Kopaonik (known as the Silver mountain, named by Roman, Venetian, and Turkish sources) is the biggest mountain massif in Serbia which is spread from northwest to southeast of Serbia along 75km, and is 40 km wide in its middle part.
Part of its surface is protected zone proclaimed Kopaonik National Park, comprising abundance of intact nature and beautiful landscape, being the biggest and most important ski center in Serbia. The natural advantage of Kopaonik Mountain are 160 days of snow cover which provide premium condition for winter sports and enable Kopaonik Mountain its status of the most attractive ski center in this part of the Balkans. Kopaonik's highest peak is Pancicev vrh /Pancic's Peak/ with 2017m altitude where there is the Mausoleum of well-known Serbian naturalist Josif Pancic. Whole mountain massif of Kopaonik is named by huge mineral wealth which was exploited since the Middle ages.
Thanks to developed tourist center with the most modern hotels and ski and related facilities, Kopaonik Mountain is one of the most popular tourist destination in Serbia and the South-east Europe.
The largest surface on Kopaonik Mountain is Ravni Plateau, around which are Suvo Rudište with Pancic's peak, and peaks of Karaman (1934 m), Gobelja (1834 m) and southeast from Suvo Rudište are Cardak (1590 m), Satorica (1750 m), Oštro Koplje (sharp spear, 1789 m). Between those peaks there are steep inclinations and canyons.
On Kopaonik Mountain there are lot of conifer forests. Kopaonik Mountain is the place where you can find examples of endemic flora such are Panic's spruce, Pancic's watercress, and Kopaonik violet. There are also a lot of animal species like gray falcon, fallow-deer, wild cat, eagle...
Stock-breeding is the dominant industry of Kopaonik Mountain population, yet in the latest period tourism business greatly involve locals. On plane surface of Kopaonik Mountain the huge mountainous tourist center has been established with many hotels and diversified accommodation capacities, variety of ski roads, ski-lifts and related infrastructure. The new tourist complex near Brzece village, on east slopes of Kopaonik Mountain is in construction, where there are about 1000 beds in hotels and apartments. Beauties of Kopaonik Mountain come from its extreme reliefs : Oceanic-blue mountain fields, bushy evergreen forests, mountain peaks from where you can observe distant Sara and Stara Mountains... Those features stay in indelible memory of everyone who visits this "Mountain Beauty".
