CULTURAL ROOTS OF THE SERBIAN TAVERN

Text topic: Tavern: That Magnificent Third Place

Text author: Дејан Крстић

The introductory part of this paper examines the psychological and culturological background of catering facilities, aiming to place the original cultural phenomenon marked as the “Serbian tavern“ in a global context. Then, the main body of the paper analyses the origin of certain culture units representing the Serbian tavern as a complex and layered cultural fact, in order to discover its cultural roots. The analysis shows that it is a unique product as a specific combination of West European, oriental and autochthonous cultural elements from the Balkans, East Europe and Serbia. It is an institute of national importance, because of both its role in the national history and the fact that it is a tourist brand. This is why its nurturing, upgrading and tourist valorization need to be well planned.