lSremska Kamenica is a city settlement near Novi Sad, hidden between Fruška Gora and the bank of the Danube. It is the perfect place for an excursion year-round. The beauty of Sremska Kamenica has been recognized by many since ancient times, such as the poet and doctor Jovan Jovanović Zmaj, while a family of a certain count built a summer house here with a spacious park near the bank of the Danube. You can get from Novi Sad to Sremska Kamenica by suburban bus (number 68, 69, 71) or by your own transport.
We highlight three places in Sremska Kamenica that are worth visiting: Zmaj Museum, Kamenica Park and Marczibányi-Karátsonyi Mansion.
As a starting point for the tour, we suggest the Jovan Jovanović Zmaj Memorial Collection, which is located in the center of Sremska Kamenica. It is a house where the famous poet lived and spent the last days of his life, which is now a museum dedicated to his life and work. It is one of the oldest memorial collections in our country, and the permanent museum exhibition in the main building consists of numerous testimonies in the form of manuscripts, photographs, letters, drawings, various personal items and furniture. The objects are arranged in five rooms that are thematically connected and reflect the poet’s life, while the museum’s spacious courtyard is often a gathering place for children from kindergartens and primary schools. You can visit the Zmaj Museum every day, except Mondays, from 8 am to 4 pm.
From the Zmaj Museum, you can walk to Kamenica Park, where the Marczibányi-Karátsonyi Mansion is located at the entrance overlooking the bank of the Danube. It was built at the end of the 18th and the beginning of the 19th century, and over the years the mansion changed its appearance and purpose. The current appearance of the building is from 1836. It was originally built as a summer house of the Marczibányi family, then it passed into the ownership of the Karátsonyi family. During the last century, it was a Home for War Orphans, an elementary school, a high school for horticulture, and for a time it was a cinema. Today, it is the location of the State Hydrometeorological Institute and the Nikola Mirkov Documentation Center. Since 1991, it has been protected as a cultural property. If you want to walk through the mansion once owned by the count’s family, one part is available to the public and it is possible to visit it with prior notice on weekdays from 7 am to 3 pm.
Count Karátsonyi hired the most famous landscape architects to decorate the courtyard of the castle, and on that occasion trees from almost all over the world were planted. Today, it is the Kamenički Park, the oldest and largest park in Novi Sad and one of the favorite excursion sites of Novi Sad residents. The park is located on an area of 33 hectares, in which two of the oldest oaks in Novi Sad can be seen, planted in 1805. On a gentle walk through the park, you can see numerous sculptures, among which the “Five Heads” stands out. A favorite place for the youngest visitors of the park is a large wooden playground and a football field, while along the paths there are numerous benches for sitting, as well as tables intended for picnics. Also, in the park you can see a pond filled with water from a spring located on the slopes of Fruška Gora. The visit to the park ends on the bank of the Danube. The park is open all year round, and it is most beautiful during the fall, when the colors of its canopy gives it an especially magical look.
