Eko park Zmajevac: a wooden playground on the ridge

Eko park Zmajevac is a children’s playground made entirely of wood at the Zmajevac picnic area, high on the Fruška Gora ridge, where the road from Rakovac meets the ridge road (the Partisan road) to Vrdnik and Iriški Venac. From Stari Rakovac it is 8–10 minutes by car: follow the road up past the monastery. Right next to it are the national park’s picnic tables and the Zmajevac restaurant.

Eko park Zmajevac in photos: ten photos by Konstantin Stein.

What is there to do?

• Climb. A wall of tall logs with coloured climbing holds, log pyramids and a balance trail of logs laid on the ground.
• Swing and ride. Swings, a seesaw, and a wooden train with carriages and tractors for the youngest.
• Guess and learn. Two wooden tables show the tracks of a wolf, a deer, a horse and a bear, and the leaves of an oak, a maple, a linden and a hornbeam. Can you tell whose track and whose leaf each one is before you read the names? On the boards with turning cubes you can put together the Serbian Cyrillic alphabet with pictures, and the painted head of a bird of prey.
• Train. Pull-up bars, parallel bars and other wooden exercise frames for older children and adults.
• Picnic. A stone barbecue, tables and benches, and a wooden shelter with a shingle roof.

For parents

According to the board at the playground, it was paid for by Serbia’s Ministry of Tourism and Youth and built by the company Eko Teretana; its first safety inspection took place in 2025.

Make a day of it

• On the way up, 1.4 km before Zmajevac, stop at the stone-built Stari Majdan spring right by the road.
• Further west along the ridge, the Brankovac picnic area has another playground and wide meadows.
• Over the ridge the road drops down to the spa village of Vrdnik.