ACCOMMODATION CAPACITY OF SIJARIN SPA

IN RESPECT OF JABLANICA REGION TOURISM

Goran S. Jović,
Dept. of Geography and Tourism, Faculty of Natural Sciences and Mathematics, Niš
Ivan B. Popović
Geographical Institute “Jovan Cvijić“ of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts, Belgrade
E-mail: gijcsanu@eunet.yu

Abstract

At first, there is a review in this work of the settlement contents of Sijarin Spa at the end
of 19th century, then it is briefly pointed at the accommodation possibilities of its lodging- houses
which had been built before World War I. After the construction of a “motor-car” road to
Leskovac, as well as widely established traffic connections, Spa’s tourist development started
with commercial villas, rented to its guests between the two world wars. Together with smaller,
later built, “state hotels”, some of them were used until 1954, when the hotel “Belgrade”, with 35
rooms and 75 beds, was opened.
Its reception capacity physically grew during the following thirty years owing to the
construction of the new hotel “Gejzer” (with 113 accommodation units and 273 beds), as well as
around ten rest homes and numerous private lodgings (with over 1000 beds), which is still the
approximate structure of its accommodation capacity.
Key words: Sijarin Spa, settlement contents, accommodation capacity, hotel reception, rest
homes, private lodgings, the number of beds.

SMEŠTAJNI KAPACITETI SIJARINSKE BANJE

U FUNKCIJI TURIZMA JABLANIČKOG KRAJA

Izvod

U radu je najpre dat osvrt na naseobinski sadržaj Sijarinske banje krajem 19. veka, a
potom je ukratko ukazano i na smeštajne mogućnosti banjskih konačišta, sagrađenih pre Prvog
svetskog rata. Sa izgradnjom ‘’automobilskog’’ puta do Leskovca kao i šire uspostavljenim
saobraćajnim vezama Banja je otpočela turistički razvoj komercijalnim vilama, korišćenim za
smeštaj banjskih gostiju u periodu između dva svetska rata. Uz potonje podignute ’državne
hotele’ omanjeg smeštajnog potencijala poneke od njih su korišćene sve do 1954. godine kada je
počeo sa radom hotel ‘Beograd’ sa 35 soba i 75 ležaja.
U narednom tridesetogodišnjem periodu Banja je napredovala u fizičkom obimu
receptivnih kapaciteta jer je tada bio sagrađen i novi hotel ‘Gejzer’ (sa 113 smeštajnih jedinica i
273 ležaja), ali i desetak odmarališta kao i veći broj gostinjskih soba u domaćoj radinosti (sa
preko 1000 ležaja), što još uvek čini približnu strukturu njenih smeštajnih kapaciteta.
Ključne reči: Sijarinska banja, naseobinski sadržaj, smeštajni kapaciteti, hotelska receptiva,
odmarališta, sobe u domaćinstvima, broj ležaja.
 INTRODUCTION

Jablanica is an area within the basin of the river having the same name and its
tributaries. It is situated in the southern part of central Serbia, between Porečje, Poljanica,
Kosovo, Kosanica, Pusta Reka, Dobrič and Leskovac Pomoravlje. The considered area is 861 km²
within these borders, which makes 1% of the area of Serbia. There are 83 settlements (1.3% of
settlements in Serbia) with 36 958 inhabitants, or 0.4% of Serbian population (according to the
census of 2002). Jablanica is administratively divided between the municipalities of Lebane (337
km²) and Medveđa (524 km²). Accommodation capacity is very important for the future tourist
development of Jablanica. We give the analysis of accommodation and restaurant capacity on the
basis of the statistical data of Sijarin Spa and Lebane municipality. In the area of Jablanica,
tourism has mostly transformed the settlement structure of Sijarin Spa. Thus we will pay most of
our attention to it, in chronological order, since the settlement was established in 1878. Mountain
House on Radan (840 m) is also part of the complementary accommodation capacity of Jablanica,
with its 28 beds and 80 seats. It is suitable for tourist stay and recreation, but has modest capacity.

