Maybe, after reading this blog, you want to travel to the Sandžak too (I sincerely hope so). Let me start by saying that I would certainly recommend travelling to the region: it’s a hidden gem, with stunning nature and lovely people. But, it’s also not the most easy region to travel to and through. So in this post I want to share my journey and some tips and tricks with you, so that your journey will be just a tad easier.

This post will be a bit different than the previous posts, since I won’t tell stories here, but rather give an overview of some practical information that can be useful when travelling to the Sandžak (for once the title isn’t clickbait 😉). Mind you, this overview won’t be the ‘complete’ or ‘ultimate’ overview: I myself travelled only for a good week through the region, so I wouldn’t call myself the ‘expert’. This post is more of a starting point if you’re planning to go to the Sandžak yourself.

My journey

Day 1: Flight to Sarajevo (Bosnia and Herzegovina) – bus ride from Sarajevo to Prijepolje (Serbia)

• Uvac border crossing (Bosnia and Herzegovina – Serbia)

Day 2: Visit of Prijepolje with small excursions to the Mileševa Monastery, the canyon of the Mileševka and the fortress of Mileševac

Day 3: Bus ride to Novi Pazar, with a short stop in Nova Varoš

Day 4: Visit of Novi Pazar

Day 5: Visit of Stari Ras, Sopoćani Monastery and Pešter Plateau (by bus and taxi)

• Interested in cycling on the plateau? Click here

Day 6: Ride from Pešter Plateau to Rožaje (Montenegro) (by taxi and bus)

• Špiljani border crossing (Serbia – Montenegro)

Day 7: Visit of Rožaje

Day 8: Ride to Bijelo Polje (by taxi) and visit of Bijelo Polje

Day 9: Train ride from Bijelo Polje (stop: Lješnica) to the Airport of Podgorica (stop: Aerodrom)

This was my journey. You see that it’s quite ‘urban-focused’, with the only real stop in nature being the Pešter Plateau. If you travel to the region, I would certainly recommend spending more time in nature, besides the Pešter Plateau two suggestions here are:

• The Uvac Special Nature Reserve: I haven’t been here myself, but it’s called one of the ‘natural wonders of Serbia’, so I can imagine it’s pretty neat.
• The Accursed Mountains: the scary name of the mountain range between Montenegro, Kosovo and Albania, with some famous trails (like the Peaks of the Balkans). From the Sandžak side, Plav and Gusinje are good starting points to discover this mountains. I will probably publish some posts about this mountains in the future.

Check out my journey here:

Transport

Going to: I see tree main options to get to the Sandžak

1. Fly to Belgrade (Serbia) and take a bus or a train to the region
   • The train takes you to Priboj, Prijepolje or Bijelo Polje (in Montenegro), see the timetables here (only in Serbian unfortunately). You’re riding on the Belgrade-Bar line, which is considered one of the most beautiful railway lines in Europe (even by The Guardian).
   • With the bus you have more options: Novi Pazar (most frequent connection), Prijepolje, Priboj, Sjenica, Nova Varoš … You can find timetables here.
2. Fly to Podgorica (Montenegro) and take a bus or a train
   • This train is also on the Belgrade-Bar line, but in the other direction. You can find timetables here (buying tickets online isn’t possible).
   • By bus you once again have more options. Unfortunately I didn’t find an official website of the bus station of Podgorica, but the websites in the next part may help.
3. Fly to Sarajevo (Bosnia and Herzegovina) and take a bus
   • Limited options to Priboj, Sjenica, Novi Pazar, Pljevlja … I used this option, but it involved contacting the bus company directly, since the website of the bus station in Sarajevo doesn’t give the option to go to Prijepolje.
   • You can find timetables here (only in Bosnian).

If you don’t speak the language, I would recommend the first two options, they will be the most straightforward and have frequent connections.

I would recommend using Google Flights to find the cheapest flights. I find it myself very complete (they don’t sponsor me to be clear) and you have the option to create a price alert (if you have a Gmail-account), so you’ll receive a notification when the price of your preferred flight changes.

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t necessarily want you to fly to the Sandžak. If you want to travel more ecologically, the bus will be the best option, since international trains towards Serbia and Montenegro are (at the moment) almost non-existent. If you want to find bus connections it’s probably best to check the website of the bus station you’re departing from or arriving to. Otherwise, websites like Omio or Rome2Rio may be a good starting point.

Going through: this is were it’s starts getting a bit complicated unfortunately

1. Bus: the most frequent option, but using them can be quite frustrating: the buses are often old, drivers a bit reckless and timetabels difficult to find. I used tree different websites to find out which bus was running when, but in the end I found those sites not so reliable. My advice would be: use those websites as a starting point, but if possible ask for information at the bus station, or send a message to the bus company directly. A general rule of thumb can be: if a website shows a lot of connections (like 4, 5 or more) you’ll probably be good. If it shows only one or two connections it may be better to verify at the bus station or with the bus company. Below the sites I used:
   • Polazak
   • Balkanviator
   • BusTicket4.me (mainly for Montenegro)
   • In and around Novi Pazar the main bus company is Sandžaktrans. You can find (reliable) timetables here.
2. Train: since there’s only one railway line that runs through the Sandžak (the Belgrade-Bar line), this won’t be a very useful way of transport. It covers only part of the region (Priboj, Prijepolje and Bijelo Polje) and if you want to cross the border you only have two trains a day, one of which runs during the night. Still, if you have the chance to take a train, I would recommend it (for the views and sometimes retro equipment). Tickets can be bought at the station.
   • Website of the Serbian railways (only in Serbian)
   • Website of the Montenegrin railways
3. Taxi: frustrated by the difficulties to find reliable timetables for the bus, this became a frequently used option during my journey. You can find some options in Novi Pazar here. In general I would recommend using official taxis (often yellow, with a company name and a telephone number on the side), mainly because it’s very easy to contact them via WhatsApp (they normally respond very quickly), but I can’t say I was ripped of by ‘unnoficial’ taxis. I always paid a little less than 1 euro per kilometer, with the prices being lower for longer distances (for example, for the trip between Rožaje to Berane (30 km), I paid 20 euros).
4. Car rental: the options in the Sandžak are very limited, you only have two rental agencies in Novi Pazar, but I can’t say anything about their reliability. Alternatively, you can rent a car in Belgrade or Podgorica and drive to the region. Check the rental conditions of your car before crossing the border though (it may be forbidden).

Accomodation

I will only recommend accomodations here that I liked and that (as far as I know) aren’t run by the mafia:

• Prijepolje: Apartman Planić, nice little apartment for two people with the friendliest owner.
• Novi Pazar: Hotel Vrbak, majestic hotel in the center of Novi Pazar, built over the Raška river. Not all rooms have airconditioning though.
• Pešter Plateau: Kamp Peštersko Polje, the accomodation is basic but the lovely owners, the food and the silence are more important.

I always recommend booking via WhatsApp or on the site of the hotel itself: it certainly won’t be more expensive than Booking.com and it probably gives you more flexibility (no cancellation fees for example). Even if you don’t speak the language, just give it a try: everybody knows Google Translate these days.

