Discover Surdulica: Culture between the City and Vlasina

Surdulica combines cultural and historical points of interest in the city with the Vlasina natural area in the surrounding region. If you are weighing history, the regional landscape, and activities on the water for your trip, you will find clearly distinguishable points of reference here to help you choose your accommodation.

Three features are particularly relevant for an initial overview:

• The central urban area includes the Old Town Bazaar.
• The Vlasina area, with Lake Vlasina in the surrounding area of Surdulica, is legally protected as a landscape of exceptional features.
• At Lake Vlasina, there are opportunities for bathing, swimming, fishing, and other water sports. In Biljanin Zaliv Bay, kayaks and pedal boats can be rented, and boats can be moored.

The Memorial Ossuary and the Memorial Grammar School were ceremonially unveiled on 24 August 1924 as a single monument to the victims of Bulgarian crimes in Surdulica from 1915 to 1918. Together with the complex consisting of the Church of Saint George, the Technical School, and the Memorial Ossuary, they form part of the city's cultural and historical heritage.

The central park is also marked by history: its complex includes a monument to the fighters who fell in the Second World War. The old town cemetery includes a church dedicated to Saint Panteleimon. The complex of the Lung Diseases Specialist Hospital “Sanatorium” is also part of the historical heritage.

The history of the city's architecture places these individual sites within a broader urban context. Until the last quarter of the 19th century, buildings in the tradition of folk, Balkan, and Turkish culture predominated in Surdulica. Thereafter, Western European architectural styles increasingly became common in secular construction.

Belo Polje is part of the industrial heritage. The settlement was the former administrative and industrial centre of the molybdenum mine in Mačkatica and was connected by transport links to the settlement of Mačkatica Rudnik. The remains of the cableway facilities and other industrial buildings constitute an important part of Surdulica's industrial heritage.

Lake Vlasina adds a distinctly landscape-oriented dimension to the cultural and historical themes. In the surrounding area of Surdulica, floating peat islands form there when rising water lifts peat from the lakebed. The peat layer can be up to one metre thick. This feature distinguishes the lake from an ordinary body of water and also makes the natural area interesting for travellers who wish to include geological and landscape features in their plans.

If you would like to include additional destinations in your selection, you can also consider Vladičin Han, Klisura, Dobrosin, Rudnik, Lalince, Vlasina Rid, Vranje and Vranjska Banja.