Serbs
The Serbs are a nation and South Slavic ethnic group that formed in the Balkans. The majority of Serbs inhabit the nation state of Serbia, as well as the disputed territory of Kosovo, the neighboring countries of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Montenegro, they form significant minorities in North Slovenia. There is a large Serb diaspora in Western Europe, outside Europe there are significant communities in North America and Australia; the Serbs share many cultural traits with the rest of the peoples of Southeast Europe. They are predominantly Eastern Orthodox Christians by religion; the Serbian language is official in Serbia, co-official in Kosovo and Bosnia and Herzegovina, is spoken by the plurality in Montenegro. The modern identity of Serbs is rooted in traditions. In the 19th century, the Serbian national identity was manifested, with awareness of history and tradition, medieval heritage, cultural unity, despite living under different empires. Three elements, together with the legacy of the Nemanjić dynasty, were crucial in forging identity and preservation during foreign domination: the Serbian Orthodox Church, the Serbian language, Kosovo Myth.
When the Principality of Serbia gained independence from the Ottoman Empire, Orthodoxy became crucial in defining the national identity, instead of language, shared by other South Slavs. The tradition of slava, the family saint feast day, is an important ethnic marker of Serb identity, is regarded their most significant and most solemn feast day; the origin of the ethnonym is unclear. Genetic studies on Serbs show that they have close affinity with the rest of the Balkan peoples, those within former Yugoslavia. Serbia's people are among the tallest in the world, after Montenegro and the Netherlands, with an average male height of 1.82 metres. Slavs settled the Balkans in the 6th and 7th centuries. Up until the late 560s their activity was raiding, crossing from the Danube, though with limited Slavic settlement through Byzantine foederati colonies; the Danube and Sava frontier was overwhelmed by large-scale Slavic settlement in the late 6th and early 7th century. What is today central Serbia was an important geo-strategical province, through which the Via Militaris crossed.
This area was intruded by barbarians in the 5th and 6th centuries. The numerous Slavs assimilated the descendants of the indigenous population; the history of the early medieval Serbian Principality is recorded in the 10th-century work De Administrando Imperio, which describes the Serbs as a people living in Roman Dalmatia, subordinate to the Byzantine Empire. Numerous small Serbian states were created, chiefly under Vlastimorović and Vojislavjević dynasties, located in modern Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia and Serbia. With the decline of the Serbian state of Duklja in the late 11th century, "Raška" separated from it and replaced it as the most powerful Serbian state. Prince Stefan Nemanja conquered the neighbouring territories of Kosovo and Zachlumia; the Nemanjić dynasty ruled over Serbia until the 14th century. Nemanja's older son, Stefan Nemanjić, became Serbia's first recognized king, while his younger son, founded the Serbian Orthodox Church in the year 1219, became known as Saint Sava after his death.
Over the next 140 years, Serbia expanded its borders, from numerous minor principalities, reaching to a unified Serbian Empire. Its cultural model remained Byzantine, despite political ambitions directed against the empire; the medieval power and influence of Serbia culminated in the reign of Stefan Dušan, who ruled the state from 1331 until his death in 1355. Ruling as Emperor from 1346, his territory included Macedonia, northern Greece and all of modern Albania; when Dušan died, his son Stephen Uroš V became Emperor. With Turkish invaders beginning their conquest of the Balkans in the 1350s, a major conflict ensued between them and the Serbs, the first major battle was the Battle of Maritsa, in which the Serbs were defeated. With the death of two important Serb leaders in the battle, with the death of Stephen Uroš that same year, the Serbian Empire broke up into several small Serbian domains; these states were ruled by feudal lords, with Zeta controlled by the Balšić family, Raška, Kosovo and northern Macedonia held by the Branković family and Lazar Hrebeljanović holding today's Central Serbia and a portion of Kosovo.
