2024

GOLEM GRAD ISLAND (ГОЛЕМ ГОЛЕМ)

Natural site to discover
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This "big town" (golem grad) is also known as the island of snakes or "Île Saint-Pierre". It is the only island in the country and a magnificent natural reserve with exceptional flora and fauna: snakes, turtles, birds… 750 m long and 450 m wide, its summit is 50 m above the lake. Today, uninhabited, it houses the remains of several civilizations. Golem Grad was indeed populated for two thousand years, and the monasteries were active between the Xe and the XIV century. In addition to a Roman necropolis, six churches were discovered. Among them, Saint Peter's Church, erected at the time of the Serbian Lord Volkašin (XIV century), was best preserved. One of its characteristics is the fresco of the leak of Mary in Egypt, a theme rarely represented in medieval churches of the region. You can also see a paleochristian basilica (end of the century-Ve century), in which the fragments of a mosaic have been discovered. To admire all this, he does not fear snakes. They would be 50,000 on the island. To say that we cross all the time, all the time, in water and in trees. The researcher of the CNRS Xavier Bonnet, a snake specialist, conducted several missions and was reassuring: The two most common species are not dangerous: tesselated snakes are not venimous and ammodyte vials bite scarcely. These animals are very fearful, not the kind to jump to your ankle. " "

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