Food

Travelling to the Sandžak for the food? Good choice (unless you’re a vegetarian)! I’ll list my recommendations here below:

• Mahova Pekara, Prijepolje: a traditional bakery where you can try lepinja and ćevapi. Simple food, but it tastes just good.
• Doha Restaurant, Novi Pazar
• Kahva na žaru, Novi Pazar: coffee house in the garden of the Isa-Bey’s hammam, ask if you can take a look inside the hammam.
• Dva Jarana, Karajukića Bunari: small pub/restaurant on the Pešter Plateau, enjoy homemade food in a wooden house.
• Restoran Kero, Rožaje: restaurant owned by a Bosniak artist, so besides the food you’ll also enjoy the art.
• Slatko ćoše, Rožaje: pancakes, do I have to say more?
• Durmitor, Bijelo Polje: not been there myself, but recommended by a taxi driver. They seem to have quite the gun collection.

Eating in the Sandžak is a very nice experience and its one of these places where you can still have a meal for under 10 euros. Be aware though: alcohol won’t be available everywhere (although it’s not hard to find) and if you’re a vegetarian you’ll find it hard to find anything on the meat-oriented menus.

Other practicalities

Documents

• Check here which documents you need to travel to Serbia
• Check here which documents you need to travel to Montenegro

Money

• Serbia: dinar (RSD), check the current exchange rates here
• Montenegro: euro (EUR), check the current exchange rates here
• You can find ATM’s in all towns. Be sure to have some cash with you, because cards are not accepted everywhere (certainly on the countryside).

Safety

• Overall, the Sandžak felt very safe. I never felt threatened and I had the impression that most people were very friendly. The biggest risk is traffic: wearing a seatbelt is optional, speed limits are relative and using a phone behind the wheel is common.
• General emergency number: 112

Telecom

• I used an e-sim from Saily and was quite satisfied with it. If you stay for a longer period, a local sim will probably be cheaper. You can buy them at small kiosks you find in all towns. This site seems to give a good overview for Serbia and Montenegro.
• Telephone country codes: Serbia: +381; Montenegro: +387

Other

• Tap water: I never had problems drinking tap water, but be sure to ask the staff in your accomodation if it’s safe.
• Power plugs: check here if you need an adapter.
• Language: the people speak Serbian, Bosnian or Montenegrin, three variants of the same language (BCSM or Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian/Montenegrin). In my experience, few people know English, but I may be biased, since I speak the language myself. Some people may speak German, French or Russian too.

Welcome in the Montenegrin part of the Sandžak! At first sight, not so different from the Serbian Sandžak, but when you look closer you’ll see different dynamics, different landscapes and even … new infrastructure. So it’s more than necessary to spend some attention to this part too.

First of all, I want to stress here that it was not my intention to spend less attention to the Montenegrin part of the Sandžak. Unfortunately this will be the case (I will only write one post about this topic), because I could spend less time in Montenegro than I had hoped. Firstly, because of the delay whilst leaving the Pešter Plateau and secondly because of a lot of rain that kept me inside for the better part of my stay in Rožaje.

Rožaje, the center of the Bosniaks

When you look up Rožaje on Wikipedia, it says that it is the centre of the Bosniak community in Montenegro. And it’s something you notice when entering this town with its 14 000 inhabitants, together with the mountainous look and feel of this place. I arrived in Rožaje on the evening of the matura , the state exam at the end of secundary education which is celebrated with a kind of ‘prom’ ceremony. For this festive education the main street was covered with a red carpet and the boys and girls were dressed in their nicest costumes and dresses. What struck me the most were the flags of the Sandžak (green-blue with lilies and crescents) and Montenegro, brotherly hanging next to each other above the main street. It immediately gives you the impression that the Montenegrin and Bosniak identity aren’t irreconcilable.

The rest of the evening I rest, after my exhausting trip to the Pešter Plateau and only go out to eat something in a charming restaurant owned by a famous Bosniak artist (but more about that in the next post). I walk along the wild Ibar, a mountain river that springs from nearby the mountains and flows towards Central Serbia. The mountains here are higher than in Serbia, over 2000 metres, and you can see their snowy peaks not that far away. Together with the fresh air it creates a charming mountain town, albeit somewhat run-down.

A walk trough this odd-roofed town

The next morning I stay in my hotel for the better part of the day, because it’s raining a lot. The most exciting thing during these hours is a wedding procession during which gunshots are fired (hence the first part of the title). Although forbidden, it’s a tradition that’s still practiced in Montenegro (called šenlučenje), sometimes leading to injuries. It’s only after 3 p.m. that the precipitation somewhat stops and I risk to go outside. On the town square I see a tourist information board which suggests a small hike in and around the city center to discover historical Rožaje. So off I go, fully relying on this information panel.

First stop is the Zavičajni Muzej (or the local museum), located in an old watch tower. These local museums seem to be typical for the Sandžak (I also saw them in Prijepolje, Nova Varoš and Novi Pazar), but don’t expect to discover the new Louvre. In this particular case, the museums features three floors, showing you an array of different objects and pictures of Rožaje, a typical Ottoman room and some traditional clothing. There’s not much in terms of information or a coherent story, but the charm is there. When I visited the museum, I wasn’t sure if it was open, but two guys tidying up said I could visit it, so I walked around for twenty minutes, switched on the lights myself, and left knowing how a telephone in Rožaje looked like a hundred years ago. Still, the visit was free, so I don’t complain.

The next stop is more worth the effort: it’s the Kučanska Džamija, a small mosque in wood and bricks that is more than two centuries old. It’s probably one of the nicest and most charming mosques I’ve ever seen and the fact that you have to duck to go through the door makes it even more authentic. This mosque is actually an example of the typical style of Rožaje. The main characteristic of it being the fact the the roofs of the houses are very steep and four-sided. A lot of these houses disappeared, but you can still see examples of them around the town.

My walk brings me outside the center and into the hills, where the archeological remains of a Roman fortress from the third century (AD) await me. I’m more interested in the views on Rožaje and its neighbouring valleys though, which are quite stunning here, certainly with the cloud formations. The remainder of the hike leads me over some green hills, back into a side valley of the town, where I’d expect Heidi to pop up at any moment. Instead of Heidi though I get to see some traditional houses and the modern (main) mosque of Rožaje. It’s interesting to see how this town had a typical style back in the Ottoman times, that differs quite a bit from the styles a saw in Novi Pazar, Prijepolje and other towns in the region.

Before leaving Rožaje I want to give a small shout-out to palačinke or pancakes. Of course, pancakes exist all around the world in lots of different forms and flavours, but in Serbia and Montenegro (and probably the rest of the Balkan too), they seem to be particularly fond of them. In the Sandžak, pancakes with all kinds of krem (spread) and of course pieces of keks (biscuits or cookies, typically from the brand Plazma) are quite popular. I ate some in a small pancake house in Rožaje (for only 2 euros), but you’ll find them everywhere. Certainly give them a try!

The taxi driver/philosopher (part 2 & 3)

There I was, on a Sunday morning, waiting at the decaying bus station Rožaje for a bus to Bijelo Polje that would never come. Option two it was: a more expensive taxi. Luckily, with the ride you also get a conversation. And in this case I had good conversations. So let me tell you something more about the taxi drivers, because I think who they are and what they do, says a lot about the Sandžak.

