Why to come to the Una valley?

Why to come to the Una valley?

To be more precise to come to the Upper Una Valley which we define as the stretch from Martin Brod to Cukovi with KulenVakuf as its geographic center.

Here the Una is the least influenced by mankind, meaning you can experience pristine nature. Nowadays only about 3.000 people live in this narrow valley of 50 km, there is no transit-traffic as it happens to be with so many other beautiful rivers, the next industrial and population centers Zadar, Split, Zagreb, Sarajevo are far away - 150-350 km or 2,5-5 hoursdrive through great landscapes - and we are shielded in each direction but several mountain ranges. Thus the air is very clean and even better so, augmented with negative oxigen ions – one (the) criteria todefine good air – by the two big waterfalls ofMartin Brod (cascades) and Strbacki Bug which is one of Europe’s highest.  

Due to the little influence of men, river-and spring-are very clean and tasty and have a very high PH-value, one criteria to define ‘good water’.

The Una itself is special: legend has it that a widely travelled roman legionaire called this river Una, meaning the unique one, because of its beauty, its smaragd-green clear water which osciallates in different shades depending of the time of the day and time of year.

Fact is, that hardly any river on this globe has a deeper source – the divers had to stop their excursion at 207 m as they did not expect this – and carries so many minerals, creating the wonders of  sedra/tuff stone.

Based on these facts the Una Valley is basically a respiration sanatorium and therefore one of the best places in the world to relax and recharge your batteries.

Another reason to come to the Una Valley is that only here one can find a factoryin a National Park, which recently was converted into a cultural center, one in which it is also possible to sleep and stay.

Normally no National Park has a factory, normally factories are not built outside cities or industrial clusters. But in the former Yugoslavia, which due to their independent policy –Non Align Movement -was afraid of an attack by the Soviet Union or by Nato it was part of the military doctrine to be self-sufficient, to build factories far from the borders in the mountains.

And so today there is the AtlantisBebiProjekt which gives space to experiment with new ways of working and living. Until now 25 artists left their traces and everybody can drop by to visit or apply to use the space for own ideas or use the workshops of sewing, screen printing, wood working & letterpress.

The Atlantis KV  NGO has been formed to promote the idea and principles*.

The third reason to come to the Una Valley is the same why one should cometoBosnia: it is not the wonderful nature that is the main reason or the cheap prices. It is the people, the spirit living here. What often is described as archaic, primitive, wildbehaviour is in effect human life much less affected by the techno-consumer culture spanning the globe. There is despite the recent war and killings a kind of humanity alive which is both puzzling and refreshing. It could be that the joke circulating in the intellectual circles of Sarajevo is true: Bosnia is not behind Western Europe but ahead. Experiencing as the only country of the world the great catastrophes of our time - de-industrialization, de-socialization, war and genocide -, placed at the crossroads of civilizations for thousands of years (Byzantium, Rome, later Konstantinopel, Vienna, Venice), having the memory of the promise of Yugoslavia’s Third Way* Link 5with its influence on social life, architecture*, music*(linkLaibach)etcculminating in hosting the winter Olympics1972 in Sarajevo,  Bosnia is special.  Its people are special and even when the ruling elite is kleptocratic there is a chance that from here a new humanity is formed.