Tara National Park

Tara National Park covers 191 square kilometres of mountainous terrain in western Serbia, straddling the border with Bosnia and Herzegovina in a region of outstanding natural beauty that was designated a national park in 1981 to protect its forests, wildlife and spectacular geological formations. The landscape is one of deep wooded valleys, karst plateaus, rocky ridges and the striking Rača karst, a geological formation of underground caves, sinkholes and subterranean rivers that has been carved over millions of years by water dissolving the limestone bedrock. The highest peak in the park is Zvijezda at 1,544 metres, from which on clear days the view extends across the Drina River gorge into Bosnia and, to the west, over the mountains of the Dinaric Alpine system.

The park's most celebrated feature is its old-growth beech forest, one of the last surviving remnants of the primeval forest that once covered much of the European continent before agriculture and industry cleared the wildwoods. The Serbian spruce, a conifer species found almost nowhere else on Earth, grows here alongside ancient beech, fir and maple trees, with some individual trees estimated to be over 500 years old. The forest floor is carpeted with ferns and mosses in the wetter valleys, and the canopy above is alive with birdsong in spring, when the park's wildflowers — cyclamen, Hepatica nobilis and wild orchids — bloom in the gaps between the trees. The Drina River, which forms the park's western boundary, has cut one of Europe's deepest river canyons through the mountains, a gorge more than 200 metres deep in places with steep forested slopes dropping almost vertically into the pale green water.

The river makes a sharp bend at Perućac, pressing against the mountain in a great sweep that has become one of the most photographed natural scenes in Serbia, especially in winter when mist rises from the water and the snow-covered pines on the opposite bank appear to float above the fog. The river is clean enough to support a population of huchen, the great Danube salmon, which is a protected species in these waters and attracts fly fishermen from across Europe in the appropriate season. Several marked hiking trails cross the park, ranging from easy riverside walks along the Drina to challenging full-day climbs to the summit ridges, and the main ridge trail offers panoramic vistas of the Drina canyon, the surrounding mountains of western Serbia and, on the clearest days, a glimpse of the distant white peaks of the Dinaric Alps along the Bosnian border.

The park is managed for both conservation and limited outdoor recreation, with a network of ranger stations, marked trails and a visitor centre at Bajina Bašta that provides maps and information about the park's flora, fauna and geological history. The village of Perućac at the river bend has a small permanent population and a few guesthouses, making the park accessible for overnight stays without entering the park's restricted core zones.

The Drina River canyon is one of Europe's deepest and most beautiful river gorges, comparable to the Tara Canyon in Montenegro but less visited.

The Rača karst old-growth beech forest is a unique ecosystem, home to species found nowhere else and offering a window into the wildwoods of prehistoric Europe.

The Serbian spruce, an endemic species found almost exclusively on Tara and a small area of neighbouring Bosnia, is a living relic of the Tertiary period forest.