Marina in Mijajlica draws visitors who camp outside her house for days
People from Serbia and other Balkan countries queue and sometimes sleep outside the house of a woman who is said to use bioenergy.
In the small Serbian village of Mijajlica, near Bojnik and not far from Leskovac, a woman named Marina has turned a quiet settlement into a temporary destination for visitors from across Serbia and the Balkans. The village itself has roughly 190 residents, but on certain days the narrow lanes fill with cars and long lines form outside her home.
Queues, tents and numbered tickets
According to locals and people who travel there, some visitors wait for hours and even spend nights near Marina’s house so they do not miss their turn. A number of them reportedly bring tents and stay one or more nights—“two or three nights,” several accounts say—while others arrive early to collect a ticket distributed by a family member each morning and are then called in order.
Those who believe in Marina’s abilities say she works with bioenergy and can identify a person’s health problem during the first meeting. They describe a small reception room filled with icons and say Marina offers advice or recommendations after a conversation rather than a fixed diagnosis. Visitors also report there is no set fee: people leave what they can or what they wish.
Interest has grown to the point that on some occasions hundreds, and in some testimonies even thousands, are said to have come—figures that have not been independently verified. The stories spread largely by word of mouth: relatives, friends or previous visitors recommend others to make the trip to Mijajlica.
Personal testimonies form the bulk of the narrative about Marina. For example, one visitor from Bulgaria says he knows women who previously had serious mobility problems and later had children, and he claims to have seen people regain the ability to stand after severe ailments. Such accounts—powerful for those who tell them—help explain why people keep coming, sometimes as a last resort after long struggles with illness.
Health professionals warn there is no medical evidence that bioenergy or alleged supernatural abilities can cure serious diseases, and visits like these should not replace examination, diagnosis or treatment by qualified medical staff. Still, the phenomenon continues to attract attention and turn Mijajlica into a place where strangers arrive prepared to wait for hours or sleep outside in the hope of meeting Marina.
Photo: press material from the event
