The symbol of Zvornik still stands defiantly over the city and is worthy of your attention

Besides the river Drina, the symbol of Zvornik is certainly the fortress above the city center called Kula Grad, also known as Zvornik Old Town or Đurđev Grad. At the beginning of its existence, the fortress was a medium-sized town that gradually expanded.

Zvornik old town, Photo: Vanilica, CC BY-SA 4.0

It was probably created in the second half of the 13th or the beginning of the 14th century, during the reign of the Serbian king Dragutin, who then ruled these regions. It was built in a convenient place where the Drina slowly emerges into a fertile plain and where important roads have passed and intersected since ancient times.

There is also a legend about the fortress that says that Cursed Jerina, the wife of the Serbian despot Đurađ Branković, built the fortress on her whim, forcing workers to transfer stone “from hand to hand” from a quarry 12 kilometers from Zvornik.

 

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Objavu dijeli Anica Alidjukic • Travel Girl • 🇷🇸 (@wandering_buwitza)

The fortress was later expanded by the Ottomans during their reign (1460-1878), and upgraded by the Austro-Hungarian monarchy, whose crew was stationed in the Zvornik fortress in the period from 1878 to 1918 so that today the fortress is a testimony of different historical periods.

Zvornik old town, Photo: Vanilica, CC BY-SA 4.0.

The fortress consists of three interconnected parts: Lower (next to the Zvornik-Sarajevo road, with the recognizable city gate), Middle (the oldest part, with a large tower 20 meters high in the central part of the fortification), and Upper Town (on a raised hill above Zvornik, at about 400 m above sea level).

Zvornik, City Gate, Photo: Marketa Novakova, Dreamstime

The Upper Town can be reached by a 1,700-meter-long pedestrian path that leads from the center of Zvornik, and from that place, there is an unforgettable view worth your effort to get to this location.