Pentagram in dense woods hides secrets of Serbian history: Mysterious hill is today eerily abandoned

Photo: RINA

Once a popular picnic spot and the focal point of local events, today overgrown in a dense forest that hardly anyone enters. Ravana Hill, located just a few hundred meters from the center of Ivanjica, is a very important historical site. If the road takes you there, nothing will indicate its significance, but when you look at it from the air, it's a completely different story. Bird's eye view clearly reveals a pentagram (five-pointed star), which is actually a memorial dedicated to the soldiers who died in the Second World War.

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"In this place, there used to be a hospitality venue where the elite of Ivanjica used to come, it was the main place for gathering and socializing. After the end of the Second World War, that building was dismantled and transferred to another location, and the land was given as a gift to the Veterans' Association. Several soldiers who lost their lives in the war were buried there, and that is why the complex itself was built in the shape of a red star, where the names of those who died are inscribed on the memorial plaque," well-known chronicler of the municipality on the Moravica Rasko Nesovanovic told RINA.

After the memorial was built at that site, cultural and artistic programs and flower-laying ceremonies were held there until the 1970s. Ravana Hill experienced its peak during the 1950s and 1960s, when almost every resident of Ivanjica would go there after work to enjoy nature.

"Everyone went for a walk there, the nature is untouched and beautiful. In the evening, it was an ideal romantic place for couples in love. Then everything stopped, hardly anyone goes there now. I guess some new places appeared, more modern and urban. Ravana is almost forgotten and not usable, because now the end of the hiking trail can be seen after a kilometer," the locals who, as they say, spent their best years on that hill, reminisce now.

This place still fascinates with its beauty, and Ravana Hill, rich in history and unreal landscapes, is waiting for Ivanjica residents to return.

(Telegraf.rs)