Mokra Gora – Republic of Serbia

Time to discover a picturesque village in Serbia!

Mokra Gora village is situated between the southeastern slopes of Mount Tara and the southwestern slopes of Mount Zlatibor, in the Mokra Gora-Rzav valley.

In 2021, the village was included in the Best Tourism Villages by UN Tourism. This global initiative highlights those villages where tourism preserves cultures and traditions, celebrates diversity, provides opportunities and safeguards biodiversity.

In the context of this Initiative, Mokra Gora is aligned with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 8 (Decent Work and Economic Growth), 11 (Sustainable Cities and Communities), and 13 (Climate Action).

In Mokra Gora, the traditional living quarters and its hamlets are old log cabins. They have a wall-supporting structure of stone and a four-sided roof made of shingles or logs. Furthermore, a traditional yard includes additional structures, such as dairies for storing dairy products in the summer, smokehouses for drying fruit, “chardak” structures for storing maize, watermills and rolling mills used for rolling linen (cloth).

Today, only a fraction of the traditional household structures have been preserved in their original form. Milekići is one of the hamlets that still preserves the folk architectural tradition of the region.

The region is the only part of Serbia that still preserves the traditional method of tar production. In addition, the people of Mokra Gora still preserve and practice their traditional crafts.

Bonus Trivia!

- The village has been reborn thanks to the efforts of its active community, which participated in the reconstruction of the narrow-gauge railway, Šarganska Osmica. This tourist railroad retraces the route of old historical tracks and is now a key component of new tourist routes that stimulate the development of small rural centres.

- The Mokra Gora region, Šargan and the southern slopes of Mount Tara have been part of the protected area of the National Park Tara since 1981. In 2005, this area was designated an area of exceptional characteristics, thanks to the new attention created by the historic railroad and a higher level of protection.

Sources & photographs taken from: https://tourism-villages.unwto.org/en/villages/mokra-gora/, https://tourism-villages.unwto.org/en/

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