July the 13th, 2022 - The Baranja village Zmajevac is the Croatian candidate for the Best Tourism Villages, which will shine a spotlight on Croatia's enormous rural tourism potential away from the glitz and glam of the Adriatic coastline.

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, the Baranja village Zmajevac is a Croatian candidate for the aforementioned Best Tourism Villages, a designation under the auspices of the UN World Tourism Organisation that is awarded to a village that is an outstanding example of a rural tourist destination, writes Dnevnik.hr

Zmajevac is a village deep in the heart of the Eastern Croatian region of Baranja which is very well known for its sourdough, is surrounded by vineyards and wine roads, and which boasts a rich offer of local specialties.

Caslav Kostov, head of a tasting room there, spoke about some of the most popular products the Bsranja village Zmajevac can boast of: "Tourists most often choose local fish specialties. Of course, there's also duck meat, not to mention loin, Slavonian black pig cheeks, black pig neck... As for the desserts, the most common are local pastries with jam and poppy seed noodles," he said.

Almost every single house in the village has a wine cellar, but the Gerstmajer family is the forerunner in Zmajevac, as well as in the whole of Baranja. Ivan is the fourth generation in his family to be doing this: "We currently own thirteen hectares of vineyards. Our primary activity is the production of grapes and wine, and we also offer some homemade food that my father and I prepare ourselves," said Ivan Gerstmajer, a winegrower and winemaker.

In addition to the rich gastronomic offer and the famous ''wine marathon'' to be enjoyed in this Eastern Croatian destination, the local nature offers visitors to the Baranja village Zmajevac a true oasis of peace.

"I also gave the rooms I let out local names from this area,'' said restaurateur Blazenka Nadj. "My guests are mostly from the City of Zagreb, but we also have a lot of foreign guests, as well as a lot of hunters, fishermen and companies that come for team building," she said.

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An event nobody wants to miss.

Wine policemen kept order at the marathon and made sure no one had less than the allowed alcohol blood content

As in previous years, the main organisers of the manifestation are KUD József Attila and the Hungarian Customs Fostering Association Surduk from Zmajevac, to be held on September 30