ACCOMMODATION AND RESTAURANT CAPACITY OF SIJARIN SPA

The development of Sijarin Spa settlement is characterized by three basic phases. The
first phase includes the period between 1878 and 1920, the second between 1920 and 1945, and
the third one has lasted since 1945.
Immediately after the liberation in 1878, visiting newly liberated parts of Serbia, M.
Rakić (9) noted that Spa was “cleaned, restored and wooded” and so organized that Serbian
officers and soldiers, arrived from battle-fields, went there for treatment and bathing already in
1879. There was also a military outpatient clinic in Spa then. Since Sijarin Spa mineral waters
were highly valued by the population of Jablanica, in XIX century these natural, healing waters
were also known throughout Serbia as “famous thermal waters”. New bath-house with two
swimming-pools was built in the last decade of XIX century. Warm water from a 50 m distant
spring was brought into a large, cemented pool with mixed water, where superfluous water was
also poured off from a small pool, placed in the same house. The small pool was built just at the
spring itself (5, 133).
The first Spa settlers were Serbian and Montenegrin colonists, who came after the
liberation from the Turks. Until 1885, there had not been inhabitants permanently residing in
today’s Spa settlement. That year, Miloš Radović from Velika, near Plav, settled in Spa. He built
his house and mill on land which he had got from the government. His house, built near the old
school at the entrance to today’s settlement, was the first house in Lower Spa. This part of Sijarin
Spa was later settled by several more families, which have been still living there. Famous for its
healing power, Spa became attractive to people having poor health. However, although the
number of visitors werenumber of visitors was increasing, the construction did not continue.
Small business and residential part was crudely built by private owners, so th eis Spa was really
the property of several wealthy people (10,, 83).
In 1906/7, so-called “Aca’s” and “Maznić’s” lodging-houses (20 rooms) were built,
and also the “Maznić’s Restaurant” for boarding the guests. Except the restaurant, he owned a
bakery and a butcher’s shop. By 1905, a grocer’s shop had also been opened. The construction of
a larger dwelling-house, which still exists (and is used) in the front of Lower Spa, was financed
by a lawyer from Leskovac, Stevan Pešić, through Miloš Radović, Spa mayor, who also built the
“quarters” together with Dino Maznić. After the building was over, Radović and Maznic shared
this, now the oldest in Spa, but pretty much preserved, one-storeyed house in old-Balkan style;
Radović’s share included 13, and Maznić’s 9 rooms. After Miloš Maznić had died, his share was
called “Aca’s lodgings”, after his son Aca. Aca Radovć sold part of his land to Milan Maznić, a
pharmacist from Leskovac, who later built a villa to his son Žika. Except the mentioned building,
another one, situated near the baths and with 3-4 rooms, also accommodated visitors. During
Bulgarian occupation at World War I, the Bulgarians made a large hut of boards, with two pools
of 15 m³ each. The pools were made of boards, and water was conveyed to them from a 30 m
distant spring. The same water also went into the large cemented pool. These provisional baths
were the last object built in the first phase of Sijarin Spa settlement development (5, 133-134).
The greater development of Sijarin Spa started after World War I, at the
beginning of the third second decade of the last century. The construction of a relatively good
road through the Jablanica’s valley and established bus connections between Spa and Leskovac
were crucial for creating better conditions for many-sided development. From the balneological
poit of view, the construction of new baths was of the first-rate importance. In 1920/-1, the
bathhouse No 2 was finished from solid material. It consisted of two pools and bathtubsand
