Trip to Miličinica - a hidden hilly village above Valjevo

Have you ever made your family tree and how far back did you get in your research? 🌳

A few years ago, I was gathering information about my ancestors, some from stories, some from census records and some from church books. I created a tree starting from my direct ancestor Raja Babić, who was born way back in 1798. He is my askurđel, meaning the seventh male generation back. Isn't it interesting to know that? I loved trying to research even further, to reach earlier centuries, but I couldn't find anything beyond that information... Maybe, like most Balkan peoples, we moved from place to place over the centuries.

Anyway, this time we went to a village called Miličinica in search of information about my fiancé's distant ancestors. Some books say that about two centuries ago they most likely moved from that charming little hillside village above Valjevo. Sunday was a really beautiful spring day, so the two of us, together with his sister and aunt, headed out to that area.

We wandered around a bit at the beginning, but that turned out to be such an interesting part of the trip because along the way we met wonderful people who pointed us in the right direction. The man who gave us directions turned out to be a retired professor from the Faculty of Agriculture. He had spent the previous winter researching his ancestors with his wife, so he gave us better insight into how to look for information in historical archives. While we were chatting, he mentioned that in the place we were heading to, his roommate from his student days has vineyards and runs a winery, so we ended up bringing greetings to him as well. Just imagine how cool that is, after driving around some 20 kilometers to reach our destination, we were carrying greetings from one old man to another, without knowing either of them. 😀

While we were driving to that village, we were amazed by the view on both sides of the road. Such a cute little hills, mostly covered with orchards and the occasional vineyard, and here and there we could come across a flock of sheep, cows freely walking across the meadows, and we even saw a small deer that ran across the road in front of us. So adorablee.

There are not many houses, just like in any hilly village today, cause over time people have moved down to the gentler plains. So that village, which is actually the third largest in Serbia by area, now has a little under 500 inhabitants. It is about 40 kilometers from Valjevo and about 11 kilometers from Koceljeva.

The largest and oldest landmark of this village is a wooden church, dedicated to the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul.

It is located next to a four-year primary school, surrounded by beautiful dense forests and small hills. The villagers who were working on the yard there welcomed us warmly and shared the information they knew, that the foundation of the church was laid in 1791 and the builder who started the construction was Ignjat Petrovic. In 1792, the church was fully built and the interior decoration was completed in 1794.

The wooden church was in use throughout the entire 19th century. Over time, due to the increase in the number of believers and their economic strength, the construction of a new church began at the start of the 20th century. The new church is located in the same churchyard as the wooden one and is dedicated to Saint George.

They also said to us that the Services are no longer held in the wooden church, except on Petrovdan. Also, at the request of the locals, a priest can perform a wedding in the old church and it is a very beautiful event that in a way brings the wooden church back to life, as it is the pride of the village of Miličinica and its residents.

The interior decoration of the church was also made of wood. A wooden iconostasis, the choir area, a wooden false vault that beautifies the roof from the inside, everything made of wood, hand carved with great patience, faith and love.
The icon of the Mother of God with Jesus, as well as the icon of Jesus, which I think by rule always stand to the left and right of the entrance to the altar, especially amazed and enchanted me. I have never seen icons painted like this, not in any church, temple, in any book, on the internet, nowhere.

Beautiful, truly unique sacred works of art. ❤️

This is what the wooden church looks like from the entrance to the churchyard, where on the right side is the new large church of Saint George, and the wooden one is on a slightly smaller hill above.

It is a wonderful feeling to walk along these old stone steps and to know how far back all of this dates. I hope its appearance and authenticity will never be changed, considering it is one of the rare wooden churches in such a well-preserved condition that have survived to this day. According to books, there used to be more of them, but over time they were demolished so that new churches could be built in the same places.

As for the reason we went there, guess what, we didn't find anything. But we had a really nice time talking to wonderful people, breathing in the fresher mountain air and enjoying the beauty of these cultural monuments and sacred places.

And then we of course went to the winery. We got a bit lost there too, because there are two of them, bigger one was closed and we didn't even know exactly what we were looking for, forgetting name of a man we were supposed to visit, the one we had been directed to by that man from the other village. 😀 Anyway, another kind local helped us find our way to the lovely Dragić Ranković, where we tried white and red wine, Tamjanika, bought a few liters, chatted a bit and said his old student friend sent greetings.

On the way back, we of course stopped to eat something, and again at Ranković, though this was a place owned by a different man with the same surname. (: The restaurant is closer to Koceljeva, called Ranković Winery, also in a beautiful location, surrounded by forest, a small vineyard and a few fig trees. Barbecue, mixed meat, a bit of everything, kajmak balls, cabbage salad, young red onion, everything was absolutely delicioooous!

The atmosphere was also lovely, although I only took a photo of this wall with the Kosovo Maiden and of course the icon of Saint Tryphon, the patron saint of all winemakers, which is celebrated here on February 14th.

I will also leave here one single slightly blurry photo of a landscape captured through the car window. I was so amazed by the view on both sides of the road on the way there and on the way back that I didn't take any more photos. Just this flock of sheep, and even they disappeared behind the bushes while I was reaching for my phone to snap a pic.

If you ever visit Western Serbia, specifically the Kolubara District and the surrounding area and have a few days to explore nearby villages, this route is my recommendation. Nature, kind and friendly people and delicious food. 😍 An ideal Sunday trip.

Thank you very much for reading all of this, until the next Wordmapping blog, I'm sending you all sunny greetings and a rain of good mood!

[//]:# ([//]:# (!worldmappin 44.44113 lat 19.69059 long Miličinica, Srbija d3scr))