Location

At the foot of Rudnik and Vujno mountains, among the gentle hills of Šumadija, lies Gornji Milanovac — a city whose identity has been shaped for centuries at the crossroads of history, nature, and culture. Here, landscape and memory share the same rhythm: in the silence of mountain slopes, in streets that remember different times, and in a space that has preserved a sense of closeness to its own heritage. There are few places where the past is not merely part of history books, but a living thread of everyday life. Gornji Milanovac bears the traces of important events in Serbian history, yet it does not preserve them as distant memories — but as part of a living cultural memory that is rediscovered anew through art, encounters, and creation. Today the city hosts numerous cultural programmes, festivals, and artistic events that bring together creators and audiences from Serbia and abroad. It is in such a setting that the International Chamber Music Festival BLISS has found its place — gathering outstanding artists and audiences each year through a unique encounter of music, space, and shared experience. The theme of this year's 9th International Chamber Music Festival BLISS — 'Requiem for Eternity' — resonates with particular depth in this setting. In a city where history is not experienced as a distant past but as part of living memory, music opens questions of duration and transience, silence and brilliance, dream and reality. Here, in the same moment, one can recognise love for heritage, the joy of creation, the peace of the Šumadija landscape, and those rare feelings that music is able to awaken better than words. Between notes and silence, between memory and the passing moment, a space of bliss and beauty opens — a space in which art continues to endure even when the last sound fades. During the festival days, Gornji Milanovac opens itself to visitors not only as a venue for concerts, but as a space of experience. A city where nature, history, and culture meet in a quiet and unassuming way, inviting every guest to pause for a moment, to listen, and to become part of a story that endures.