bathtubs, which were approached from a small anteroom. The pools were made of concrete and
their dimensions were 6×3×1.1 m. The bathtubs were also of concrete, the size of 1.8×1.2×0.8 m.
The water from the main spring ran into the bathhouse through an open canal and it got cooler
naturally. The bathhouse also had ventilation for leading out the gases. It was built by the Spa
Municipality, with financial help from Velika Radović, Miloš Radović’s wife (10, 84).
Except the healing water, healing mud was also used in the second phase of Spa’s
development. The place for bathing in the mud, around a spring at the church property in Upper
Spa, was fenced by boards. The capping of mineral springs of various temperatures, composition
and therapeutic value, was also important. In 1936, a spring named “Raj”, on the right bank of the
Spa’s river, was turned into a tap, and in the same year, the spring “Spas” from the left bank was
also turned into a constantly leaking tap. A ferrous spring in Upper Spa was turned into a well in
1936, too. The well was made of concrete.
The traffic connections with the main longitudinal Balkan road and Leskovac,
one of the most developed towns and the regional centre of southern Pomoravlje, had great
influence on developing the settlement and, consequently, the tourism. More significant building
started after 1925, especially after 1930. In 1924/-5, only previously built houses offered
accommodation to visitors, such as the inn belonging to Boško Jovanović, called Šop. There were
three guest-rooms in this house. It also contained a bakery and a butcher’s shop. Opposite the inn,
there were tables and chairs for the guests who, in summer days, entertained playing cards,
dominos, etc. On the site of today’s newly built school, as well as opposite it, there was Cane
Popović’s house. Dragutin Mihajlović, Milentije’s (“Šime’s”) father, built his house (villa) in
1927. Andra Vučković, the father of Blaško, a long-time waiter, built his villa in 1932. Opposite
the villa “Rada”, there was a building in which a post office was situated. The villa “Žika” was
also built in 1932. Maznić and Radović’s villa, today’s “Jablanica” (45 beds), was built with
modern devices and electric light. In 1933, Petar Jorgaćević, a dyer from Leskovac, built the villa
“Rada”, and Vojislav Cibić, a baker from Vlasotince, finished his house in 1934. This would be
the complete picture of housing construction in Lower Spa, by 1940 (10,85).
The first houses in Upper Spa were also built in this phase. In that part of the
settlement, between a quarry and a former church mill, there was a big pool with green, salty
water. This “lake”, in which “poorer people bathed” was often visited by local hunters, as well as
hunters from Lebane and Leskovac, who hunted pigeons which, like deer, came there to drink.
Among the first houses in Upper Spa, there were Kosta Sibinović’s house, built in 1925, and the
house of Stojanče Aranđelović, a contractor from Leskovac, built in 1926. There were also the
house of Anđa Popović (1936), which was used as the first outpatient clinic after the World War
II, and the houses of Rada Janjić (1937) and Vukosava Savić (1939), which makes the complete
picture of Sijarin Spa before the World War II (35,138). The total available accommodation
capacity of the Spa in that period was about 150 rentable rooms (6, 109).
 During the World War II, Sijarin Spa was completely deserted. Its renovation
started after the liberation. A “state” hotel with 42 beds and a restaurant, i.e. villa “Jablanica”, was
opened for the season of 1946. At the beginning of 1948 hotels and restaurants were nationalized,
and the Spa management was given a hotel and a arestaurant with 33 rooms and 60 beds. 76 beds
of the district hotel enterprise, and 250-300 beds in twelve private houses offered accommodation,
which means that Sijarin Spa could normally accommodate about 350 visitors. In the same year,
