After writing my article about Kopaonik (or rather its architecture), a friend of mine and a Kopaonik aficionado (he also rents out his apartment), reached out with photos of his family’s collection of ski-related memorabilia (pins, posters and skis) which reached to the era before WWII.

While the 1984 Sarajevo Olympics are obviously the pinnacle of Winter Sports in the Yugoslavia and attract the most interest, the history of skiing in our mountainous (ex-)country is quite riveting from the start. Almost everywhere it starts in late 19th century with the introduction of skis by some Scandinavian or local adventurer.

Although the first skis owned by locals arrived to the Julian Alpis in 1888, one notable expedition which popularised skiing was conducted by Henrik Angell, Norwegian ski pioneer, who explored Lovćen and other mountains in its vicinity in 1893. However it took until the creation of the first Yugoslavia for skiing to become truly popular in Yugoslavia and the first ski resorts to start springing up.

Julian Alps, once again led the way. The most famous place on the Yugoslav ski map was Planica where the first ski flying platform in the world was built in 1934 by Ivan Rožman and named after Stanko Bloudek, a notable sportsman and sports promoter. Planica was the site of the first ski-jump longer than 100 meters, which was achieved on 15 March 1936.

The main motif promoting skiing in Yugoslavia was of course Mt. Triglav, the country’s highest peak, which shares the name with a major Slavic deity.

Skiing then spread around the country, reaching Kopaonik in 1930s. The first mountain hut was built on the spot of present day Olga Dedijer apartment block (where my friend has a place). Skopje became the centre of development of skiing in what was then called Southern Serbia.

During WWII, Slovenian skiers had their own partisan detachment. Their efforts ultimately led to the development of Elan ski factory, the pride of Yugoslav industrial design. Ski centres multiplied around the country to include Brezovica (which was built to be a back-up in case Jahorina did not get enough snow in 1984). Skiing became a popular sport among Yugoslavia’s educated middle class, with students of Belgrade’s ETF, leading the charge in Serbia especially when they were traditionally taking over Rtanj, Yugoslavia’s largest ski hut since 1963 (now a hotel).

I decided to design two t-shirts in the honour of the 1930s futurist designs made by Srpsko Planinsko Drustvo. If you are interested in getting them, let me know via DMs on my Instagram profile (@thebelgradist).

Book my friend’s place in Kopaonik!

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