Van Gogh’s Starry Night Recreated as Park in Bosnian Hills

A drone view of a park transformed into a replica of Vincent Van Gogh's famous painting "Starry Night," featuring fields of lavender, shrubs, and lakes connected by an array of paths, a project that mirrors the celebrated artwork in a natural setting in Visoko, Bosnia and Herzegovina, August 3, 2024. (Reuters)
A drone view of a park transformed into a replica of Vincent Van Gogh's famous painting "Starry Night," featuring fields of lavender, shrubs, and lakes connected by an array of paths, a project that mirrors the celebrated artwork in a natural setting in Visoko, Bosnia and Herzegovina, August 3, 2024. (Reuters)
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Van Gogh’s Starry Night Recreated as Park in Bosnian Hills

A drone view of a park transformed into a replica of Vincent Van Gogh's famous painting "Starry Night," featuring fields of lavender, shrubs, and lakes connected by an array of paths, a project that mirrors the celebrated artwork in a natural setting in Visoko, Bosnia and Herzegovina, August 3, 2024. (Reuters)
A drone view of a park transformed into a replica of Vincent Van Gogh's famous painting "Starry Night," featuring fields of lavender, shrubs, and lakes connected by an array of paths, a project that mirrors the celebrated artwork in a natural setting in Visoko, Bosnia and Herzegovina, August 3, 2024. (Reuters)

Amid the green hills and meadows of central Bosnia, a local businessman has realized his long-held dream: recreating one of Vincent van Gogh's most famous paintings, The Starry Night, in the form of a nature park.

Halim Zukic from the town of Visoko decided to create a park after buying some land and a cottage in a nearby village 20 years ago, but he had no clear idea of what it should look like.

Then, six years ago, as he stood on a hill watching tractors in a hay meadow, he noticed their spiral-shaped wheel tracks in the earth, which reminded him of the swirling motifs in Van Gogh's canvas from 1889.

"From that moment, I was no longer in doubt," Zukic told Reuters. But his vision took time, money and effort to realize.

Zukic wanted the 10-hectare Starry Night park to be part of a larger complex offering a retreat to visitors. He planted more trees and created 13 lakes using existing natural streams.

To match the painting, 130,000 bushes of lavender in six different shades were planted, as well as other medicinal and aromatic herbs such as sage, echinacea, wormwood and chamomile, forming colorful circles, spirals and natural amphitheaters.

Zukic did all the landscaping himself. He said recreating the painting had helped him understand artists and the creative challenges they face.

"This is the largest representation of The Starry Night, and the result of 20 years of dreams, of living those dreams to make them real," he said.

The Starry Night park will focus on art programs and the promotion of central Bosnia's cultural heritage, Zukic said.



Europe's Oldest Lake Settlement Uncovered in Albania

A drone view shows archaeologists diving in the lake of Ohrid to uncover objects, in the village of Lin, Albania, July 10, 2025. REUTERS/Fatos Bytyci
A drone view shows archaeologists diving in the lake of Ohrid to uncover objects, in the village of Lin, Albania, July 10, 2025. REUTERS/Fatos Bytyci
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Europe's Oldest Lake Settlement Uncovered in Albania

A drone view shows archaeologists diving in the lake of Ohrid to uncover objects, in the village of Lin, Albania, July 10, 2025. REUTERS/Fatos Bytyci
A drone view shows archaeologists diving in the lake of Ohrid to uncover objects, in the village of Lin, Albania, July 10, 2025. REUTERS/Fatos Bytyci

Archaeologists working on the shores of Ohrid Lake in Albania are convinced they have uncovered the oldest human settlement built on a European lake, finding evidence of an organized hunting and farming community living up to 8,000 years ago. The team, from Switzerland and Albania, spends hours each day about three meters (9.8 feet) underwater, painstakingly retrieving wooden stilts that supported houses.

The are also collecting bones of domesticated and wild animals, copper objects and ceramics, featuring detailed carvings.

Albert Hafner, from the University of Bern, said similar settlements have been found in Alpine and Mediterranean regions, but the settlements in the village of Lin are half a millennium older, dating back between 6,000 and 8,000 years.

"Because it is under water, the organic material is well-preserved and this allows us to find out what these people have been eating, what they have been planting," Hafner said.

Multiple studies show that Lake Ohrid, shared by North Macedonia and Albania, is the oldest lake in Europe, at over one million years.

The age of the findings is determined through radiocarbon dating and dendrochronology, which measures annual growth rings in trees. More than one thousand wood samples have been collected from the site, which may have hosted several hundred people.

It is believed to cover around six hectares, but so far, only about 1% has been excavated after six years of work.

Hafner said findings show that people who lived on the lake helped to spread agriculture and livestock to other parts of Europe.

"They were still doing hunting and collecting things but the stable income for the nutrition was coming from the agriculture," he said.

Albanian archaeologist Adrian Anastasi said it could take decades to fully explore the area.

"(By) the way they had lived, eaten, hunted, fished and by the way the architecture was used to build their settlement we can say they were very smart for that time," Anastasi said.