hotels and restaurants started being supervised by the Natural Healing Centre (6, 110), and the
research work also began with physical and chemical examination of mineral waters. It continued
in 1952, with hydro-geological, balneological and similar investigations.Then the Spa’s protective
area was marked and bordered in the healing zone, and the Spa’s narrower building area was also
established, extending up to 500 m out of its borders. Its borders correspond to the borders of the
conceptual regulation plan, which was adopted in 1954 (35, 139). In that way, the foundation of,
more or less, planned development of the Spa’s settlement was laid. After the hydro-geological
researches in 1953 and, especially, in 1954, which “discovered unimagined possibilities of this, in
thrmo-mineral water very rich Spa”, the holes were sounded and the most important springs were
re-capped, in order to “regulate dispersed springs and increase the amount of mineral water” (5,
139).
Until 1952, there were only several accommodation houses made of solid
material, while others were weak and dilapidated. On the whole, there were 2 state buildings with
34 rooms and 19 private houses with 85 rooms, which means about 408 beds. Hotel “Belgrade”,
built in the centre of Lower Spa in 1954, was the largest building among those built in the
settlement after 1952. It had 34 double- and multi-bedded rooms with 75 beds, sanitary facilities
and running drinking water. It also had a restaurant with 100 seats, two terraces with 100 seats,
and one small hall with 25 seats (5, 140-141).
In Upper Spa, construction started in 1950, with the building of private houses
and and a public restaurant, which was opened in 1959 and enlarged in 1962 (its capacity had
been 90 seats), and it intensively continued after 1960, with the building of smaller and larger
private and state objects and weekend cottages (5, 140-141).
It is difficult to determine and reconstruct the accommodation capacity of
Sijarin Spa in the period from 1946-1960, on the basis of just one kind of statistics – health care
or tourist, and also because of their different methodology and registering. Besides that, other
sources also complicate the counting of beds, because they are very imprecise and often
controversial concerning not only the number of rooms and beds, but also the names of objects.
Therefore we are presenting more detailed review of the Spa’s reception capacity development
after 1960.
It can be seen from Table1 that the Spa’s reception capacity development
(index 325) was almost twice as dynamic as in other spa resorts in Serbia (index 224) in the
analysed 24-year period. This would mean that the investments in Sijarin Spa were above the
average. However, the number of beds in the basic year (1960) was pretty small in this Spa,
which magnifies the relations. Actually, there were two moments in its postwar development,
which caused increased tourist demand. Firstly, the mentioned hydrological researches (1952-57)
extended the area indicative of its waters; by their appearance, some springs (thermo-mineral
spring “Gejzer”, Bungaja and the pulsing “geyser”) became the first-rate tourist attraction.
Secondly, around 1956, a team of experts from Belgrade Medical Faculty confirmed the healing
power of its climate, which proved beneficial to the asthmatics. Thus Sijarin Spa, besides Zlatibor
and Sokobanja, became “famous climatic sanatorium”. This was the motive for public
investments (hotel “Belgrade”, a camping-site, trade-unions’ rest homes), as well as for
encouraging private investments in rentable houses, etc. In the sixth decade of the last century,
Sijarin Spa already became “frequently visited mineral and climatic sanatorium, a place for rest
and a picnic area” (10, 110).
Table 1. The total number of beds in Sijarin Spa (SS), spa resorts in Serbia (SRS), and the
participationshare of Sijarin Spa (%) in the period of 1960-1983 (6)