The first taxi driver (I don’t know their names unfortunately) is a former police officer who likes to hunt. After he assured himself that I was not an illegal immigrant and possessed the right documents (some refugees travel through this region to enter the European Union), he tells me something interesting about the hotel I stayed in in Rožaje. It is owned by Safet (or Safo) Kalić, the mafia boss of Rožaje. Google his name and you’ll find terms like “narco boss” or “escape king“, but don’t you worry, because my taxi driver (and former police officer) repeatedly assured me that he was a real gospodin (or gentleman), that never killed anybody but only smuggled drugs. He was good friends with the former government of Milo Đukanović, but after a change of government he had to flee to Dubai. Nowadays it’s the family of Kalić that runs the hotel, so says my taxi driver.

After telling me about the mafia boss, the driver stops and takes of the taxi sign from his roof (he can’t pick up clients in another municipality), he drives further and – after 15 minutes or so – decides to put on his seatbelt. Then he starts to show me pictures of his bodybuilder son on his phone and tells me how it’s easy for him to cross the border into Serbia, since he knows the police officers at the border crossing. If this all sounds a bit ambiguous to you, I can assure you, he did ask a fair price for the trip to Berane, a town thirty kilometers to the west of Rožaje (20 euros).

In sleepy Berane I decide to immediately take a second taxi to Bijelo Polje. This time the taxi driver is a pensioner who loves to fish in the Lim, the river we are driving along. He only gets a minimum pension of 450 euros/month and after paying for his utilities he has only a 100 euros left. So he has to work as a taxi driver to earn another 450 euros, but he likes his job and doesn’t mind it. What he doesn’t like is the corruption in Montenegro. He gives me a recent example: a week ago the police of Bijelo Polje did an action in Berane to control if people were wearing their seatbelt and vice versa. Why? To avoid that people won’t pay a fine because they know the police officer, or his brother, mother, father … In Montenegro, he says, family ties are everything. If you belong to or know someone in the right families, everything is possible. Meanwhile, the economy is bad: a lot of people emigrate and the rest moves from the countryside to the city, hoping to find work there, but there isn’t any. It’s a shame, he thinks, because it’s possible to earn lots of money in the countryside, you only have to work hard.

This taxi driver too is a yugo-nostalgic who thinks life was better in Yugoslavia. The different nationalities were living together peacefully. Now you have five nationalities in Montenegro (Montenegrins, Serbians, Bosniaks, Albanians and Croats), but there are tensions, mainly with the Serbians. He himself is an ardent Montenegrin, who hopes for a better future. Maybe the EU will give us that future, although he’s pessimistic: “Every day I put on my television and hope for something positive … but it’s only negative.”

Sunday is rest day in Bijelo Polje

Still thinking about these conversations, I arrive in Bijelo Polje. A town with 13 000 inhabitants in the middle of the Montenegrin Sandžak, located on the banks of the river Lim, the same river as in Prijepolje. Here the population is more mixed compared to overwhelmingly Bosniak-Rožaje: 40% Bosniaks, 25% Serbians and 20% Montenegrins. The difference is visible in the lack of Bosniak flags and graffitis for Bosniak parties. Unfortunately, I can’t tell you much about my visit to Bijelo Polje, because I was there on a Sunday, and they tend to respect their Sunday rest quite well. So shops were closed, streets were quiet and people were sparse.

What I did discover in Bijelo Polje was something I’d barely seen before in the Sandžak: new (public) infrastructure. Being a little bit of a train enthusiast, I decided to go to the railway station of Bijelo Polje, located in an industrial zone at the edge of the town (there’s another smaller station close to the city center called Lješnica). And what a delight it was to see an actual modern, functioning station, clean, accessible for disabled and blind people and with urine inside the toilet, rather than on the floor of the pedestrian tunnel. I don’t know why this station is in such a good shape (maybe because it’s the station where the night train from Belgrade to Bar stops for customs and other formalities), but I would very much recommend the authorities to upgrade the other stations in a similar way.

Walking back along the bank of the Lim I encounter another piece of new infrastructure: a nice waterfront with benches and a playground. After this, I do a small tour through the city center of Bijelo Polje with its Parc of Poets (with the statues of local poets), its mosque and more memorably its small but suprisingly old Orthodox church (the Church of Saint Peter and Paul, built in the 12th century). Also, if you’re there, try to take a look at the fire station: they have some nice retro equipment.

And so, on a Sunday evening in Bijelo Polje whilst eating palačinke, ends my journey through the Sandžak. A hidden gem with stunning nature and lovely people, but visiting it is not always a walk in the park. Luckily, in my last post I will try to make this region a little more accessible with some practical information.

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My journey through the Sandžak:

Imagine seeing herds of sheeps, cows and even goats in a vast landscape. Some scattered villages with minarets, shiny domes and small houses. Meanwhile a car drives on a lonely road towards the horizon (or the next village)… That is where we’re going in this post: the Pešter Plateau.

Before I start this post, I probably owe you an apology. The title of this post is quite misleading: firstly, yes, I spent a night on the coldest place of Serbia, but not at a moment that it was particulary cold and, secondly, in this post I will actually talk more about the days before and after the night than about the night itself. With this pure clickbait behind us, let’s start this story.

UNESCO heritage in different forms

After visiting Novi Pazar, I leave the city in an old German bus (see my previous post) with my first stop being the monastery of Sopoćani. To get there we have to drive out of busy Novi Pazar, through the suburbs into the forested hills that surround the city. After 30 minutes or so the bus stops at the monastery and I get off. The monastery of Sopoćani dates back to the 13th century and was an endowment of Stefan Uroš I, one of the first (and also most important) kings of medieval Serbia, with the intention of being his burial church. Starting from the 16th centruy the monks had to leave several times due to the Ottoman threat, and eventually leaving definitively at the end of the 17th century. The monastery was then deserted up until the 20th century. Eventually the delapidated church would be restored, but not the surrounding buildings (of which you can still see the ruins). The monastery was declared a World Heritage Site in 1979 and is still in use (with some new buildings outside the old walls).

At the entrance there is a sign that foreign visitors have to pay a 5 euro entrance fee, but since there is no one controlling it and since I’m practically a Serbian with my language skills (😉), I decide not to pay the fee. Some church-goers are sitting outside on benches underneath a canopy, talking and enjoying a drink. A few girls walk around, dressed in identical skirts. I ask them if today is a special day an it turns out te be another slava, the annual ‘feast’ of the monastery. Although this time it seems to be without procession and giant icon, in contrast to the one in Prijepolje. The monastery itself is well-kept (as always) and gives you nice views across the valley. The church has some really nice frescoes, although somewhat damaged (which is logical considering the two centuries of abandonment). The frescoes were influenced by Byzantine art and are among the most beautiful in Serbia. Since taking pictures wasn’t allowed, I will only show a few (illegal) pictures here. All in all it’s a very pleasant experience, both the monastery itself as its surroundings, although you won’t walk around for hours.

On the other side of the road, you can go to the source of the river Raška, but be aware that this includes walking (or rather sliding) down a quite steep trail after which you arrive at a small water reservoir that you have to cross (you can walk on the concrete edge) in order to climb some steps up to the cave out of which the water flows (or rather gushes). It’s a very pleasant setting, but unfortunately the trash lying everywhere around you quite ruins it. It’s a painful conclusion that a lot of the people in the Sandžak don’t seem to care much about their trash (just drive on any random road and you’ll see what I mean).

