Yes, I am local patriot. And yes, I want to promote what for some people is an uninteresting and unknown suburb. But modern tourism is based on involving tourists in local life, food, history, the way of living. Of course, Spotted by Locals is a true promoter of this, a true provider of plain and organic tourism.
IMR is an abbreviation of Industrija Motora Rakovica – Rakovica Motor Industry in Serbian – in other words, the tractor factory in the Rakovica municipality. And it really was, in the golden era of socialism, a factory where thousands of people worked to manufacture thousands of tractors. In this valley, there were more factories, and about 20,000 people worked here.
Today, the whole complex of IMR has been sold, as I heard there will be new apartment buildings, parks (probably “closed type”- only for those who live there – very modern in Belgrade these days) and shopping centers. So, you have a chance, before everything is demolished, to go to see the interesting facade of a factory with a monument to workers in front of it. While you are there, try to imagine hundreds of workers in blue using their 30-min daily break.
500 meters further, at the place where another factory had stood, there is a new shopping center, something completely different, representing of the “new life”. When you are here, you must visit Rakovica Monastery which is few kilometres down the road.
