Hello everyone.
Yesterday I decided to visit Park Stojčevac. It is lovely park at the foot of the mountain Igman in Sarajevo. This is one of the places where you want to be during hot summer days. I took a lovely walk to the park. We can call it walk under the trees as I was accompanied with trees and shadows along the way.. I started the journey at Velika Aleja or The Great Avenue and continued it through Srednja Aleja or Middle Avenue and reached my destination.
Lets start from the beginning.
I started my journey from Velika Aleja or The Great Avenue. It is long promenade that goes to the Spring of River Bosna. It is 3.5 kilometers long and with the trees along the way.
Last week I took a walk along Velika Aleja and it was quite refreshing so why not repeat it again.
At the beginning of pedestrian part of Velika Aleja you can see horse carriages. People use them to go the the spring of river Bosna. Along the promenade you will see horse carriages often going up and down. Horse carriages were used here since 1895. It is very long tradition.
Next thing you will notice about Velika Aleja are the trees. There are trees along the way and double rows of trees as well. As you can see despite days are hot you can walk in shadow for its whole length of 3.5 kilometers.
There is around 3000 thousand trees in Velika Aleja. Chestnut trees and plane trees are two types here. Chestnut trees were planted in 1888 and plane trees are planted in 1892. So most of the trees here are more than 130 years old. We can say walk through the history as well.
Cars are not allowed. You will see cyclist, people walking, jogging and enjoying the sight in horse carriages. You can rest on the banks along the promenade. Sounds of birds, horse steps and cool shadows are lovely combination.
Horse carriages.
As I mention before there is double row of trees along path. Magical view to see.
I took me around 25 minutes to get here. I took a short brake and continued my journey.
This is scenery from last weeks visit to Velika Aleja.
It is time to use other road to reach Park Stojčevac. I already passed half point of Velika Aleja.
Velika Aleja continues toward spring of river Bosna and I go via Srednja Aleja or Middle Avenue toward park.
As you can see again greenery around the road and trees.
And this Middle Avenue is split in two pathways. Quite nice addition. First part of the journey was road guarded with trees and now the trees are guarded with road.
No cars are allowed except cars with special permissions.
It is my first time going this Avenue on foot. I passed here before on bike. It is You have banks in the middle if you need a rest.
And plenty of shadow. Even though sun was there I did not feel that much heat.
Three small surprises before entering park. Three little kittens under supervision of their mother were playing on side of the road.
And I reached the park Stojčevac. There is plenty of greenery, water and trees.
Park Stojčevac is located under foot of the mountain Igman. It is named after one of the springs that have same name Stojčevac. It is said that park has 73 water springs. There is lovely water pond in the park. It is like a gem surrounded by trees and greenery.
There are Vilas of Josip Broz Tito and nuclear shelter located in the mountain.
Here is photo of my visit couple years back .I think this was sometime in May.
Here people come to walk, jog, cycle or just relax and enjoy surrounding. Since the pond is middle part of the park I will go around and explore it together.
There are pathways to walk around the park. I will go first around the pond and after some exploring we will come back to the water pond.
We go straight and follow this pathway.
And here is a tunnel. This leads to Titos Vila and nuclear shelter should be somewhere in the mountain. After war in Bosnia this park Stojčevac was left to the ravages of the time. Last years they are revitalizing and renovating the park so I hope the tunnels will also be renovated soon and it would be nice to explore them. I heard people going inside but I am not sure of a state of a tunnel at the moment so this time no entering for me.
Entrance from the park to the tunnel.
We continue.
One of the springs.
Here we will go for a short exploring expedition. First we go left and we will come back to see more.
Yes we are on trail.
This should be it, right?
And here it is. This used to be some coffee or restaurant - I am not sure. There are more ruins around. This place is surround by greenery and trees and it would be such a nice place to spent some time. Hope they they put it back in use. Such lovely location.
And if you continue you will see how everything is green around. And while I visited here first time this pathway surprised me very much. I passed over it as I could see there is height difference but did not think about it much.
Well under it was this place with spaces and rooms and I was walking on the roof of it. I did not expect to see that.
It is nice to explore so while there is opportunity I looked around a bit.
Time to go back to the water pond.
During rainy season there is much more water around. You need this wooden platform to walk around.
Water pond is lovely.
There is a swing near water. Enjoy the moment.
Reflections on the water are super.
Small house on a little island in the pond. I thought they will bring swans here but did not see any. It would be nice to see them swimming around.
The place was quite crowded. There are these wooden huts and places to sit and enjoy. And all of them were taken. I did not want to take too many photos.
There are playground and sports area.
Phots from previous visit when there was less people.
Water spring.
Wooden huts.
Now time to visit Josip Broz Titos Vila.
But first I sit back and relaxed a bit.
We continue. So this is Titos residence at Stojčevac. Before reaching there I saw these stairs on the right and decided to see if they lead to the other tunnel.
Did not find anything except this maybe camping spot. And there were some sound around.
Squirrel was climb tree where its house was. I manage to take the photo. You can see squirrel on the left on the tree branch above the wooden house.
It was worth looking here.
This is Titos Vila. After war in Bosnia Titos Vila was left to the ravages of the time.
Hope they restore it. You could enter inside but I did not want to explore more on this hot day. Vila had access to the tunnel system and nuclear shelter. It would be interesting to explore those one day.
Lovely view. Location is beautiful. With mountain Igman behind and clean air and all greenery and water no wonder why Stojčevac park was place to build Vila.
Time to go. One more look at gem in the Stojčevac park.
First time when I passed here I saw they are show one turtle on this rock.
Now when I come back I noticed there are two of them,.
They look like they found themselves prime spot to enjoy.
Springs.
Time to go. Super place to visit during hot summer days. You can walk, run, read a book or take a nap. Clean air and beautiful surrounding. Lovely water pond and springs. No entrance fee. It was lovely weekend for me.
If you are in Sarajevo and need a place to relax and enjoy Stojčevac park is place for you.
