Location

Map: Mikulj Rock, Camp Location, Southern Kučaj St. Lazar’s Orthodox Youth Camp, Lazar Canyon

The camp is set up in the Southern Kučaj area in picturesque surroundings between the grandiose Lazar’s Canyon and Mikulj Rock, about five km from New Stjenik Convent, which is reached from Despotovac by off-road vehicle in about two hours.  The camp is located in the dale of the Demižlok creek only two km from the entrance into Lazar’s Canyon.  Among rugged boulders, centuries-old beeches and beech forests flows the Demižlok creek, inhabited by river trout and crawfish.  There are many very cold sources of especially delicious spring water, and there are also broad, flat, tame fields.  In general, the location of the camp offers a varied spectrum of truly interesting options for internal and external activities in the exceptional mountainous setting of Southern Kučaj.

 

Lazar’s Canyon

Camp Attraction – Expedition to Lazar’s Canyon

Legend says that after the battle on the Maritsa river in 1371 the knights of the Holy Prince Lazar came to this very area where they set up camp, and from then on the canyon received is name in their honor.  During the period of the Turkish yoke, Lazar’s Canyon was the favorite, secure refuge of Serbian insurgents and refugees, as the Turks did not dare pry into the precipitous rocky cliffs of this mystical canyon full of numerous hidden caves.  Furthermore, after the Second World War, there the national monarchist fighters, the Chetniks, gathered and hid from the communist agents. 

Lazar’s Canyon as three entry prongs  - Mikulj, Demižlok (“middle river” – Mesopotamia), and Vey (these are also the names of three creeks) and one exit – Lazar’s.  It is nine km long.  The canyon is the most impassible in Serbia, and even to this day has not been explored completely; it is 500 m deep and has over 70 documented caves and crevasses.