Journey by ship to 6th millennium BC - Lepenski Vir gets pier on the Danube

(Future look of the pier and the Visitors Center)

- Tourists may be able to reach famous archeological site Lepenski Vir in the Djerdap gorge by the Danube already this year. Namely, only 400 meters away from the prehistoric location, at the place where the Visitors Center should be built as well, a pier for passenger ships is planned to stand - Siniša Temerinski from the Cultural Heritage Preservation Institute of Belgrade, the author of the main project for the pier, told eKapija. The greatest interest in realization of the investment on the right bank of the Danube is expressed by the municipality of Majdanpek and the Tourism Organization of Majdanpek because the opening of the Lepenski Vir Museum and the pier for tourist ships (600 of which sail the Danube every year) will significantly increase the number of visitors of the famous site.

- The pier should allow for the docking of international passenger ships, as well as nautical tourism vessels. According to the project, the pier should allow for the docking of a ship 120 meters long, 15 meters wide and 10 meters high, weighing 4,000 gross registry tonnes. At the same time, it will allow for the mooring of up to twenty nautical tourism vessels up to 15 meters long - Temerinski explained and added that the location where the future pier would be built can be reached exclusively by small fishing boats at the moment.

(Siniša Temerinski)

The docking pontoons will be built of reinforced concrete, while breakwater 1, which will run parallel to the Danube, will comprise four pontoons of total length of 50 meters. Breakwater 2, which will consist of two pontoons, is planned to be built at the right angle to breakwater 1. All the pontoons will be mutually connected to form floating docks.

- The pontoons and the bank will be connected by a bridge, and the bank will be secured by a dam made of crushed stones. There will be a checkpoint on the bank, which will look like a traditional house in Poreč. Electric power lines and water supply system stretching to the pier will be controlled from the building of the pier. A pedestrian walk will lead to the Visitors Center and further to the site, and it will also be used by emergency vehicles - Temerinski explained.

The main project for the pier is made in the Cultural Heritage Preservation Institute of Belgrade. Its authors are graduate architect Siniša Temerinski, engineer Rade Lašić, engineer Nataša Živanović and engineer Nikola Čiča. During the planning of the pier and organization of banks, significant cooperation was established with the Tourism Organization of Majdanpek and Director Vesna Vandić. The value of all works on construction of the pier, the dam, junctions and the building of the pier is RSD 120,000,000. The investors are the municipality of Majdanpek and the REgional Agency for Development of Eastern Serbia (RARIS)

- Drawing of plans for facilities in the location of Lepenski Vir is highly complex because the planning and organization of such space is regulated by the Law on Cultural Heritage, the Law on Environment Protection, the Law on National Parks, the Spatial Plan of Djerdap National Park, the Master Plan for Tourist Destination Donje Podunavlje, the Plan of Detailed Regulation for Lepenski Vir, as well as by special regulations and terms for vessels and organization of banks - said Temerinski

Site under roof

(steel structure)

By the end of the year, a long-announced steel structure, the size of a football field, will be erected above the famous archeological site. Made of indestructible transparent lexan, just like the walls of the new building, the structure will be protecting everything that has been sensationally discovered in this location since 1966 and kept under an improvised salonit eaves on worm-eaten wooden poles for four decades.

The first archeological excavations in the location of Lepenski Vir took place in 1965, while the most significant ones happened in 1967 when Mesolithic sculptures were found. The digging was ended in 1971 when the finding was moved 29.7 meters up to avoid flooding of the location. The Head Research Manager for this location was Professor Dr. Dragoslav Srejović from the University in Belgrade.