Year S.S. Index S.R.S. Index %

1960 632 100 21101 100 3.00
1961 526 83 18052 86 2.91
1962 629 100 15865 75 3.96
1963 650 103 15905 75 4.09
1964 655 104 19118 96 3.43
1965 700 111 20212 96 3.46
1966 694 110 23569 112 2.94
1967 725 115 24588 117 2.95
1968 545 86 27352 130 1.99
1969 668 106 33187 157 2.01
1970 716 113 32894 156 2.18
1971 1891 229 36258 172 5.22
1972 1936 306 35828 170 5.40
1973 1971 312 38662 183 5.10
1974 1926 305 38208 181 5.04
1975 2079 329 40834 194 5.09
1976 1854 293 41435 196 4.47
1977 2137 338 44037 209 4.85
1978 2137 338 46413 220 4.60
1979 2089 331 49565 235 4.21
1980 2076 328 47757 226 4.35
1981 2070 328 46063 218 4.49
1982 2065 326 47903 227 4.30
1983. 2057 325 47237 224 4.35

In the mentioned period, households played the primary part in the Spa’s reception
capacity during the months in season. They accepted guests who could not find hotel
accommodation. Hotel “Gejzer” (category B) is the second by the number of beds, with its 113
rooms and 256 beds, or 12.4%. The number of its rooms and beds did not change, except in 1975.
It is situated in the centre of Lower Spa, on the right terrace of the Spa’s river, opposite the most
attractive thermo-mineral spring, after which it was named. Its construction started in November,
1973, and was opened in the middle of July, 1975. After being adapted, the former hotel
“Belgrade” was” was spatially fitted into it. The hotel contained eight single, 57 double and 50
triple-bedded rooms, dining hall with 200 seats, restaurant with 250 seats, terrace with 280 seats,
kitchen with the capacity of 2000 meals, an aperitif bar, night club with 80 seats, entertaining hall,
covered swimming-pool of 6×10 m, and in its boiler-room there was the spring “Hisar”, whose
warm mineral water was used for filling six bathtubs (10, 110).
The rest homes of fifteen firms from Leskovac, Vučje, Grdelica and Niš are
immediately after the hotel, according to their capacity of 85 rooms and 191 beds, i.e. 9.3%. Their
capacity changed from year to year, not only because of the construction of new objects, but also
because of removing dilapidated wooden camp cottages. “Žitopromet” enterprise from Niš built
the first rest home (camp cottages) in 1957. In 1959, in Lower Spa, “Otpad” enterprise from
Leskovac adapted three trams from Niš into camp cottages, with four beds each, which were
accommodation curiosities “on the left river bank”. Four rest homes were built in 1959 and 1960.
District trade-union council from Leskovac “together with several Leskovac firms, built 30 camp
cottages with 80 beds”. Eight cottages were built at the Spa’s entrance, twelve in Upper Spa, and
the enterprise “Stanko Paunović” from Niš built six ones above the “Gejzer”. In 1960, the
Management of trade-unions’ rest homes started the building of “eight well equipped villas, with
160 beds” in Upper Spa, which were finished for the season of 1962. The number of rooms and
beds in wooden objects started decreasing several years after the hotel “Gejzer” had been built
(10, 111-112).
In 1997 the situation is still similar. The total available accommodation capacity
of Sijarin Spa is 1887 beds. In its structure, household rooms make over 80% (345 rooms with
1550 beds). They offer accommodation of very modest quality. There are 30 rooms in the camp
with 60 beds, in pretty bad condition (without electricity, waterworks and sewerage). After the
renovation from 1989-1991, the hotel “Gejzer” (category B) has got 119 rooms with 277 beds.
Only it can fulfil the requirements of modern spa accommodation. This representative facility of
Sijarin Spa completely meets modern tourist demands. Its construction caused a turn in life and
the activities of Spa. It was not only architecturally fitted into its surroundings, but it gave a new
quality to the environment. With the quality of its services it initiated the prosperity of almost all
activities in the settlement. Besides the beds, it also has 387 seats (restaurant: 220, terrace:110,
banquet hall: 35, snack bar:22), a swimming-pool, elevators, etc.
Except the hotel, tourists are also offered the services of modest Spa’s
restaurant capacity. The most famous restaurants are: “Sindikalno”, with 379 seats including the
terrace, summer terrace of “Gejzer” with 75 seats, and the restaurant at the bus station with 45
seats. There are also three fashionable private cafés in Spa, with 45 seats in all

CONCLUSION

After Second World War, Sijarin Spa, besides smaller receptive objects, got smaller
hotel Belgrade (35 rooms and 75 beds) in 1954. However, its tourism had developed noticeably
only 30 years later when new larger hotel Jezero (Lake) started to work because this receptive
building had capacity of 113 units with 273 beds. Tourist importance of the Spa and thus the
importance of Jablanica region were gradually strengthened with increased volume of lodging
capacity spread in approximately 10 resort facilities. Undoubtedly, available spa rooms in
individual households (around 900) must also be included since this is still the most important
part of lodging potential of the Spa that has to be taken into account further on.

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