Of the many things you can see in Serbia, dinosaurs are not at the top of the list of what you can expect, are they?
However, in the center of the picturesque town of Svilajnac, on the banks of the river Resava, there is exactly this – life-size dinosaur models, arranged in a beautiful Dino Park within the Nature Center Svilajnac, the largest tourist attraction in this part of Serbia.
Opened in 2015, the Nature Center has become a favorite destination of many tourists in just 5 years, and its most enthusiastic visitors are children, who can enjoy the various wonders that await them here.
And as the hosts rightly point out, this is a unique combination of science, education, entertainment and tourism awaits them – a center where the youngest, as well as everyone else, will be able to spend hours and hours learning, sightseeing, but also having fun and enjoying themselves.
In addition to a large indoor exhibition space, where visitors can learn a lot about the living world around us, present and past, from 8 thematic exhibitions, where they can see life-size animal models from all over the world, there is also Dino Park, where they will meet life-size giants from prehistory.
The Dino Park, undoubtedly the biggest attraction of the Nature Center, offers visitors a look at various giant dinosaurs, the largest of which is diplodocus, 11 meters high and 20 meters long, then tyrannosaurus, deinonihus, pleziosaurus, pteranodon, triceratops, velosiraptor, oviraptor, allosaurus and many more.
For all those who are hungry, there is also a restaurant, which offers very, very tasty dishes at affordable prices (we saw this for ourselves), while for children who at some point get bored of dinosaurs, there is always an open playroom where they can hang out with peers. Of course, the playroom is also designed in the spirit of the Centre: children are here in the role of researchers and scientists.
If you want to take home a souvenir from the Nature Center, a souvenir shop is waiting for you, where you can buy gifts, toys, encyclopedias…
The large building of the Nature Center, which houses 7 exhibitions, has two floors. Friendly hosts will be waiting for you at the entrance, and offer help with sightseeing, if this is your first time coming.
A clearly marked path takes you through the history of the Earth and its inhabitants.
One of the first things you will come across is a life-size skull of a Tyrannosaurus Rex:
Right next to it is the whole skeleton, and next to it a monitor on which popular science films are constantly running:
From the great entrance hall, the path leads you through the corridors and an exhibition about the origin of the planet Earth and life on it:
You can see how life developed in the earliest period:
Life “exploded” in the Paleozoic …
There are also brilliantly preserved fossils of animals that lived several hundred million years ago …
In the Mesozoic…
Both on land and in water…
Life flourished…
A comet impact 66 million years ago triggered the mass extinction of dinosaurs and enabled the development of mammals, including those who built the Natural History Center in Svilajnac:
A new era followed – the Cenozoic:
Life began to flourish again…
And new giants started walking on the Earth …
In the next room you can meet our relatives and ancestors. There are australopithecus, habilis, pithecanthropus, erectus and sapiens… The evolution of humans in one place, all in life size and down to the last, most faithful detail.
As you exit into a long and large hallway, a real shock awaits you: life-size dinosaur skeletons. The feeling you have as you pass by them is a mixture of admiration and primordial fear … What did these powerful animals look like when they walked, swam and flew?
What surprises everyone is the size of these powerful animals. You can’t help but feel small when standing next to them…
From prehistory we move to the main hall on the ground floor of the large building of the Center, and in it a large exhibition of African animals awaits us. We notice that most of the children are fascinated by what they see… They all approach faithful animal models and take pictures next to them.
As you can see, there is a giraffe, a rhino, a hippopotamus, and there are also an African buffalo, jackals, a warthog, a zebra, an elephant, various antelopes, but also a Nile crocodile that eats an unfortunate pearl…
When you go upstairs to the second floor, you will find an exhibition of wild animals that you can still see in Serbia today: there are deer, wolves, badgers, wild cats, cranes, geese, bears, various birds of prey, wild boars, otters…
Right next door is a large collection of minerals and rocks that can be found in Serbia:
In the part of the museum dedicated to the last ice age in Serbia, there is a completely preserved skeleton of the mammoth called Kika, which was found at a depth of 21 meters in the city of Kikinda, in the north of Serbia.
When you step out of the spacious main building of the Center into a large courtyard, an adventure awaits you that you really did not expect: dozens of faithful copies of dinosaurs and other inhabitants of prehistory, all life-size. There are allosaurs, tyrannosaurs, diplodocus, pteranodons, plesiosaurs, ichthyosaurs, iguanodons, velosiraptors, oviraptors …
Enjoy:
In the middle of the park there is a large model of a volcano, which you can enter, and inside you can learn everything about the origin of the earth and other interesting things in the field of geology…
When you come out of the volcano, more “big guys” are waiting for you…
What a journey through (pre)history! But, take our word for it, the only real thing is to go to the Svilajnac Nature Center and spend hours and hours enjoying it with your loved ones. Whoever visits it once, always comes back there!
(Come to Serbia)