Hobbit Houses Spring Up in Bosnia Hills

Marija Milicevic opens a door to a hobbit house named "Ober", in the Bosnian Hobbiton village, Rakova Noga, Bosnia and Herzegovina, May 9, 2023. (Reuters)
Marija Milicevic opens a door to a hobbit house named "Ober", in the Bosnian Hobbiton village, Rakova Noga, Bosnia and Herzegovina, May 9, 2023. (Reuters)
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Hobbit Houses Spring Up in Bosnia Hills

Marija Milicevic opens a door to a hobbit house named "Ober", in the Bosnian Hobbiton village, Rakova Noga, Bosnia and Herzegovina, May 9, 2023. (Reuters)
Marija Milicevic opens a door to a hobbit house named "Ober", in the Bosnian Hobbiton village, Rakova Noga, Bosnia and Herzegovina, May 9, 2023. (Reuters)

Four sisters are building the first Hobbit-style village in southeast Europe in the green hills of central Bosnia, hoping to attract fans of "The Lord of the Rings" books and movies, as well as sharing their childhood memories.

"We have often held family gatherings on this hill and discussed what would be the best way to make use of this view for tourism purposes," said Milijana, the eldest of the Milicevic sisters, pointing to the stunning view of a valley and a lake nestled among the hills.

The Kresevo Hobbiton, as the Hobbits' village is called, is located in the village of Rakova Noga (The Crab's Leg) near the old royal and mining town of Kresevo, some 40 minutes drive from the capital of Sarajevo.

Last year Marija, a 28-year-old geology engineer, proposed to her sisters Milijana, Vedrana and Valentina that they build house in the style of the Hobbit homes in J.R.R. Tolkein's "The Lord of the Rings" tales. The "hole houses" are built into the ground.

The sisters decided that their houses must include characteristics of the area where they live and that each sister would decorate one dwelling as she likes.

They have already built two houses and three others are under construction.

The first house, with a round green door and window, was named Lipa after the village where Milijana had spent most of her childhood with their grandparents. Lipa is also the name for the linden tree.

"Lipa is my nostalgia, the memory of a healthy childhood where garden planting was a social game, domestic animals friends and a tin barrel the Adriatic Sea," Milijana said in the wood-decorated house.

The second house is named Ober after a cave in Kresevo. Its ceiling is decorated with stalactites to provide the feeling of being in the cave.

"Ober in history has been the mine from which Kresevo miners had extracted cinnabar and melted it to get gold," said Marija.

Her house's door and window is painted red after the coloring of the cinnabar ore.

The other three houses, which should be completed soon, will also be named after local attractions.

For example, Bedem, with towers on its corners, is named after the fortress where Bosnia's last queen, Katarina, had stayed while in Kresevo.

Tourists from across the region and other European countries have already started visiting, Marija said.



Syria Seeks EU Help to Battle Massive Wildfires

FILE : A fire burns at a forest in Latakia province, Syria in this handout released by SANA on October 9, 2020. SANA/Handout via REUTERS
FILE : A fire burns at a forest in Latakia province, Syria in this handout released by SANA on October 9, 2020. SANA/Handout via REUTERS
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Syria Seeks EU Help to Battle Massive Wildfires

FILE : A fire burns at a forest in Latakia province, Syria in this handout released by SANA on October 9, 2020. SANA/Handout via REUTERS
FILE : A fire burns at a forest in Latakia province, Syria in this handout released by SANA on October 9, 2020. SANA/Handout via REUTERS

Syria’s minister of emergencies and disaster management on Tuesday requested support from the European Union to battle wildfires that have swept through a vast stretch of forested land.

The fires have been burning for six days, with Syrian emergency crews struggling to bring them under control amid strong winds and severe drought.

Neighboring countries Jordan, Lebanon and Türkiye have already dispatched firefighting teams to assist in the response.

“We asked the European Union for help in extinguishing the fires,” minister Raed al-Saleh said on X, adding Cyprus was expected to send aid on Tuesday, AFP reported.

“Fear of the fires spreading due to strong winds last night prompted us to evacuate 25 families to ensure their safety without any human casualties,” he added.

According to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) office in Syria, the fires impacted “some 5,000 persons, including displacements, across 60 communities.”

An estimated 100 square kilometers (40 square miles) of forest and farmland -- more than three percent of Syria’s forest cover -- have burned, OCHA told AFP.

At least seven towns in Latakia province have been evacuated as a precaution.

Efforts to extinguish the fires have been hindered by “rugged terrain, the absence of firebreaks, strong winds, and the presence of mines and unexploded ordnance”, Saleh said.

With man-made climate change increasing the likelihood and intensity of droughts and wildfires worldwide, Syria has also been battered by heatwaves and low rainfall.

In June, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization said Syria had “not seen such bad climate conditions in 60 years.”