PSD Perun Vareš renovated the Javorje mountain lodge below ZDK's highest peak

One of the oldest mountaineering societies in Bosnia

PSD "Perun" Vareš is an organisation with long-standing tradition and three renewals of its work. The interruptions were not accidental, the Second World War and the aggression against Bosnia and Herzegovina left traces on all aspects of social life. "Perun" nonetheless survived and continued its activity. It ran the mountain lodge "Javorje" on Mount Perun and prepared to mark its century of tradition through phased renovation of the lodge.

Behind such a tradition stood clear tourist and mountaineering potential:

• Karašovina - the highest peak of ZDK at 1472 m - only 1.5 km from the "Javorje" lodge
• The royal town of Bobovac - a nationally and historically significant place nearby
• The mountain lodge itself - a structure with long-standing heritage

Why the project came about

In the summer season, when mountaineers came, a larger number of visitors stayed in the yard of the "Javorje" lodge in improvised conditions. People sat on tables brought out from the lodge's hall, which damaged the inventory, doors, and walls, while the lodge's hosts spent efforts on constantly bringing equipment in and out.

The society decided to bring the "Javorje" lodge into a fully functional form, ready to receive a mountaineers' gathering and mark its century in a proper way. All phases of investment worked towards that goal.

A phased approach to renovation

Instead of trying to do everything at once, each year took the next concrete step:

• Phase one - a gazebo for 8 persons, financed by the society's own funds, the Municipality of Vareš, and a local company
• Phase two - two additional gazebos with a total of 40 seats, a workbench by the fireplace, a trough with drinking water, and 288 metres of fencing around the property
• Phase three - two portable toilet cabins, arrangement of the lodge's porch which had been almost unlit for years, additional benches and tables on the porch
• Phase four - continuation of works on completing the lodge

What was specifically solved

The applications solved very concrete, everyday problems experienced by the lodge host and visitors:

• Where will 40 people who gather at one moment sit? - solved through gazebos and porch arrangement
• Where will food be prepared for a group of 30+ people? - workbench by the fireplace, trough with drinking water
• Where will toilets be when 40 people come? - two additional toilet cabins
• How to protect the property and visitors from accidental injuries? - 288 metres of fencing
• How to use the existing porch from the lodge's construction period? - arrangement, additional lighting, benches

These were not megalomaniac works, they were concrete improvements that a lodge visitor felt immediately on first visit.

Local support network

• The Municipality of Vareš - financial support across several phases
• Local companies - material donations (a wood processing company)
• PSD Perun volunteers - work actions, members' daily contributions
• The Javorje lodge host - provided accommodation, food, and drink for participants of work actions
• The Tourism Development Strategy of the Vareš Municipality - officially recognised these works as a priority

Thus the project did not depend exclusively on cantonal funds, it was a network of local actors who had been cooperating on the same goal over the years.

Sustainability

PSD "Perun" was the sole owner of the land and buildings, confirmed by an extract from the Cadastre. This meant:

• No land disputes - the project could not be challenged on property-legal grounds
• Investments remained in the ownership of the association - no risk that funds would get lost through changing circumstances
• Long-standing continuity - an association that survived two wars had a solid foundation to continue working

Investment in a mountain lodge of this age was investment in national heritage. The "Javorje" lodge became part of the Bosnian mountaineering tradition that transcends one generation.

Tourism and economic effects

The applicants themselves openly said: mountain lodges are not places where tourists will spend a lot of money, but with improvements to the conditions of stay in the canton, visitors spend money with other service providers - hotels, restaurants, transport operators, shops.

The "Javorje" lodge did not compete with hotels, it brought guests who then spent elsewhere in the canton. The project also had wider benefits:

• Preservation of existing mountaineering facilities so they do not decay from disrepair
• Practising healthy habits through mountaineering as recreation
• Ecological awareness of younger generations through active contact with nature
• Development of love for the homeland through visits to significant places, natural beauties, and cultural-historical monuments

The message of the project

Some associations live on the fortunes or misfortunes of one generation. PSD "Perun" Vareš was an organisation that lived through a century, and that understood an anniversary is not prepared in the last month, but decades in advance.

What was done on the "Javorje" lodge across several phases grew into a rounded story of an institution that builds its history through effort, not by chance. For ZDK and the wider Bosnian mountaineering community, it was a model of how a long-term investment in tradition is led, and an example many could follow.