Belogradcik, Rajac, and Rogljevo wine cellars

09-10.novembar 2024.

Dates

2 days

Duration

Years

easy

First day (Saturday): Belgrade - Magura cave - Belogradčik - Vidin

Departure from Belgrade from the parking lot of the municipality of New Belgrade at 06:00. Driving on the highway through Paraćin, then Boljevac and Zaječar towards Belogradčik. This picturesque town is located about 50 km from the border crossing between Serbia and Bulgaria (Vrška čuka).
On the way, we will first visit the Magura cave, which is located in the village of Ravisa. The cave is about 15 million years old and 2.5 km long. The cave drawings are among the most significant works of art of the European Late Paleolithic period. The main part of the cave is divided into six chambers of different sizes. The largest is called the Ark, it is 128 m long, 58 m wide, and 21 m high. In that spacious hall, music concerts are held during the Christmas and Easter celebrations. The tour of the cave along the well-maintained path takes about 45 minutes.
This is followed by a 30-minute drive to Belogradčik, where we will visit the fortress and Belogradčik rocks unusual shapes and colors. The walking tour, with breaks for photography, lasts about three hours. The fortress, which is also called Kaleto, dates back to the Roman Empire. Its two-meter-high walls surround the hill with rocks where the fortress is located.
In the late afternoon, we leave for Vidin, the city on the Danube, where we will be accommodated. We will drive for about an hour. We will stay in a hotel. We will have free time for walking and dinner. We will stay overnight.

Second day (Sunday): Vidin - Rogljevo and Rajac wine cellars - Belgrade

The breakfast. Leaving the hotel.
Drive for about an hour to the village of Rogljevo in Eastern Serbia. Departure on the hiking trail from Rogljevo wine cellar via Smedovac to Rajaci wine cellars. Information about a hiking trail: the path belongs to the easy category, it is about 16 km long, without significant climbs. It takes about 6 hours of hiking on grass and dirt roads.
Rajac, Rogljevo, and Smedovac, three neighboring villages with rich winemaking history and beautiful wine cellars, form a special part of the vineyards of Negotinska Krajina. These villages have the most fragrant red wines, which are a happy combination of good soil, lots of sun, and an altitude of 150 to 250 meters. Wine cellars represent a unique architectural complex of wine cellars created from the middle of the 18th century to the 30s of the 20th century. The complex consists of 270 pubs around the central square with a fountain in Rajac and 170 in Rogljevo. They were built of hewn stone and logs, and covered with tiles. The cellars are partially buried in the ground so that the temperature varies very little during the year, and on the first floor, there are rooms for staying during the harvest and nurturing of the wine.
In Rajac, we will visit some of wine cellars, as well as old cemetery which is included in the list of protected cultural monuments because of the tombstones that were built from the 18th to the first half of the 20th century. The monuments are beautifully and richly decorated. These unique monuments were made by the same masters, stone carvers from the south of Serbia, who are also responsible for the appearance of the oldest buildings, i.e. wine cellars.
Late lunch and purchase of wine in one of the pubs in Rajac.
Departure for Belgrade in the late afternoon. Return to Belgrade in the evening, the exact time of return depends on road conditions and road breaks.