Western Serbia & Šumadija

The Raška valleys in the south are where medieval Serbia began. Stefan Nemanja, founder of the Nemanjić dynasty, built Studenica in the late 12th century as his burial church, and his son Sava established the independent Serbian church at Žiča near Kraljevo in 1219, where the early kings were crowned. Ras, near Novi Pazar, was an early capital, and monasteries such as Sopoćani and Mileševa followed. After the Ottoman conquest in the 15th century, Novi Pazar grew into an important Ottoman trading town and the centre of the Sandžak, a legacy that survives in its Bosniak Muslim majority.

Šumadija, the forested "land of woods" south of Belgrade, is where modern Serbia was born. The First Serbian Uprising broke out at Orašac in 1804 under Karađorđe, whose base was nearby Topola; the Second, in 1815, was launched at Takovo by Miloš Obrenović, who won autonomy from the Ottomans. Kragujevac became the capital of the principality in 1818, and Serbia's first constitution was adopted there in 1835. The rivalry between the Karađorđević and Obrenović dynasties shaped Serbian politics for the rest of the century.

The First World War opened here: the Serbian army defeated the Austro-Hungarians on Mount Cer in August 1914 and again at the Kolubara that December. In the Second World War, Užice was briefly the centre of a Partisan-held territory in 1941, and in October that year German troops shot thousands of civilians in Kragujevac in reprisal, a massacre remembered at the Šumarice memorial park. Under Yugoslavia, Kragujevac became an arms and car-making city.

This is the region many Serbs think of as the country's heartland, with traditions to match. Village life in Šumadija centres on the plum orchard, the family slava and the sabor, a fair around a church feast with music, spit-roasts and dancing in the kolo circle. Brass music is the region's sound: the Dragačevo trumpet festival at Guča, held since 1961 and now in early August, draws brass bands from across the Balkans and crowds that fill the village for days.

Orthodoxy runs deep, with pilgrimages to Studenica, Žiča and the monasteries of the Ovčar-Kablar gorge. Vuk Karadžić, who reformed the Serbian language and alphabet in the 19th century, was born at Tršić near Loznica, and a fair there celebrates him each September. In the mountains, folk architecture survives in log houses with steep shingle roofs, and wool knitting from Sirogojno became a well-known craft.

Novi Pazar and the Sandžak valleys are culturally distinct: most people are Bosniak Muslims, the skyline is of minarets, coffee is served in the Ottoman manner, and Bosnian identity and the Bosnian language are strong. Accents vary too, from the soft ekavian of Šumadija to the ijekavian speech found in parts of the far west near the Drina.

Kragujevac, with about 170,000 people, is the region's largest city, followed by Kraljevo, Čačak, Novi Pazar, Šabac, Valjevo and Užice, each with between about 70,000 and 110,000 people in its wider municipality. Kragujevac's economy rests on car making — the old Zastava works now build cars for Stellantis — and on arms manufacture and a university. Čačak and Užice have metalworking and light industry, Šabac and Loznica chemicals and agriculture, and Novi Pazar is known for its jeans and textile workshops and a busy trading economy.

Agriculture matters everywhere. The region grows plums and raspberries, and Serbia is among the world's leading raspberry producers. In the mountains, dairy farming, logging and above all tourism provide income, with Zlatibor and Kopaonik now busy year-round.

Villages continue to empty as young people move to Belgrade or abroad, and many houses stand half-finished, waiting for money from relatives working in Germany or Austria. Planned lithium mining in the Jadar valley near Loznica has become one of the most contested issues in Serbia, bringing large protests over water and farmland.

Western Serbia is dairy and meat country. Kajmak, a thick salty cream skimmed from boiled milk and left to mature, is made on Zlatibor and served with everything; Sjenica gives its name to a white brined cheese, sjenički sir. Užička pršuta, smoked beef, pork or mutton, comes from Užice and Zlatibor, and komplet lepinja, a flatbread filled with kajmak and egg and soaked in roasting juices, is the Užice breakfast. Proja, a dense cornbread, and gibanica, a flaky cheese-and-egg pie, are the everyday staples.

Spit-roasted lamb and pork, jagnjetina and prasetina, are the celebration meal, especially at roadside restaurants in the hills. Sarma, cabbage leaves stuffed with minced meat and rice, and podvarak, sauerkraut baked with meat, fill winter tables. Novi Pazar's Bosniak kitchen offers mantije, small baked pastries filled with minced meat, as well as baklava and tufahije, walnut-stuffed poached apples.

Šumadija is plum country, and šljivovica, the plum rakija, is distilled in almost every household. Wine is made around Topola, in the Oplenac wine region.

The mountains of the west are the main draw. Zlatibor is a broad plateau of meadows and pine woods with its resort centre, a long gondola lift, the Stopića cave and the open-air museum at Sirogojno. North of it, Tara National Park covers dense forests of spruce and fir above the Drina, with the Banjska Stena viewpoint over the canyon and Lake Perućac; the little house on a rock in the river at Bajina Bašta is much photographed. At Mokra Gora, the Šargan Eight narrow-gauge railway climbs in a figure-of-eight through tunnels and over bridges, next to the wooden village of Drvengrad built by film director Emir Kusturica.

Further south, the Uvac canyon's winding meanders shelter griffon vultures, and Mileševa monastery near Prijepolje holds the White Angel fresco. Studenica, a UNESCO World Heritage Site in the hills south-west of Kraljevo, has the white marble Church of the Virgin and fine 13th-century frescoes; Žiča stands near Kraljevo, and Stari Ras with Sopoćani near Novi Pazar. Kopaonik, rising to just over 2,000 metres, is Serbia's main ski resort and a national park, with Vrnjačka Banja, a historic spa town, near the Goč mountain.

In Šumadija, Kragujevac has the Šumarice memorial park, and Topola has Karađorđe's town and the Oplenac church, lined with mosaics and holding the Karađorđević royal tombs. The Ovčar-Kablar gorge near Čačak, Valjevo's Tešnjar quarter, Divčibare and Vuk Karadžić's house at Tršić complete the region.