Zlatibor: the back story

About Zlatibor: the back story

By the ULTIMATE Belgrade Editorial Team

Zlatibor has been welcoming visitors for more than 130 years, and every chapter of its story has left something to see: the spring named after a king, a railway that once ran all the way to the Adriatic, a village that dressed the world in hand-knitted sweaters, a wooden town built for a film, and a gondola that floats above the forests.

Golden pines

Zlatibor is a broad, rolling plateau in the south-west of Serbia, mostly around 1,000 metres high, with its highest point at Tornik, just under 1,500 metres. Its name is usually explained as “golden pine”, after the local pines whose bark and needles glow gold in the evening light. For centuries it was a land of shepherds and small villages, of summer pastures, wooden houses and long, hard winters.

The king’s waters

Zlatibor’s life as a resort began in 1893, when the young King Aleksandar Obrenović visited the plateau and a spring was dedicated in his honour. The settlement that grew around it took the name Kraljeve Vode, the King’s Waters, and wealthy families from Belgrade and the towns of Serbia began building summer villas to enjoy the clean, pine-scented air, which doctors recommended for the lungs. After the Second World War the town was renamed Partizanske Vode, and in more recent years the old name has returned; the centre of the resort is still called Kraljeve Vode today.

Every chapter of Zlatibor’s story has left something you can still see.

The railway in a figure of eight

In the early 20th century, a narrow-gauge railway was built through these mountains, part of a line that linked Belgrade with Sarajevo and the Adriatic coast. To climb the steep slopes of Mount Šargan near Mokra Gora, engineers laid the track in a great loop shaped like the number eight, with tunnels and bridges along the way. The line closed in 1974, but enthusiasts brought the most spectacular section back to life, and since 2003 the Šargan Eight has carried visitors in old wooden carriages on one of the most beautiful railway journeys in the Balkans.

Sirogojno: a village of knitters

In the 1960s, the women of Sirogojno, a village on the edge of the plateau, began knitting sweaters from local wool in traditional patterns, and their designs became famous across Yugoslavia and beyond. In 1980, an open-air museum, the Old Village, was created in Sirogojno, with log houses, barns and workshops brought from all over the region, showing how mountain families lived and worked. You can still buy hand-knitted sweaters here today.

A wooden town for a film

At the start of the 21st century, the film director Emir Kusturica built Drvengrad, a little town of wooden houses, on a hill at Mokra Gora as the setting for his film Life Is a Miracle. Its streets are named after his heroes, from writers to film-makers and sportsmen, and every winter it hosts the Küstendorf film festival. It sits right beside the Šargan Eight, so the two make a perfect day out.

The Gold Gondola

In 2021, Zlatibor gained its most spectacular attraction: the Gold Gondola, which runs for about nine kilometres from Lake Ribnica in the town centre to the slopes of Tornik, one of the longest panoramic gondolas in the world. Gliding silently above forests, meadows and the reservoir below, it has given visitors a new way to see the plateau, in every season.

The vultures of Uvac

A little further south, the river Uvac winds through a canyon of extraordinary meanders, and its cliffs are home to griffon vultures, among the largest birds in Europe. Once close to disappearing from Serbia, they have returned thanks to years of careful protection, and boat trips and viewpoints let you watch them circling over the green loops of the river.

Our advice: to understand Zlatibor’s story, combine the town with a day at Mokra Gora for the Šargan Eight and Drvengrad, and a morning at Sirogojno. Check the Šargan Eight timetable before you go, as trains run on a seasonal schedule, and book the Gold Gondola early in the day in high season.

Zlatibor through the years

Dates from the resort, railway and museum histories; seasonal timetables change, so check before you travel.

Opening hours, prices and seasonal openings change, so please check with Zlatibor: the back story before you go.