Workshops
About the workshops that are available to you:
In the Archaeo-Ethno Park in Ravna, in an unusual atmosphere of the rural school, with the facilities of folk architecture reconstructing a rural cooperative typical of the Timok area, you can for a moment become an archaeologist and study the history of the old culture based on the most diverse findings. The material remains will help to interpret the lives of people in different historical periods. Here you can find out how Roman legionaries lived, what were their fun games, their lifestyle and how they were dressed.
You can make here real archaeological excavations as a true archaeologist. By means of a specially prepared Archaeo-eco probe you will be able to explore one particular site and obtain the data about the people from the distant past. On the basis of found items we are going to learn about human behaviour, ecology, recycling and how you can be environmentally friendly. We will see what use and damage can the objects in the ground cause in nature.
Conservation workshop will enable you to fix the irreparable! Here we can learn about how to protect cultural heritage - basic conservation interventions, to be more specific. As true connoisseurs, you can use all the necessary equipment for work and return the original appearance and beauty to preserved fragments of an item. You will join the pieces of pottery vessels found in the nearby site Timacum Minus in beautiful antique bowls and master the secrets of conservation.
Pottery workshop offers familiarising with an old crafts technique, which celebrated the area of Knjaževac due to the skills and artistry of artists-potters. In the specific setting of a reconstructed village community you will learn from the preserved formulas of old masters how to prepare clay and make something - a clay souvenir by traditional pottery techniques - the potter's wheel or by hand, together with your friend or by yourself.
With the instruction of skilled weavers and knitters you can learn how to make a nice scarf, belt or shirt decoration of sheared wool and twisted strands, along with learning the old techniques of weaving and knitting. We will try to present you with our local language and the beauty of the Timok dialect through the game “С`мен ли вревиш? “ (“You talkin’ to me?”) with the assistance of the kids from Knjaževac.
In the Homeland Museum of Knjaževac you will get acquainted with the most important things about the town and its surroundings. In the game, the alphabetical list of the beauties and values of the Knjaževac area, you will learn All about Knjaževac from A to Z, which will prepare you for an exciting quest of Treasure Hunt; you can start the quest by reading the map and doing tasks presented in pictures. Once you solve the riddle, you get new clues by which you can move on. Walking around helps you learn the skills of orientation and map reading, at the same time introducing the sights of Knjaževac. In the Town Museum in the House of Aca Stanojević you will be able to make photos of yourselves in an unusual interior...
In the old village school in Balta Berilovac in the workshop Zvonko Spasić and other school tales you can study like kids used to a long time ago, such as your grandparents did. In the old desks with unusual stationery, we will practice strictness and nerves of the old teacher and endure harsh penalties for mischief. In this way you can learn more about the tradition and culture, and the childhood of children who used to live in Stara planina. Through old shepherd games you can learn how the children used to entertain themselves in Stara planina while keeping their flocks of sheep on mountain pastures.
What nature can offer, how we live in it and feed ourselves, about the ways of orientation, the selection of a location and putting up a bivouac, the secrets of tying and untying knots – all this can be found out in the company of experienced connoisseurs and lovers of nature within training in orientation, through walking and biking tours...
The secret of knotting will be introduced by a true expert. How to untie and tie knots and which one is more difficult - whether it is a sailors’ knot, reef knot, hunter’s knot or some other knot you can decide if you try it. It is only then that you will know!