of nature located in Western Serbia on the slopes of three mountains: Zlatibor, Šargan and Tara below which three rivers flow: Beli Rzav, Crni Rzav and Kamesina and there are 365 springs some of them with healing qualities. The nature park Mokra Gora is about 210 km from Belgrade and 290 km from Niš.

“Šargan Eight” is the masterpiece of the world’s industrial heritage, the most attractive tourist railway museum in Europe, one of the most magnificent tourist attractions in Serbia and is considered a unique construction masterpiece in the world among the narrow-gauge railway lines. Šargan Eight, the museum tourist complex of the narrow gauge railway contains also a hotel and a restaurant.

It operates the steam-engine train “Nostalgija”, also called “Ćira” which is consisted of the restored wagons. It operates during the summer and winter tourist season and literally takes you on a railroad tour cutting the mountains through numerous tunnels and bridges. The track of 760 mm gauge width passes through the most beautiful mountain areas of Mokra Gora with 5 bridges and 22 tunnels. On the total length of the railway line, on the Mokra Gora – Šargan Vitasi route, in the length of 15.5 km passes the height difference of 300 m.

When viewed from the sky, looks like the number 8. Building the railroad from 1921 to 1925, the designers of the railroad bridged the difference in level of Mokra Gora and Sargan ( about 300 m of altitude, 3. 5 kilometers long ) by the famous ” Eight ” – the loop of 13. 5 km above bottom of Jatare.

When ready in 1925 it was 15440 meters long. The Šargan Eight tourist train, stationed in Mokra Gora, was once part of a narrow-gauge railway linking Belgrade with Sarajevo and Dubrovnik. People used to travel 24 hours in wooden cars on the line Belgrade-Sarajevo-Dubrovnik. This railroad was of a large economic, political and military-strategic significance. It was closed in 1974.

Railways of Serbia from Belgrade started the restoration of Sargan’s Eight in 1999 for the tourist purposes and today the whole railroad is revitalized, with authentic station buildings and original old coaches. The train still runs departing from Mokra Gora,via, The ninth kilometre (the first stop on the railway. There are 9 kilometres from there to the border with Bosnia and Herzegovina), Jatare station: (no ticket has ever been sold here and the station is used as a resting place and water station), the Cross Šargan Vitasi and Bela Voda Spring (spring with healing water against skin diseases.) The train runs occasionally to Višegrad. During the snowy periods, it runs only from Mokra Gora to Jatare. In 2017 season it had 75,000 visitors, out of which 25,000 were foreign tourists.

A famous film director Emir Kusturica contributed to the development of tourism in the region by building an ethno village Drvengrad where the film festival is organised and where they bury bad films. Read more about the village here: https://www.communications-unlimited.nl/emir-kustoricas-wooden-ethno-village-best-architectural-achievement-in-europe-and-a-film-festival-visited-by-johnny-depp-and-many-other-stars/

And watch a film impression here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0bYgtZDwLbc

For this development, Kusturica received the Philippe Rotthier European Architecture Award from Brussels Foundation for Architecture.

Do not hesitate to book your ticket and go on this time journey. It is incredible!

Tickets are available here:

http://www.srbvoz.rs/eng/nostalgia.html

Sources: Serbia.travel, Serbia.com, Serbian Railway, Wikipedia and Communications-Unlimited.nl