Maybe you wonder: why would I want to see the source of an unkown (and only 60-km long) river in Serbia? Good question, fact is that this river gave its name to the region of Raška, which is today an oblast (a district) in Serbia but was historically deeply connected with the Serbian medieval state. Small history lesson: at the end of the 11th century the Grand Principality of Serbia emerged and soon also included the Raška region, which became the center of the principality, with the city of Ras being its capital. The principality eventually became a kingdom in the 13th century with the name Raška or Rascia becoming a synonym for this state. As such, you would expect the source of the river that gave its name to this all to be a popular destination for the (fairly nationalistic) Serbians. Based on my experience (I was completely alone and it was not very accessible) I would say that that assumption was wrong.

After the source of the Raška I decided to stay in theme and visit the nearby remnants of Stari Ras (or Old Ras), as said, the former capital of medieval Serbia. Together with Sopoćani it forms one World Heritage Site. To get from one to another you can just follow the asphalt road or go through the forests (at your own risk, I did this but the path isn’t always that visible), it’s only 5 km. Stari Ras is located on a hill, which is logical considering it served as a frontier fortress in the Roman Empire (before becoming the capital of the Serbian kingdom). As such it still offers beautiful views on Novi Pazar. The fortress itself is in quite a good shape and you can clearly see the outline of the city and some remnants of its buildings. Unfortunately, the facilities are somewhat limited: I found exactly one information panel with some very limited explanation, the entrance of the site is quite ‘subtle’ and the path down the hill towards the usual starting point for a visit of Stari Ras is in a bad shape and I almost fell a few times while descending. Ironically, the tourist village at the foot the hill where you start your visit is in an excellent shape. Serbia and its heritage (even World Heritage): it doesn’t seem the best combination.

The Pešter Plateau

Once descended, I’m ready for the main goal of this trip: the Pešter Plateau, the largest field of Serbia (50 km²), located to the southwest of Novi Pazar at an altitude between 1000 to 1500 metres. It is also known as the ‘Siberia of the Sandžak’ for its harsh winters and is only sparsely populated. I order a taxi and whilst waiting I take a look at the remnants of Staro Trgovište or Old Marketplace (in contrast to the New Marketplace or Novi Pazar), an important trading center during the Middle Ages that was connected with the fortress of Stari Ras, but would end up abandoned.

The Pešter Plateau (or Peštersko Polje) doesn’t come unexpected: while driving, you see how the landscape changes, the forested hills are replaced by a wider landscape of lower grass hills. Finally you cross the last ridge and the majestic plateau unfolds itself before your eyes. You see herds of sheep and cows and it feels odd to be in such a vast landscape after all the hills and hairpin turns. The taxi driver drops me of at the gas station of Karajukića Bunari, a village in the middle of the plateau and I walk towards the Kamp Peštersko Polje, my place for the night.

The camp has a bit of a ‘wild-west’ vibe and is hosted by a lovely couple that changed busy Novi Pazar for the silence of the plateau and offers some small bungalows, homemade food and horse rides. It’s all quite basic (don’t expect a hot shower) but the views, the food and the quietness more then make up for it. After I’ve installed myself I go for a walk to the Peštersko Jezero (or the Lake of Pešter). It’s a pleasant environment and the herds with their shepherds remember me of long-gone times (without becoming too romantic). The plateau is slightly rolling but that doesn’t impede the view. Although most of the land seems to be used for cattle breeding, there is some arable land too. The lake itself is quite shallow and I wouldn’t be surprised if it varies greatly in surface, depending on the rainfall. Apparently there are fish living in it, since a few men are fishing. The surrounding terrain is marked as swamp on the map, although the cracks in the ground indicate that the soil is rather dry at the moment.

After some contemplation near the lake I walk back to Karajukića Bunari and walk around the village. It’s a small village (only a hundred people) but still offers a mosque (with a live view of grazing cows), a post office, a school, a gas station, an office of a political party (or at least a sign that says so), a fastfood place and a small restaurant. The wooden houses are quite low and the barns and cattle in their gardens indicate the main profession of the villagers. It is here that the lowest temperature ever in Serbia was recorded: -39,6° C. The cold temperatures are made possible because of so-called ‘lakes’ of cold air: when the ground is covered in snow and the night is clear and without wind, cold air from the mountains around the plateau descends and creates these lakes. Luckily, today it’s a bit warmer but I still decide to enter the small restaurant for a Bosnian coffee. The owner seems a bit grumpy and asks if I don’t want to eat anything. I just order some bread (knowing i will have diner later in the camp), but eventually he comes out of the kitchen with domaći sir (homemade cheese), ćevapi (small sausages) and an unknown vegetable (and bread of course). I don’t refuse and eat it with great relish. When I ask the bill, he answers me that I don’t have to pay, that it’s his treat. Walking back to the camp, I realize that this seems to be a typical example of Slavic friendliness: at first a person can seem grumpy or even unfriendly, but in the end they will help you the best they can and give you a warm welcome, without expecting much in return. It’s a sincere attitude that I quite like.

Before I go to sleep, I want to give some attention to cycling. I went to the plateau by taxi, but some local organisations in the Sandžak have started to promote cycling on the plateau, an activity I think is very suitable for this place. Check out their site here, if you’re interested.

A hitchhiker’s guide to Montenegro

After a windy night in the camp I eat breakfast and get ready to leave. I pay (only 37 euros for 2 meals and a bungalow) and chat a bit with the owners before walking to the main road where a taxi driver would come to pick me up. Would come, because he never arrived. It seemed that some misunderstanding had left him with the impression that I didn’t need a ride anymore. So, hitchhiking it is, luckily the second car that passes already stops. Today I have to get to Ribariće, where I’ll take a bus to Rožaje, the starting point of the Montenegrin part of my journey (you can see my route here).

The driver, a friendly local, drops me off in the small village of Suvi Do where he says a bus will arrive around noon. I can’t find anything about the bus online, but I decide to trust him: public transport and online time schedules aren’t a good match in the Sandžak. I have some time to kill, but luckily a few school children provide entertainment: it’s nearly noon and the nearby basic school is finished, so all the children are leaving. When they see me, they seem to have the discovery of their life: a foreign guy speaking their language, it’s not usual in Suvi Do. Soon I’m surrounded by kids asking me all sort of questions: “Where are you from?” “Which language do you speak?” “What are you doing here?” When do you come back to Suvi Do?” “Can we have your Instagram?” They also ask me to say “[name of a friend] je budalo” (meaning “he/she is a fool”) in Dutch (my mother tongue). When I say the phrase they find it hilarious that I can insult someone without him or her understanding it. The kids seem to live a happy life and don’t find it boring in small Suvi Do. They don’t speak a word of English though, which I hope isn’t an indication of the quality of Serbian education. Unfortunately, the bus already arrives and I have to shake a lot of hands before I can jump on it.

The taxi driver/philosopher

The bus first takes me back into the hills, away from the plateau and then drives back down, into the valley where we arrive in Tutin, a small town with 11 000 inhabitants. I won’t say much about it here, because I was only there for about half an hour, but it felt a bit like a mini-Novi Pazar. Once arrived I decide to take a taxi to cover the remaining 20 km to Ribariće. Normally finding a taxi is no problem, but just when I really need them the most, they all seem to have their lunch break. So eventually I send a message to the taxi driver from that morning, who didn’t show up in Pešter. Luckily this time he does show up and so we leave Tutin.

