Vratna Gates

Vratna Gates
One of three natural bridges on Vratna, Suva prerast
Location	Bor municipality, Serbia
Coordinates	44°23′00″N 22°20′14″E / 44.383207°N 22.337184°ECoordinates: 44°23′00″N 22°20′14″E / 44.383207°N 22.337184°E

Prerasts of Vratna (Serbian: Прерасти Вратне, or Vratna Gates (Serbian: Вратњанске капије) are three natural stone bridges, two in the vicinity of the medieval Vratna monastery, and the third farther away into the depths of the Vratna river gorge, in Bor, Eastern Serbia. They are entered through marked hiking trails, which was through monastic property. Nowadays trail go around monastic land and leads beneath first Vratna Gate or Little Prerast.^[1]

Name

Prerast (see прерасти) in Serbian means "outgrowth" or "overgrowth." In this case it is an unambiguous term by the local population for these types of natural rock bridges, vaults and gates.

Prerasts

• Little Prerast (Mala Prerast) is about 200m upstream from the Vratna monastery and its length is 15m. The width of its opening is 33m, height 34m, while the thickness of the arch above the opening is 10 meters.^[2]
• Big Prerast (Velika Prerast) is about 100m from the Little Prerast and its length is 45m. The width of the opening is 23m, height 26m, thickness of the arch above the opening 30m.
• Dry Prerast (Suva Prerast) is 2 km upstream from the other gates. Its length is 34m, width of opening is 15m, height 20m, thickness of the arch above the opening 10m. Its name comes from the fact that the Vratna, in the summer, plunges 50m upstream from it, but later appears and disappears again, before once again breaking out from the rock, and continues to run on the surface.^[3]

The Prerasts of Vratna are of different origins. While the first two are remains of a former cave tunnel through witch river Vratna ran through, and part of the arch between them collapsed, the third resulted from the plunging of the river. In the vicinity was discovered examples of karst terrain, three unexplored caves, one of which is the longest, the second is rich in tunnels and corridors, and in the third has a small lake.

See also

• List of rock formations in Serbia
• Seven Wonders of Serbia
• Vratna monastery

References

1. Prerasti Vratne at serbia.travel.com(Serbian)
2. Prerasti reve Vratne at serbiandream.com(Serbian)
3. Planeta magazine, Kanjon Vratnem Vitki lukovi Prerasti, D.B. 2012 (Serbian)

Further reading

• Prerasti Vratne (Serbian)