Carried away by Serbian culture and history

Imagine you are very, very interested in something: in French fashion, in mammals of the Gobi desert, in Ecuadorian dressmaking... Usually, our subjects of interest spark a lot of dreams. For example, as a child when I was carried away by American history, particularly by the Colonial period, I kept on dreaming of visiting again the USA, the country where I was born, the country with so great history... This dream is still waiting to become true. Probably the reason I still have not made this forgotten dream come true is because later in my life, I turned my eyes towards Russia and Eastern Europe. A few years ago, I got fascinated by the Balkan region as "that's where so many crises have begun, that's where people hate each other so much, I want to know why!" The rest is history (sorry for a cliche).

During the past several years, I have spent some time studying the history and culture of the Serb nation. But so far, I have been stuck to studying the post-Assassination of Franz Ferdinand era. While this period is definitely interesting (not least because of the huge legacy it has left to all of us), I've got a lot more to learn: Serbs are believed to be one of the oldest nations in Europe with a history of a thousand years. No wonder that since my arrival to The Colony aka Kosovo and Metohija (as the Serbs call the region), I have been carried away by my interest in the Serbs. This time, I don't have to dream: living in the cradle of the Serb nation, I am in the perfect place to "practice" my interest almost whenever I want. All I have to do is to be patient enough to wait for the next bus... 

Currently, I am manifesting my fascination in the Serb nation two ways: by photography and by collecting oral histories of ordinary people. I have already visited quite a few historical Serbian sites across Kosovo, but there are still dozens, maybe hundreds of places waiting for my visit. My aim is to capture at least one photo of every single Serb site, whether historical or not. Because the Serb nation is largely identified through their religion, Orthodox Christianity, majority of my photographs will be of religious buildings and monuments including churches, monasteries and cemeteries. Here are some of my photos, for more, pleas click here to visit my Flickr account.

Church of St Demetrius (or "The Gingerbread Church") at Kosovska Mitrovica.

Ancient hatreds of the Balkans: destroyed tombstone at the south side of Mitrovica.

Ancient hatreds continued: the remains of the Church of St Nicholas at Prizren. Like the
tombstone above, this church was destroyed during the Kosovo riots of March 2004.

A landmark site: Gracanica Monastery

Some of the remains of the medieval Monastery of the Holy Archangels, located at Prizren.

My adventures sometimes get dangerous. But luckily I've got the Mother of the God and
 Holy Michael the Archangel watching over me :)