The taxi driver turns out to be a nice guy. His name is Mithat, he’s a Bosniak who has worked for 15 years in Germany, so we speak a mix of Serbian and German. He went to Germany in the 90’s, away from the war, although there was no fighting in the Sandžak. The tensions were so high though that people still fled. In Germany he worked in construction but after an accident he couldn’t do the hard work anymore and returned to Serbia where he became a taxi driver. About the Serbs he says that “they did a lot of evil things in Bosnia during the war: killing people, even children and raping women.” Today though the relations between the ethnic groups are okay, he says, although there always remains some tension.

When it comes to the economical situation in the Sandžak, Mithat is mixed: “The economy is good: we have money because a lot of people emigrate and send money to their families here, but what are we with all that money if we don’t have decent schools or hospitals?” It’s a strange reasoning: I wouldn’t say the economy is good if everyone emigrates. Mithat himself gives the example of his uncle whose four children all live abroad, and they are no exception. He also shows signs of so called Yugo-nostalgia, or a certain longing for Yugoslavia, which a lot of people here seem to have. “In Yugoslavia, people didn’t have money but they laughed and chatted with each other, now, we have money, but we have lost our zest for life.” When we talk about the political situation, he says that of course the people in the Sandžak want independence, but the region is divided between three countries (with the third one being Bosnia, I assume), so it’s not very realistical. “The most important thing though – regardless if we are part of Serbia or independent – is that there is peace.” And with this quote we arrive in small Ribariće, where I wait for my bus to Montenegro (who arrives half an hour late) and where this post ends.

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My journey through the Sandžak:

Dobro došli u Novi Pazar! Welcome in Novi Pazar, the unofficial capital of the Sandžak! A city with some quite unique characteristics and architecture I’ve had never seen before. Join me on a tour of impressions through this chaotic city with its giant cemetery and aromatic coffee roasteries!

What is Novi Pazar?

So, let’s start with the dry facts. Novi Pazar is the biggest city in the Sandžak, located in the (south)east of the region and in the southwest of Serbia, not far from the border with Montenegro and Kosovo. It has a population of 70 000 people in the city itself, and around 105 000 in the broader municipality. The city was founded in the 15th century under Ottoman rule and literally means New Marketplace (in contrast to the Old Marketplace about which I will tell in my next post) or Yeni Pazar in Turkish. It is located in a valley, created by four rivers: the Jošanica, Deževska, Ljudska and (famous) Raška. The city is surrounded by green mountains, with the Pešter Plateau to the west (but more on that too later) and is famous for its textile industry and thermal baths. But before this post becomes a Wikipedia page, let’s share some of my impressions of the city …

A chaotic city

Since I myself am not immune to the influence of influencers, I decided to do what a lot of Youtube vloggers do when they are in an unknown city: just jump in a taxi and ask the driver to give you a tour of their city. Mind you, I still think this can be a good idea, but on two conditions: 1) the driver has to actually know something about his city and 2) there must not be too much traffic in the city, so that you can actually move. Unfortunately, these two conditions weren’t met when I took a tour. During my tour I saw the oldest mosque of the city (but only it wasn’t) and the oldest church of Serbia (it was), learned that there used to be more snow in the winter and that my driver had good and bad days during his military service in Slovenia. Most of the tour though, we sat in the car, waiting for the traffic to move.

This brings me to my first impression of Novi Pazar: it’s surprisingly chaotic for what is actually a relatively small city. When I arrived in Novi Pazar after a wild and exhausting bus ride from Prijepolje (only 120 km, but it took us more than 3,5 hours) I wasn’t ready for all the honking and slow-moving traffic in the main street (called Stevana Nemanje), although you still have to be quite careful when crossing the road. Luckily, there is a pedestrian zone in the center, but there you have a surprising amount of small electric vehicles (steps and scooters). It’s probably not the most special characteristic, but it’s something that struck me.

Chaotic in this post also has a slightly different meaning: it’s unfinished, run-down or just a bit rough around the edges. Not that it’s a dangerous city (it’s not), but it’s just not the most ‘refined’ city. Take the houses for example: a lot of them aren’t really finished. It’s not something unique for Novi Pazar though: you see it all around the Balkan and I looked online for an explanation (I didn’t dare to just ask a homeowner why his house was unfinished): it mainly seems a consequence of a culture of ‘self-financing’, people don’t get a loan to build a house, but finance it with their own money. When there is no more money, they pause the construction until they have budget again, thus making the construction of houses last a lot longer than elsewhere (this article explains the phenomenon for Montenegro). It doesn’t necessarily mean that the houses aren’t inhabited, often they are, but with exposed brick walls, unpainted and unplastered, and sometimes a building even has a finished ground floor with an unfinished first floor (probably added on later).

Run-down is a better word when we speak about the public infrastructure: it was once finished, but now it’s a little bit … crumbling. Take the bus station for example: for the main transport hub it is in a surprisingly bad shape. A circular building awaits you, with a seemingly inaccessible ticket office (just buy your ticket on the bus), lots of graffiti and small broken tiles with weeds growing between them. Digital information screens, you say? No, just look on the analogue (paper) timetable. The buses themselves come in different shapes and colours, mine being an old German one where you could still einsteigen and aussteigen (to get on and off ). Those are things I saw earlier in Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan (although maybe not even that bad), but I didn’t expect them in Serbia, a much richer country. It pains me to say that I sometimes had the impression of being in an underdeveloped country.

In my previous post I launched the theory that in the Sandžak only religious buildings were (consequently) in a good shape. But then came the Roman-Catholic church in Prijepolje, which was in a terrible shape. In Novi Pazar I decided to take a look at the Jewish cemetery, not expecting much (with the church in mind). It turned out to be more of a grass field rather than a cemetery. As in: the grass was so high that you couldn’t see many of the gravestones. The cemetery is “under special protection” but I’m not sure what this means in Serbia, since I saw signs like these at the most dilapidated buildings. So, it seems I have to adjust my theory a bit: only religious buildings with a living community (Orthodox or Islamic) behind them consequently seem to be in a good shape in the Sandžak.

A Bosniak city

When I speak about a Bosniak city, this has a religious and an ethnical aspect. Let’s start with religion. In contrast to Prijepolje, in Novi Pazar the majority of the people (around 80%) is Islamic. This is something that you notice immediately when coming from another (non-Muslim-majority) city. The first and most obvious sign is clothing. In Novi Pazar you see a lot of women with head scarves (or hijabs) and even women wearing a niqab (a garment covering the entire body and face) aren’t that exceptional. For me this was somewhat unexpected: having been in cities like Sarajevo (with also around 80% Muslims), I knew I would see more people with head scarves then in Prijepolje. Still I have the impression that in Sarajevo the only people wearing niqabs are tourists from the Middle East, while in Novi Pazar it’s mostly local women wearing a niqab (also because when I was there in May 2026, it seemed like there weren’t much tourists). But don’t get me wrong: the majority of people are still wearing ‘western’ (without wanting to sound too stereotypical) clothing and it’s very common to see ‘mixed’ groups (with people wearing both Islamic and ‘western’ clothing). So based on these – completely unscientific – observations I would say they practice a quite moderate Islam in the Sandžak.

Secondly, let’s talk about architecture. Novi Pazar has some quite special buildings that I had never seen before. I would describe the architecture in the city as a mix of communist brutalism with eastern or Islamic styles. A good example of this is the Hotel Vrbak in the city center. Built over the river Raška in the mid-seventies it is one of the landmarks of the city. You can see the oriental (or Islamic) influences in its dome, the arch windows and small circular ‘extensions’ around the rhomboid structure of the hotel. SInce I’m not an architect expert though, I will let the pictures speak for them. Suffice it to say that the hotel isn’t the only example of this architecture in Novi Pazar (see the end of the gallery).

