Smoke Cave

During the autumn of 1814, hundreds of fighters rebelled against the Ottoman Empire. As in the First Uprising, the Serbian people wanted to take back their land, freedom and culture from oppressors, a struggle later remembered in poetry and song. During the rebellion, known as Hadži-Prodan's revolt, those unable to fight (predominantly women, children and the elderly) found refuge in a cave located in the village of Dljin near Čačak.

The Ottomans eventually uncovered their hiding place and set straw and wood alight at the cave's entrance, suffocating and killing everyone inside.

More than a century later, in 1936, Bishop Nikolaj Velimirović oversaw the transformation of the cave into a memorial church. The victims' remains were retrieved, cremated and buried in two stone sarcophagi. An altar was installed to hold the remains beneath a depiction of Jesus' Crucifixion. Before the outbreak of the Second World War, the path to the cave was cleared with a 50-meter high cross placed at its entrance.

Today, the "Smoke Cave" church, or Kađenica, is a place of quiet contemplation and reflection. For many, it symbolizes the sacrifices made for a struggle that would only bear fruit long after those in the cave had died.