Project Description
Ethnovillage “Drvengrad” (Mechavnik)
Location
Welcome to Mechavnik
When you find yourself in the tourist village of Mechavnik, known as Drvengrad, on the Mokra Gora mountain in western Serbia, you enter a different world than the usual tourist complex.
In this unusual village, every street, even if it has only one house, every square is named after famous personalities from the world of art, sports and other fields. At every step you are surrounded by books, models of ships, old cars, reminiscent of the past, unusual sculptures, photographs.
Wall painting, furniture, chandeliers and lamps – all this makes Drvengrad very interesting and unique. It seems to you that you are in a fairy tale, participating in a theatrical performance or a movie.
This should not be surprising, because the creator of this complex is the famous film director Emir Kusturica, who was awarded the highest awards at film festivals in Cannes, Venice and Berlin for his films.
People whom Kusturica treats with respect, admiration and attention are present in Drvengrad. There are streets of Ivo Andric, Federico Fellini, Ingmar Bergman, Novak Djokovic, Bruce Lee, Ernesto Che Guevara. Alleys are named after Bogdan Tirnanich and Miodrag Petrovich-Chkali, squares are named after Nikola Tesla, Nikita Mikhalkov and Diego Maradona, and the theater is named after Stanley Kubrick.
On Ivo Andrić Street, a souvenir shop is called “Aska” (based on the story “Aska and the Wolf” by I. Andrić). The town also has a sports and recreation center “Cursed Yard” (I. Andrich’s story “Cursed Yard”) with a swimming pool. Milorad Cavic, there is a “city prison” – “Humanism and Renaissance” and the House of Writers, on the facade of which there is a portrait of F.M. Dostoevsky.
The central place in the village is occupied by the Church of St. Sava.
All buildings in Drvengrad are made of coniferous trees that cover the slopes of the surrounding mountains – Mokra Gora, Tara and Zlatibor. The streets are paved with stone and parts of old railway sleepers.
Nearby is the first station of the famous railway “Shargan Eight”, a narrow-gauge railway that runs along Mokra Gora, allowing tourists to admire the unique and unforgettable landscapes.
Just a few hundred metres away from the habitats of bears, wild boar, deer and wolves, wireless internet is available in the old wooden houses of Mećavnik, along with all kinds of fibre-optic communication, mobile telephony, cable TV, electricity, running water, and a sewer system.
Kusturica himself said that the idea of creating a village in this place was born during the making of the movie “Life is a miracle” on Mount Mokra Gora, on the “Shargan Eight” highway. The commencement of construction at Mećavnik coincided with the development of an infrastructure, which follows the model of similar tourist resorts in Switzerland.
Drvengrad was built in 2003 and since then has been constantly growing and changing, without violating harmony with the nature. This unusual tourist ethnic village attracts tourists and travelers from all over the world. The Kustendorf International Film and Music Festival is held here annually. In 2005, Emir Kusturica won the prestigious Philippe Rothier European Prize for his architectural project – the village of Drvengrad – Kustendorf.
We invite you to visit Emir Kusturica!
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