On the river Danube, which inspired Johann Strauss Jr.
to give the name to his famous Waltz „On the Beautiful
Blue Danube“, two countries south of Vienna, at the
1262nd kilometre to the mouth of the Danube, there is
a lovely naturist beach, tucked away on a sheltered
part of the bank, not far from the outskirts of Novi Sad,
the capital of the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina,
the second largest city in Serbia.
The history of naturism and nudism in Novi Sad and its
surroundings – if we are to believe the old texts from
the press at the time – dates back at least a hundred
years ago. In one of the daily papers there was an
article which says that „in some circles of the rich
youth, young men and women are engaged in a new
kind of entertainment – they go in small boats to the
nearby river islands, which are not accessible from the
mainland, to bathe and sunbathe there stark naked!“

Of course, the omniscient journalist did not try to join
the youth and make a report on the spot, but only
made a sarcastic remark: “who knows what else is
happening there besides sunbathing and swimming?”

According to an unconfirmed „urban legend“, the
famous Novi Sad resident Mileva Marić, an excellent
mathematician, later Mrs. Einstein, also went swim–
ming and sunbathing there.
All the same, it is definitely certain that the grand–
fathers of today‘s Novi Sad naturists loved end enjoyed
the freedom of exposing their body to the sun and wa–
ter without the „stupid wet cloth“ („Blödes nasses
Ding!“) as Otto von Bismarck, Chancellor of Germany
called the swimming suit, jumping into the river in
Adam‘s costume.
The roots of today‘s club could hardly be directly
connected with the „crazy party of fashionable youth“
from the early 1920s (although we have second and
third generation naturists), but the writer of these lines
can confirm from personal experience that fifty or more
years ago people enjoyed the benefits of nudism
almost at the same place where they do it now.
The Danube is a powerful river, so the coast is cons–
tantly changing and taking on new forms. In the
beginning, the social nudity was practised without
organization, spontaneously, similar to the GDR,
without a fence, without a club, even without the
obligation for everyone to be naked.
The beach at that time was more than a kilometre long
at summer water level with wide sand coast, with sum–
mer water temperature of the main course of the
Danube 21-24ºC. On hot summer days, over 1000
bathers would come, of which at least 950 were com–
pletely naked. The remaining 50 were gradually adapt–
ing, getting over shame and embarrassment, and many
of them would join the fashion of „local folk costumes“
on the second or third occasion:
Adam‘s / Eve‘s costumes.

Since this island, a nudist paradise, which had already
been connected to the mainland in the last century,
found itself closer to the new residential areas due to
urbanisation, at one point it became clear that natu–
rism / nudism could only survive if we built a fence
around the space we used. Given that, we founded the
Association of Citizens called Naturist Club Kamenjar,
which is the toponym of the place where the beach is
located.
As urbanisation came closer and closer, our fence grew
higher; at first it was small and weak, but a few years
ago it was replaced with a new one, with serious pillars
and a new gate – the circumstances forced usseparate, not for our sake, but for the sake of those
„outside.“ Of course, the club is open to all those who
share and accept our worldviews, it is non-political
and gender-neutral: whoever starts a story about
politics, pays a fine to the „coffee pot“, and whoever

violates the norms of decent behaviour in any form – is
removed from the beach and asked not to come again.
Fortunately, the latter is very rare, and the „coffee pot“
has been empty lately.
Our club has developed ties with the club „NaVKE“
from Budapest and „Sziki Naturista Club“ from Szeged
(Hungary), which is reflected in occasional visits in
both directions, and among the members of the NKK
are all peoples of our multinational local community
(Serbs, Hungarians), Germans, Croats, Slovaks,
Romanians) but we also have foreigners: Italians,
Poles and even a member from a Middle East „country,
who can only dream of naturism at home …
Time will tell what future holds for the Kamenjar
Naturist Club. In the third decade of the 21st century,
the city is all around us, a magnificent (fourth) bridge
over the Danube is being built a kilometre away,
(construction just started three days after the INF-FNI
delegation visited our beach) which will make it easier
to reach us (which we are not so happy about).
There are plans in the long run to build a sports and
recreational park-forest in that area, and whether there
will be good will (we are negotiating with the city) for
our beach to fit into that and become the first state-
recognized, fenced and official naturist beach in Serbia
– the younger will see, it may take many more years.
For now, we are on our own and no one is forcing us
out of here.
Author: Géza LENNERT
Naturist since 1969. He was born in Budapest in 1952,
a retired journalist, his two daughters and four grand–
children have been socialized on the naturist beaches
of the ex-Yugoslav space