Smederevo

Smederevo, town hall

The Saint George orthodox church

File:Hram Svetog Luke.jpg

The Saint Luke orthodox church

Smederevo (Смедерево) is a city and municipality in Serbia on the Danube at 44.67° North, 20.93° East. In 2002 the city had a total population of 77,808 (2002), and the surrounding municipality had a population of 109,809. It is the administrative center of the Podunavlje District of Serbia.

Name

In Serbian, the city is known as Smederevo (Смедерево), in Latin as Semendria, in Romanian as Semendria, in Hungarian as Szendrő or Vég-Szendrő, in Turkish as Semendire, and in German as Semendria or Smederewo.

History

The modern founder of the city was the Serbian prince Đurađ Branković in the 15th century, who built the Smederevo fortress in 1430 as new Serbian capital. When he became lord of Tokaj in Hungary, he planted vines from Smederevo on his estates there; from these came the famous Tokaji white wine. Smederevo was the residence of Branković and the capital of Serbia from 1430 until 1439, when it was conquered by the Ottoman Empire after a two months siege.

In 1444 according to the Peace of Szeged between the Kingdom of Hungary and the Ottoman Empire the Sultan gave back Smederevo to Đurađ Branković, the ally of John Hunyadi. On 22 August 1444 the Serb prince peacefully took possession the evacuated town.

After Hunyadi broke the peace treaty Đurađ Branković remained neutral. Serbia became a battleground territory between Kingdom of Hungary and the Ottomans so the angry Branković captured Hunyadi after his defeat at the Second Battle of Kosovo in 1448. Hunyadi was imprisoned in Smederevo fortress for a short time.

In 1454 Sultan Mehmed II sieged Smederevo and devastated Serbia. The town was delibareted by Hunyadi. In 1459 Smederevo was captured by the Ottomans after the death of Branković. The town became a Turkish border-fortress, and played an important part in Hungarian-Ottoman wars until 1526. Because of its strategic location, Smederevo was gradually renewed and enlarged. For a long period, the town was the capital of the Sanjak of Smederevo.

In autumn 1476 a joint army of Hungarians and Serbs tried to capture the fortress from the Ottomans. They built three wood counter-fortresses, but after months of siege Sultan Mehmed II himself came to drive them away. After fierce fighting the Hungarians agreed to march off.

In 1494 Pál Kinizsi tried to capture Smederevo from the Ottomans but he was stricken with palsy and died. In 1512 John Zápolya sieged unsuccessfully the town.

During the First Serbian uprising in 1806, the city became a temporary capital of Serbia, as well as the seat of Praviteljstvujušči sovjet, a government headed by Dositej Obradović. The first basic school was founded in 1806.

During World War II, the city was occupied by German forces, who placed an arsenal of ammunition in the fortress. On June 5 1941 a catastrophic explosion severely damaged the fortress and killed thousands of people in the city.

Municipality

Municipality of Smederevo include following settlements:

• Smederevo
• Badljevica
• Binovac
• Vodanj
• Vranovo
• Vrbovac
• Vučak
• Dobri Do
• Drugovac
• Kolari
• Landol
• Lipe
• Lugavčina
• Lunjevac
• Mala Krsna
• Malo Orašje
• Mihajlovac
• Osipaonica
• Petrijevo
• Radinac
• Ralja
• Saraorci
• Seone
• Skobalj
• Suvodol
• Udovice
• Šalinac

Demographics (2002 census)

Ethnic groups in the Smederevo municipality:

• Serbs = 104,222
• Roma = 1,801
• Montenegrins = 533
• Macedonians = 354
• Yugoslavs = 296
• Croats = 198
• Hungarians = 144
• others

Politics

Seats in the municipality parliament won in the 2004 local elections: [1]

• Democratic Party (16)
• Socialist Party of Serbia (10)
• Serbian Strength Movement (8)
• Group of the citizens "Movement for Smederevo" (6)
• Group of the citizens "Union of Smederevo" (3)
• Serbian Renewal Movement (3)

Industry

Smederevo is an industrial city, and the center of the steel industry of Serbia. The factory previously known as Sartid was purchased by U.S. Steel in 2003; USS Serbia employs over 8,000 workers. The factory of home appliances "Milan Blagojević" is the second most important factory in the city. Smederevo is also an agricultural area, with significant production of fruits and vines. However, the large agricultural combine "Godomin" has been in financial troubles since the 1990s and is almost defunct as of 2005. The sort of grape known as Smederevka is named after the city. The factory "Ishrana" is an important supplier of bakery products in northern and eastern Serbia.

References

This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. {{cite encyclopedia}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)

Gallery

• 
  Building at the market
• 
  Signpost in the city with cyrillic and latin signs
• 
  Inside the fort
• 
  Southern walls of the fort

Sister cities

• Pale, Republika Srpska, Bosnia and Herzegovina
• Volos, Greece
• Herceg Novi, Montenegro

See also

• List of places in Serbia
• AlogiA

External links

• Official site
• The whole history and pictures of the city of Smederevo
• SD Cafe - News form Smederevo, articles and pictures of the city, etc.
• U.S.Steel Serbia
• Milan Blagojević
• Map of the city