Serbia's first glass viewpoint opens above Kablar

The glass viewpoint on Kablar opened officially on July 30 at 879 metres above sea level, just below the peak it is named after, on the rim of the Ovcar-Kablar gorge near Cacak. A ticket costs 500 dinars. Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic attended the opening and, standing on the platform itself, told contractors to widen the access road and enlarge the car park before larger groups start arriving.

The structure cost roughly 150 million dinars, or about 1.3 million euros. The figure of 1.2 billion dinars that has circulated alongside it covers something broader: the entire tourist build-out of that stretch of the gorge. That sum includes roads, car parks, walkways, works at Ovcar Banja, a nature centre, an amphitheatre, a jetty and, as one line item among them, the viewpoint.

What was built, and how long it took

The contractor is Energoprojekt and the contract was signed in March 2022. More than four years passed between signature and opening.

The complex covers about 1,000 square metres. Of that, 200 square metres is enclosed space for visitors, while the platforms and staircase account for 92 square metres. The structure was load-tested at 132 tonnes.

The view takes in the territory of three municipalities: the country towards Kraljevo, the Lucani area, the Pozega basin and the land stretching towards Arilje.

How many tickets does it take to pay this back?

Vucic said on Kablar that he expects the money to come back quickly.

“Ovaj vidikovac trebalo bi da se isplati već u prvih godinu dana, kroz priliv turista, naplatu ulaznica i potrošnju u ovom kraju.” (“This viewpoint should pay for itself within the first year, through the flow of tourists, ticket sales and spending in this area.”)

The arithmetic needs no forecasting. At 500 dinars a head, the 150 million dinars sunk into the structure comes back at 300,000 tickets sold. That is the threshold for the viewpoint alone. Recovering the 1.2 billion dinars spent across the gorge would take something like 2.4 million tickets, and only if maintenance, wages and collection costs were zero, which they never are.

No official annual visitor projection has been published as a number. Officials speak of hundreds of thousands of people, without a figure anyone could check twelve months from now.

Vucic wants a wider road and a bigger car park

Addressing contractors and local officials on site, the president pressed for work on the approach road.

“Dajte, uradite da ljudi mogu da dođu. Napravi ovde proširenje, naspite zemlju i kamen. Kako će da dođu stariji ljudi?” (“Come on, make it so people can get here. Build a widening here, lay down earth and stone. How are older people supposed to come?”)

The complaint lands on the weak point of the whole project. The viewpoint sits on a mountain approach, and charging for entry assumes a visitor can actually arrive and park. Vucic listed what has gone into the surrounding area so far.

“Uložili smo dole u Ovčar Banju, u železničku stanicu, u amfiteatar, u sve ovde puteve” (“We invested down there in Ovcar Banja, in the railway station, in the amphitheatre, in all these roads here.”)

Medjuvrsje is waiting, and it is waiting on 50 million euros

The president also raised the dredging of Lake Medjuvrsje, a job priced at 40 to 50 million euros. He set it against other commitments in the same region himself.

“To mi je pola potpuno nove čačanske bolnice” (“That is half a brand new hospital in Cacak for me.”)

“A pre toga ćemo čačansku bolnicu i halu za Borac da uradimo, to su dve stvari koje smo obećali” (“Before that we will do the Cacak hospital and the arena for Borac, those are two things we promised.”)

A health centre in Uzice also came up on the regional priority list. The comparison the president offered himself, a lake against a hospital, is the sharpest number spoken at the opening: the price of one piece of infrastructure measured in hospitals that do not get built for the same money.

The Ovcar-Kablar gorge has been known for decades for its monasteries and for the fact that tourists drive through it on the way to somewhere else. The viewpoint is the first thing there that charges admission, which means it produces a countable figure. The real test will not be August traffic, when the season is on and the attraction is new, but ticket sales in November and February, when it becomes clear whether the gorge has turned into a destination or stayed a stop along the road.