Going from the religious towards the ethnical aspect. I would say another sign of the Bosniak nature of Novi Pazar, is the sense of a certain connection with the Palestinians. It is something you can recognize in graffiti, flags and (quite beautiful) murals and is also visible elsewhere in the Sandžak (and in Bosnia). If you think about it, it’s also quite logical: not only do they share the same faith with the Palestinians, I can imagine that the current situation of the Palestinians brings back quite painful memories from the nineties for many Bosniak people.

Last but not least, let’s talk about the Bosniak identity. This identity is quite present in Novi Pazar and is emphasized in different ways: you see it in the Bosniak flags, in murals, in the offices of the different parties representing the Bosniak minority in Serbia and in the graffiti calling for the autonomy of the Sandžak. Although I never had the impression of travelling through a militant separatist region. As I said in my introduction: the political parties are pretty much incorporated in the Serbian political system and people seem to be quite aware that independence or unification aren’t very realistic options. I would say that the Bosniak identity is certainly present and emphasized, but without a real(istic) striving towards political autonomy or independence.

A football-loving city

Imagine going to Paris to visit the Eiffel Tower, to see that it is covered with a giant banner calling you to go to the next game of the football club PSG. Wouldn’t that be odd? It is (with a bit of exaggeration) what they do in Novi Pazar. When I was there the 15th-century fortress of the city (under renovation) was decorated with a banner saying “Svi na Marakanu” meaning “Everyone to Marakana”, Marakana being the stadium of Red Star Belgrade, the most succesfull football club in Serbia. On the ninth of May 2026, the team of Novi Pazar played against Red Star in Belgrade and won. I wasn’t there at that time but I can imagine they were pretty happy in Novi Pazar.

Football thus is quite present when strolling through the streets of Novi Pazar. Especially if you stroll along the banks of the Raška, which are decorated with murals from the supporter groups of FK Novi Pazar, some of which have quite a ‘colourful’ reputation. So if you want the real Novi Pazar experience: go to the stadium (it’s located quite close to the center) on matchday and enjoy the game, but I’m not responsible for any hearing damage.

An Ottoman city

The last aspect of Novi Pazar I would like to talk about is the fact that it is an Ottoman city. As I said earlier, it was founded in the 15th century by the Ottomans and that’s something that is still visible today. Mainly in the city center where you find some elements that are typical for former Ottoman cities. The sebilj for example, a wooden fountain where you can get free water, although the one in Novi Pazar is a replica from the one in Sarajevo.

Just as in Sarajevo, Novi Pazar also has an old town, in which you can stroll between the typical Ottoman houses with small shops in them. In one of these, you can find the Amir-agha inn, a charming inn from the 17th century which used to be part of the bazaar. Next to the inn we smell the pleasant aromas of the coffee roasteries that are also common in the center. By the way, I would certainly recommend to drink a Bosnian (unfiltered) coffee in one of the coffee houses. Making it involves a whole ritual about which you can read more here. It’s a tasteful (and cheap) drink that comes with some lokum (Turkish delight, a kind of sweets) and automatically makes you relax.

Unfortunately, not all the Ottoman heritage is in a good shape. The prime example of this being the Isa-Bey’s hammam, one of the oldest monuments of Novi Pazar built in the second half of the 15th century. It was a public bath house with identical rooms for men and women featuring 11 domes and a fountain. It is protected and was declared a national monument in 1983, but is largely inaccessible and in a terrible state. When I asked the waiter of the nearby coffee house if there where plans to renovate it, he answered that there have been plans for 10 years, but nothing ever happens and that it’s all lies. Honestly, it’s quite shameful how Serbia treats its monuments. If you want to see it though, go drink a coffee in the garden of the coffee house next to the hammam and ask the waiter if you can take a look inside.

The Ottoman Empire has been gone for over a century. What has remained of it, is its heritage, but maybe also its influence. By this I mean, if you walk around in Novi Pazar, Prijepolje or Rožaje there is a subtle thing that you will see a lot: signs that say that this or that (government or religious) building was financed by the European Union or some Middle Eastern country, but most of all by TIKA, the Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency, the USAID of Turkey so to say. It is quite remarkable how present they are in the region and if you ask me, they’re not just doing it for the buildings.

Novi Pazar is …

So what is Novi Pazar? I would say it’s a quite unique mix of the above-mentioned aspects. Would I recommend a visit to the city? Not if you’re looking for a refined, aesthetically pleasing and calm destination. But if you like it a bit differently and want to see some architecture that you’ve never seen before whilst enjoying a cheap coffee, then just give it a try!

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My journey through the Sandžak:

What happens when you ask a local in Prijepolje what’s interesting in his town? You’ll end up driving around in his car for an hour and a half, seeing not only the town, but also a canyon/film set and a medieval monastery, after which he pays for your lunch. I won’t say this necessarily will happen to you, but it happened to me during my first day in the Sandžak. Off to a good start…

After a good night of sleep, I wake up in Prijepolje. The previous evening I arrived in this small town from Sarajevo, after a 3,5-hour drive in a small van . Prijepolje is located in the northern part of the Serbian Sandžak, close to the Montenegrin and Bosnian border (you can see my route through the region here). Its 30 000 inhabitants can enjoy the beautiful hilly surroundings as well as the confluence of the wild Lim and Mileševka rivers. I myself, an ignorant tourist, decide to ask the friendly owner of my apartment if he can give me some recommendations in Prijepolje. We end up talking and before I know it we jump in his car for a ‘quick’ tour around Prijepolje.

A monastery, a canyon and a film set

While driving, we talk about life, religion and Prijepolje. The owner (I prefer not to share his name here) talks about Prijepolje in the nineties. Back then there were around 50 000 inhabitants, but a lot of them emigrated, because of ethnic tensions and later on because of the bad economy. The Serbians, he says, had the feeling that everything belonged to them and so in Bosnia they did things like Srebrenica and other cruelties. He’s talking about the genocide in Srebrenica in 1995, where 8000 Bosniak men were killed by Bosnian Serb soldiers, an event that the Serbians until today don’t recognize as a genocide. He himself is a Bosniak and speaks passionately about his beliefs. The Christians, he tells me, say that Jesus is the son of God. But Jesus had a nationality, an ethnicity, so how can he be the son of God, if God is universal? It’s an interesting thought on which I can’t reply much, since my Bosnian vocabulary contains only a limited number of theological terms. Still, he has no problem at all showing me the monastery of Mileševa.

The monastery is located to the southeast of Prijepolje, along the Mileševka and dates from the 13the century. It features a church of which the lower parts are decorated with beautiful frescoes. The most famous one being the fresco from the White Angel (Beli Anđeo), showing an angel sitting on the tomb of Christ (unfortunately, taking pictures wasn’t allowed, so you’ll have to Google it). Beside the church there is a kind of guest house where pilgrims can stay, a shop, a picnic place at the bank of the river and of course a parking for all the buses with visitors. The monastery is quite popular, also because the relics of Saint Sava, probably the most important Serbian saint, were kept here up until the end of the 16th century. No wonder everything is well-maintained and in a very good shape.

