Photo: vrnjackabanja.gov.rsVrnjačka Banja is situated at 400 m above sea level, 200 km south of Belgrade and 120 km northwest of Niš. It covers an area of 240 square kilometers and its current population is close to 28.000 residents.
Vrnjačka Banja (www.vrnjackabanja.gov.rs) boasts 154 years of tourism tradition. It is known to have 165 types of rare plants, alleys with 1.000 century-old trees, 60 hectares of cultivated parks, and seven mineral water springs whose temperatures vary from 14 to 37 degrees Celsius. This statistics speaks of the reasons why Vrnjačka Banja is the most popular domestic tourism destination and Serbian First tourist category location.
HEALTH TOURISM
Health tourism is at the core of the Vrnjačka Banja tourist offer, which has always been a synonym for a place of health, healing and recovery. Medical services offered today by the specialized institution „Merkur“, which include natural health therapies, aesthetic medicine as well as welness and spa treatments, are cutting edge of this type of medical care.
HOTEL MERKUR
Apart from the health tourism, Vrnjačka Banja has a developed sport tourism, cultural manifestations tourism and congress tourism.
AIRPORT AND HIGHWAY
When it comes to accessibility, the newly opened Lađevci airport is just a couple of kilometers away. Government project „Morava corridor“, a highway which will cut the time needed to get from Kragujevac and Belgrade to Vrnjačka Banja to just an hour and a half drive is to be finished by 2025. This corridor is also the route used by over one million of tourists passing here on their way to Bulgaria, Turkey or Greece.
NEW WELLNESS&SPA OFFER WORTH 200 MILLION EURO
In writing its new history chapters, Vrnjačka Banja has acquired some new partners. Today, they are members of the same team, setting together new goals and higher standards. In the past four years hotel investments were realized worth almost two hundred million euro.
HOTEL SOLARIS
The projects include a wide range of spa & wellness programmes and construction of more than 20 indoor and outdoor swimming pools.
HOTEL FONTANA
Six new four-star hotels were opened – „Fontana“, „Zepter“, „Slatina“, „Banbus“, „Vrnjačke terme“ and „Vrnjačko vrelo“ – as well as two five-star hotels – „Tonanti“ and „Park“.
HOTEL TONANTI
This year we expect additional parts of the „Zepter“ and „Splendor“ hotels to be opened and this is not the end of investing trends in our queen of the continental tourism.
COMPLETED INVESTMENT PROJECTS
Projects have been completed in Vrnjačka Banja in cooperation with the Serbian Government which have changed both its appearances and its future tourism development. More than 10 million euros has been invested in the reconstruction of the infrastructure and the heart of the town. Some European trends were followed in the reconstruction of the Promenade, arrangements of the waterfall and Church Hill areas, complete adaptation of the Summer Stage, laying down of new promenades, while the old aristocratic character of Vrnjačka Banja was preserved. Public parks, plazas, fountains and the complete infrastructure were renovated.
In line with the promotion of the sports and healthy lifestyle, several sports halls were constructed, one of which, the „Vrnjačka Banja“ sports hall, fulfills the standards needed for the professional sports competitions and trainings. This year, Vrnjačka Banja's offer will be enriched by a most up-to-date aqua park with high-altitude water slides and other facilities unique in this part of the Balkans. The aqua park will spread over an area of 3.5 hectares and will have programmes for all age categories. Another ongoing project is the construction of a wastewater treatment plant, worth 20 million euros.
By investing into new hotel capacities and by rehabilitating the existing four, five and five star plus hotels, Vrnjačka Banja boasts a competitive tourist offer for the European and world markets.
INVESTMENT OPTIONS
A recently carried out survey places Vrnjačka Banja among the top three investment destinations guaranteeing the quickest return of investments. According to the Ministry of tourism official statistics Vrnjačka Banja has in the past five years been the most popular destination for domestic guests and among the first three for foreign guests.
Following projects will additionally lead to increase of property value in Vrnjačka Banja:
BOBAN ĐUROVIĆ, PRESIDENT OF THE VRNJAČKA BANJA MUNICIPALITY
"It is my honor but also a huge responsibility that Vrnjačka Banja will mark a turning point in Serbia's tourism development during my mandate. During the first 154 years there have been innumerable individual contributions to positioning our town as the Queen of the continental tourism, a title it held for a century and a half. We never suffered from the shortage of ideas and plans and the people of Vrnjačka Banja are known for their hospitality and willingness to work together for a common aim. Vrnjačka Banja intends to selfishly keep its leadership position. Welcome to the most popular and most frequently visited spa resort in Serbia, a destination which serves as a perfect example of sustainable tourism and unrivaled competitiveness."
ROMAN HISTORY AND EUROPEAN TRADITION
The first evidence of use of spring water dates back to the first centuries A.D. when today's Balkans were under the Roman rule. During the pipes installation works to capture the Vrnjci hot spring water in 1924, a Roman spring was discovered and a pile of nickles dating 3rd and 4th century A.D. Evidence of Roman history made Vrnjačka Banja eligible to join the Association of Roman Thermal Spas of Europe in 2018.
Following the liberation of Serbia from Turkish rule, Prince Miloš Obrenović instigated the exploration of mineral resources and thermal waters throughout the principality. In 1835, Baron Herder of Saxony came to Serbia at the invitation of the Prince Miloš with the purpose to carry out initial explorations. Jeftimije Hadži Popović, a priest from Vrnjačka Banja provided him with two containers of hot thermal water from the Vrnjci spa. Baron Herder's analysis revealed the samples to be acid-hot water, which is rare in nature. This confirmation is the first written document mentioning the mineral water in Vrnjci.
The history of the modern and organized tourism begins in 19th century. The word got around about the healing properties of the Vrnjci waters and the place became attractive for many educated people of that time – doctors, engineers, architects from European Universities, coming from Germany, Austria, Czechia. They carried out spring water capturing processes, designed parks in the French baroque style, built villas and bungallows... It is thanks to them that European atmosphere and culture became intrinsic elements of Vrnjačka Banja. When Defence and Construction Minister, general Belimarković built the „Belimarković“ palace there, Vrnjci became attractive for political, business and cultural elite of that time. Due to its healing water, urban planning concept, lavish parks and authentic architecture, it was compared to the famous French spa resort Vichy, Czech Karlovy Vary and German Baden Baden.
There is an incredible information of 970.000 nights spent in 1938 in Vrnjačka Banja, which is more than the total number of overnights in Belgrade, Bled and Dubrovnik in the same year.
TRIVIA
Text and photo: Opština Vrnjačka Banja
