Rajac Pivnice

Twenty kilometers south of Negotin, in the East of Serbia, near the Serbian-Bulgarian border, lie the famed Rajacke Pivnice. There used to be about 320 to 350 of them, as many as there were households in the village. Now there are a little more than 200 of them, and about 40 are in operation. Engaged in viticulture for centuries, the rural population of this area established special wine settlements near their residences. These stone cellars were called ""pivnice"" or ""pimnice"". They were used for the production and storage of wine and brandy, because it has always been believed that quality wine must have peace and tranquility. Rajačke pivnice, the world's unique cultural and historical monuments - were erected at the beginning of the 19th century to honor the wine and vines. In almost every cellar of Rajac pivnice you can taste a variety of wines made from home-grown grapes, from the nearby, constantly sunny slopes of Rajac. The old cemetery (XVI-XIX century) is attached to Rajačke pivnice. It is very interesting and worth a visit, because you will find many very old, fantastic and strangely carved stone tombstones - stećak, which are a unique cultural feature of this small village in eastern Serbia. You will easily find the old Rajački cemetery, if you are already on Rajačke pivice. Simply, at the end of the village the main road forks into two, also asphalt roads. The left path leads you to the church of the Holy Trinity, where there is a “zapis”. Zapis is the old mulberry tree which has withstood the test of time for more than two centuries. He was planted right there by the drummer of the Hajduk Veljko Petrović. The right branch of the road, after only 200 m, leads you to the cemetery with many old tombstones made of hewn stone. These unique monuments were made by the same masters, i.e. stonemasons from the south of the country, who are also responsible for the appearance of the oldest buildings, ie Pivnica. There is one theory - that the inhabitants of Rajac did not bury themselves next to the village in which they lived, but next to the one on the hill where they kept wine. That says a lot about the importance of wine in the lives of the people of that time and that region.