We continue our trip and soon arrive in the canyon of the Mileševka, a beautiful canyon, where you can hear but not see (too much trees and bushes) the river flowing. The asphalt road changes into a gravel path and eventually we continue on foot, since there are too many rocks. The owner explains to me that in Yugoslavian times, they wanted to construct a road here that connects Prijepolje with Sjenica, a town 30 km to the southeast of Prijepolje. But, in Sjenica the population is almost exclusively Bosniak, while in Prijepolje only 40% of the people are Bosniaks. So the Serbians, wanting to avoid too much connection between the Muslims, obstructed the construction and the road was never finished. I’ couldn’t entirely confirm this story, but it’s a fact that along this path we find multiple tunnels that were clearly built for cars and not for hikers and squirrels. In one of these tunnels the famous Serbian movie Lepa sela lepo gore (Pretty Village, Pretty Flame, 1996) was filmed. It tells the story of a group of Bosnian Serb soldiers during the Bosnian War, trapped in a tunnel by Bosniaks. A popular, but not uncontroversial movie.

A mosque with a robot vacuum cleaner

We turn back to the city center and I ask him if he thinks that the road will ever be finished. He says it’s possible, but it depends from politics. Without Kosovo, he says, there are around 6 million people in Serbia, of which 2 million live in the capital. So where does all the money go? To the capital. And in Serbia, we have a lot of corruption: if you’re a member of the ruling party [the SNS, Srpska Napredna Stranka], everything is possible: even a baker or a taxi driver can become a minister, even if you’re incompetent. If I look around me, I can’t argue with him: the infrastructure is bad and looks old, certainly compared with Belgrade, where there are a lot of fancy building projects.

We arrive at the mosque, where the owner usually prays. It’s a small and simple mosque with some Ottoman tombstones in the yard. The inside is simple and of course without frescoes, but it does feature a robot vacuum cleaner, making sure the carpet stays clean all the time. I laugh at the sight: who says the Islam can’t be modern? We drive through the city center, past the market and the big mosque and a pattern becomes clear to me: the only buildings that are consequently in a good shape, are religious buildings. Private houses are often not entirely finished, with exposed brick walls, while government buildings look old and almost derelict. Maybe this says something about who has money in Serbia?

Our tour is almost finished but before we end I ask the owner if he wants the Sandžak to join Bosnia. He nods negatively: “there is no need to, nowadays we can do everything we want: speak Bosnian, go the mosque … The relations between Serbians and Bosniaks are okay, there are some tensions, but we can live peacefully.” Still, three of his children study in Sarajevo, rather than in Belgrade. Why? Because its’ a better environment, he says. Our tour ends and he stops close to a bakery where he orders a komplet with ćevapi for me: it consists of lepinja (flat bread) with scrambled eggs, kajmak (a kind of cheese) and ćevapi, the small sausages that are the pride of approximately everyone in the Balkan. I protest, but can’t avoid that he pays my lunch, after which he leaves me and goes back to work. Hospitality at its peak.

A Yugoslavian Dom Kulture and a shaky bridge

After lunch I wander around in Prijepolje and end up in the Dom Kulture, or Culture House. The name says it all: a theater/library/music school that was built in 1979 (back then called the House of Revolution). From the outside it looks run-down, but the inside is actually pretty nice (some financial support from Turkey may have helped with that). Two friendly ladies show me around. It has a great hall that can accommodate over a thousand visitors (a little much maybe, but remember, this was a way bigger town back then), and a small hall with 200 seats. Furthermore there is a library, music school and two galleries. One with quite modern local art and one that is currently closed but is dedicated to the local history. All in all, a pleasant surprise and my first Yugoslavian Dom Kulture.

I continue my walk and pass by the big Mahmut-Begova mosque and the Orthodox church, both nicely decorated, the first one with geometric patterns and a dark wooden interior, the second one with colourful frescoes. I decide to go to the other bank of the Lim, crossing the most shaky and rusty pedestrian bridge I have ever seen. The other bank is mainly a residential area, but it’s also where the railway station is located. As a train enthusiast I was eager to see it, but it turned out to be a bit of a disappointment: the station was in a bad shape, featuring tracks covered with weeds, an old railway building and a passenger tunnel with such an intense urine smell that I didn’t dare to enter it. My assumption about the infrastructure was once again confirmed. Still, a few trains a day stop at the station, being located on the line between Belgrade and Bar in Montenegro.

The fortress of Mileševac

Having some energy left, I decide to take a taxi to the fortress of Mileševac. A fortress that was built in the 14th century and is located on top of a cliff at the other side of the canyon from the Mileševka. I saw it on my trip to the tunnels in the morning and was intrigued by it. It’s located in a small village, Hisardžik, and was actually part of a medieval town (also called Mileševac), with the fortress located on top of the cliff and the lower town being where today Hisardžik is located. In the village there is a small mosque with a beautiful 400-years old handwritten Quran. But the mosque was closed, so no pictures here. I walk up the cliff along a path that changes between being clearly visible and non-existent. After a short but exhausting hike I arrive at the fortress: the views are stunning, but the fortress itself isn’t quite accessible and seems to consist mainly of crumbling walls (in contrary to what the information panel says). It has great tourist potential, but unfortunately, it doesn’t seem to get much care.

When I’m walking back from the fortress I once again pass by the monastery of Mileševa. There I observe a scene that seems to be illustrative for the infrastructure in the Sandžak: an old Lada with three police officers cramped inside passes by. A minute later, an Orthodox priest leaves in his brand new Škoda-SUV.

Leaving Prijepolje

Before ending this long post, I only want to describe two more things. The next day, when I was preparing to leave for Novi Pazar, I passed by the Orthodox church where there was quite a crowd. A lot of policemen were watching and even the fire brigade and an ambulance were present. What was happening? It was the slava of the church. This is the annual celebration and veneration of the patron saint of a family, monastery or church. A very important event for Serbians, for which – in this case – a procession was held. The procession featured a lot of Serbian flags (with or without coat of arms), including one of the longest flags I’ve ever seen, people in traditional clothing, a pick-up truck with a giant icon, a lot of clergy and lay people holding small icons. Quite impressive, if it where not for all the umbrellas (it was raining heavily) that made it all a little less … solemn?

While waiting for this procession to leave, I decide to quickly take a look at the small Roman-Catholic church, that was located at the other bank of the Lim. It was built during the Austrian-Hungarian time near the barracks of the (Catholic) soldiers. The information panel states that it “enjoys the protection and affection of all citizens of Prijepolje.” I’m willing to believe that, but it certainly does not get much protection and affection from the government …

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My journey through the Sandžak:

Welcome on the first ‘People’ series of my blog! In this series I will take you on a journey through the Sandžak of Novi Pažar, the little-known border region between Serbia and Montenegro. But don’t worry, it won’t be a boring history lesson, rather an array of impressions of this beautiful region with its shitty infrastructure and friendly people. Before we embark on this adventure though, let’s start with a little introduction.

When I told friends, family or colleagues that I was going to travel to the Sandžak of Novi Pazar, the reactions can be summarized as “What?” and “Where is that?” So I got the impression that the Sandžak of Novi Pazar, or short: the Sandžak, isn’t a particulary well-known region in the world, unless maybe you live there or have a special interest in Southeastern Europe. Assuming most of my readers are neither, I think it would be quite fitting to give some background information about this region and what makes it different than the rest of Serbia and Montenegro.

