Towards the end of last summer I’ve stumbled upon Repušnica, which is known as the first ghost village in the Stara planina mountain in eastern Serbia. Unfortunately, the depopulation trend in this century has rendered many more villages unpopulated, but this is where it all started.
As I was driving towards the village, it seemed absolutely unbelievable that any human settlement could have existed anywhere up there. I passed through a river valley that was no less but a true jungle, giving me muddy hell as I was struggling to reach the village. And then came the first houses, out of nowhere, some crumbling, some still standing, but all more or less encased in strong vegetation. A few houses have been apparently renovated to serve as vacation cabins to descendants of the people who once lived there, but most were simply frozen in time the moment the last inhabitant died.
It felt incredibly just to be there. Seemed like a place frozen in time and lost in space. Encased in complete tranquility, disturbed only by the sound of chainsaws of some distant lumberjacks.
