Tara National Park

Tara was declared a national park in 1981 and was enlarged in 2015 to just under 250 square kilometres. Its best-known plant is the Serbian spruce (Picea omorika), a relict conifer that survived the last Ice Age in these gorges and was described by the botanist Josif Pančić, after whom it is often named.

People have lived around the Drina for centuries. Rača Monastery, at the mouth of the Rača gorge, is a 13th-century foundation associated with King Dragutin and with the copying of Serbian manuscripts; during the Second World War the 12th-century Miroslav Gospel was hidden there. Medieval tombstones (stećci) at Perućac and Rastište form part of the transnational Stećci UNESCO World Heritage property inscribed in 2016.

The Drina river house began in 1968 when a group of young swimmers built a simple shelter on a rock they used for sunbathing. High water has carried the cabin away several times; the house seen today was rebuilt in 2011 and became widely known after a photo of it was featured by National Geographic in 2012.

Life around Tara follows the rhythm of the forest and the river. Villages such as Zaovine, Rastište and Perućac keep up small-scale farming and timber work, and wooden houses and haylofts still dot the meadows. Drina trout grilled over a fire is the classic local dish, and fruit brandies, especially plum šljivovica, are a matter of household pride; visitors who do not drink alcohol can simply decline politely. The Drina Regatta, a summer gathering of boats and rafts on the river, has been held near Bajina Bašta since the 1990s and is what first made the river house famous.