How it came to be …

In the 19th century the two countries to which the Sandžak nowadays belongs became independent from the (less and less) mighty Ottoman Empire. Serbia gained independence in 1815 and Montenegro in 1878. These two countries are actually quite similar: they share the same religion (Orthodox Christianity) and are both South Slavic states speaking (more or less) the same language. So you can imagine that the (also less and less) dominant Central European power, Austria-Hungary, wasn’t keen on this two countries merging into one big South Slavic state, supported by Russia. That would be a rather big threat to their southern border. Thus, also in 1878, when after one of many wars between the Ottoman and Russian empire the map of the Balkan was redrawn, Austria-Hungary took its chance and military occupied the Sandžak of Novi Pazar, in this way creating a buffer zone between Serbia and Montenegro.

But, what was this Sandžak? Well actually, the Sandžak as such never really existed. The word is derived from the Ottoman Turkish word sancak, meaning flag or banner, and was used to indicate an administrative division within the Ottoman empire. Thus in the 19^th century there were around 150 of these sancaks (or districts), of which one was located around the city of Novi Pazar, a city in what is today southeastern Serbia, close to the border with Kosovo and only forty-something kilometers from Montenegro. The sancak of Novi Pazar was only created after an administrative reorganization in 1864, but still came to be the only sancak of which we speak today, but then in the Serbo-Croatian form of the word: the Sandžak.

The occupation of the region by Austria-Hungary had an unforeseen side-effect: the Muslim population in the Sandžak largely continued to live there, since the Austrian-Hungarians wanted to protect them as a counterweight against Orthodox influence. This wasn’t the case in the independent states of Serbia and Montenegro, where, as you can imagine, they weren’t big supporters of the religion of their former (in their words) suppressor. Austria-Hungary ended its occupation in 1908, but the Ottoman Empire could enjoy its regained rule only for a few more years, since after the Balkan Wars in 1912-1913 the Sandžak was lost definitively and was divided between Serbia and Montenegro. Still, the following decades, the Muslims could largely maintain their presence in the region, thus creating the main characteristic of the Sandžak: it is populated mainly by Muslims, in contrast to the other parts of Serbia and Montenegro.

Becoming Bosniak

Fast forward to the eighties and nineties: the communist state of Yugoslavia (which also had Serbia and Montenegro within its borders) is falling apart after the death of its leader Josip Broz Tito, the glue that held together the different nationalities of this multi-ethnic state. Nationalism is on the rise and erupts particularly violent in Bosnia and Herzegovina, where the Catholic Croats, Islamic Bosniaks and Orthodox Serbians start fighting each other. If you ask me, they aren’t that different: they speak variants of the same language (Serbo-Croatian or Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian/Montenegrin (BCSM) as it is called today), eat the same things and listen to the same type of music. But remember: these were very nationalistic times and hatred was omnipresent.

These events also had an effect on the Sandžak. Based on religious and historical reasons, the Muslims start to identify more and more as Bosniaks (who speak Bosnian), thus expressing a certain connection with the Bosniaks in Bosnia and Herzegovina. This also leads to a wish for political autonomy or even unification with Bosnia and Herzegovina. Political parties were formed, tensions between Serbians and Bosniaks grew and even a referendum was held but eventually nothing really came from it. Why? Because the Sandžak simply didn’t hold the right cards: it was an economically weak region, with a divided population (even within the Bosniak majority) and without forming one administrative unit (in contrast to Kosovo for example). Unification with the Bosniaks in Bosnia and Herzegovina furthermore seemed impossible since most Bosniaks in the region didn’t even live close to the border with Bosnia. So by the end of the nineties the different political parties that where striving to (different forms of) autonomy of the Sandžak were incorporated in the Serbian political system. Illustrative for the division is that on the Montenegrin side, there never really were Bosniak parties seeking autonomy. Eventually the region became divided again in 2006 after the independence of Montenegro from Serbia.

The situation today

The next posts will of course give you a more detailed insight in the actual situation of the Sandžak, so let me just focus on the key points here.

The Sandžak today is a region of around 9000 km² in southwestern Serbia and northeastern Montenegro, consisting of six Serbian and eight Montenegrin municipalities (although Andrijevica, Plav and Gusinje in Montenegro aren’t always seen as part of the region). The biggest city is Novi Pazar, which is – with around 70 000 inhabitants – the informal capital of the region. The region has approximately 350 000 inhabitants of which around 55% are Bosniaks, but mind you: not every Muslim is a Bosniak, there are also Albanian Muslims and Muslims who speak BCSM but don’t identify as Bosniak (but I won’t dive too deep in this here). The Bosniaks mainly live in the parts of the Sandžak bordering Albania and Kosovo, while Serbians and Montenegrins make up (most of) the remainder of the population.

Politically there exist several parties who represent the Sandžak and the Bosniaks. In Serbia we have for example the Stranka Demokratske Akcije Sandžaka (the Party of Democratic Action of Sandžak) and the Stranka Pravde i Pomirenja (the Justice and Reconciliation Party) and in Montenegro the Bošnjačka Stranka (Bosniak Party). Furthermore in both countries exist councils (a kind of representative bodies) that try to protect the cultural, linguistic and religious identity of the Bosniaks. But, like I said, all within the current borders: the wish for independence or unification with Bosnia seems to have faded away. Nowadays they rather call for some rather sort of self-governance or want to create a cross-border ‘Euroregion’, with close cooperation between the different parts of the Sandžak. Most striking to me though, was the sheer amount of offices these (and other) parties had, even in the smallest towns.

Last but not least, let’s talk economics: it’s bad. There is some industry: coal mines, a (military) truck manufacturer and a lot of textile industry (in Novi Pazar), but a lot of the factories I saw, seem to have been closed down after the breakup of Yugoslavia. Meanwhile you’ll regularly bump into a herd of sheeps or goats when driving around and it won’t be any problem to find onions, potatoes or homemade honey by the side of the road. These roads can be good, but also quite ‘patchworky’ and will never be highways. Furthermore, there are no international airports and only one (scenic) railway line runs from north to south through the region (as part of the Belgrade-Bar railway) . Poverty levels are high, as are unemployment levels (in some places around 60%). No wonder a lot of people (regardless of their ethnicity or religion) decide to emigrate to Western European countries as Germany or Sweden.

Sounds interesting to you? Join me now on my journey through the beautiful Sandžak!

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Some sources

• Raymond Detrez. “De Sandžak.”In Donau (2011): 56-64. (In Dutch)
• Valeria Heuberger. “Der Sandschak von Novi Pazar.” In Österreichische Osthefte 47 (2005): 823-829. (In German)
• Wikipedia (I do apologize)
• MONSTAT. “Popis stanovništva, domaćinstava i stanova, 2023. godine.” (Census in Montenegro from 2023, in BCSM)
• Gordana Vojković. “Etnokulturalni portret Srbije.” 2025. (Ethnocultural Portrait of Serbia, in BCSM)
• MONSTAT. “Statistika dohotka i uslova života.” 2018. (Statistics on income and living conditions, in BCSM)
• “Primorje bez nezaposlenih, sjever na biroima: Drastične razlike u stopi nezaposlenosti po opštinama i regionima.” In Investitor (2025). (Article on unemployment in Montenegro, in BCSM)
• “Rang oblasti i opština prema stopi nezaposlenosti u 2023. godini.” In Makroekonomija.org (2025). (Overview of unemployment levels in Serbia, in BCSM)