Exhibition of embroidered towels in Vrsac

On the occasion of the International Day of towels, the gallery 'Galerijana' in Vrsac hosted an exhibition of traditional Serbian towels prepared by Ethno Network and Women's Association 'Anastasia'. The audience had the opportunity to enjoy the beauty of embroidered towels on hand-woven and natural fabrics. Visitors were especially drawn to towels featuring Hilandar motifs and thoes done in gold embroidery.

One August night in the mountain of Cer in the north-west of Serbia in 1914 fierce battles were fought. Serbian soldiers fought bravely for their mother land. Among them was a soldier named Mile Milutinovic from the village of Sedlar near Svilajnac in southern Serbia. His legs got badly shelled in the battles. He would not let comrades help him as „they had a more important job to tend to“. With alot of painful effort, he barely crawled to the house of Tihomir Stevanovic. But the house was empty as the family was taken refuge to avoid the enemy army. There was no one to help the wounded soldier. However, luck smiled at him. He spotted a wooden case with a girl’s dowry for Persa Spajic that was filled with embroidered towels which Mile used to tie his legs and stop the bleeding... It was thanks to these towels that Mile recovered several months later and was able to pass the Albanian retreat ​​and take part in the breakthrough of the Salonika front. For the rest of his life, he would not part from these miraculous towels named after the village of Tekeris.

At the 60th anniversary of the Battle of Cer, the aged veteran, Mile Milutinovic donated a towel with an embroidered name of Persa Spajic to the Museum 'Battle of Cer' in Tekeris, that is now kept as a valuable exhibit in Sabac National Museum.

This aneqdote was told by Gordana Lazic Velovan owner of the gallery during the opening of the exhibition of unique hand-made towels.