Hrebeljanović was subsequently accepted as the titular leader of the Serbs because he was married to a member of the Nemanjić dynasty. In 1389, the Serbs faced the Ottomans at the Battle of Kosovo on the plain of Kosovo Polje, near the town of Pristina. Both Lazar and Sultan Murad; the battle most ended in a stalemate, afterwards Serbia enjoyed a short period of prosperity under despot Stefan Lazarević and resisted failing to the Turks until 1459. The Serbs had taken an active part in the wars fought in the Balkans against the Ottoman Empire, organized uprisings. After allied Christian forces had captured Buda from the Ottoman Empire in 1686 during the Great Turkish War, Serbs from Pannonian Plain joined the troops of the Habsburg Monarchy as separate units known as Serbian Militia. Serbs, as volunteers, massively joined
Textile
A textile is a flexible material consisting of a network of natural or artificial fibers. Yarn is produced by spinning raw fibres of wool, cotton, hemp, or other materials to produce long strands. Textiles are formed by weaving, crocheting, knotting or tatting, felting, or braiding; the related words "fabric" and "cloth" and "material" are used in textile assembly trades as synonyms for textile. However, there are subtle differences in these terms in specialized usage. A textile is any material made of interlacing fibres, including carpeting and geotextiles. A fabric is a material made through weaving, spreading, crocheting, or bonding that may be used in production of further goods. Cloth may be used synonymously with fabric but is a piece of fabric, processed; the word'textile' is from Latin, from the adjective textilis, meaning'woven', from textus, the past participle of the verb texere,'to weave'. The word'fabric' derives from Latin, most from the Middle French fabrique, or'building, thing made', earlier as the Latin fabrica'workshop.
The word'cloth' derives from the Old English clað, meaning a cloth, woven or felted material to wrap around one, from Proto-Germanic kalithaz. The first clothes, worn at least 70,000 years ago and much earlier, were made of animal skins and helped protect early humans from the ice ages. At some point people learned to weave plant fibers into textiles; the discovery of dyed flax fibres in a cave in the Republic of Georgia dated to 34,000 BCE suggests textile-like materials were made in prehistoric times. The production of textiles is a craft whose speed and scale of production has been altered beyond recognition by industrialization and the introduction of modern manufacturing techniques. However, for the main types of textiles, plain weave, twill, or satin weave, there is little difference between the ancient and modern methods. Textiles have an assortment of uses, the most common of which are for clothing and for containers such as bags and baskets. In the household they are used in carpeting, upholstered furnishings, window shades, coverings for tables and other flat surfaces, in art.
In the workplace they are used in scientific processes such as filtering. Miscellaneous uses include flags, tents, handkerchiefs, cleaning rags, transportation devices such as balloons, kites and parachutes. Textiles are used in many traditional crafts such as sewing and embroidery. Textiles for industrial purposes, chosen for characteristics other than their appearance, are referred to as technical textiles. Technical textiles include textile structures for automotive applications, medical textiles, agrotextiles, protective clothing. In all these applications stringent performance requirements must be met. Woven of threads coated with zinc oxide nanowires, laboratory fabric has been shown capable of "self-powering nanosystems" using vibrations created by everyday actions like wind or body movements. Textiles are made from many materials, with four main sources: animal, plant and synthetic; the first three are natural. In the 20th century, they were supplemented by artificial fibres made from petroleum.
Textiles are made in various strengths and degrees of durability, from the finest microfibre made of strands thinner than one denier to the sturdiest canvas. Textile manufacturing terminology has a wealth of descriptive terms, from light gauze-like gossamer to heavy grosgrain cloth and beyond. Animal textiles are made from hair, skin or silk. Wool refers to the hair of the domestic sheep or goat, distinguished from other types of animal hair in that the individual strands are coated with scales and crimped, the wool as a whole is coated with a wax mixture known as lanolin, waterproof and dirtproof. Woollen refers to a bulkier yarn produced from carded, non-parallel fibre, while worsted refers to a finer yarn spun from longer fibres which have been combed to be parallel. Wool is used for warm clothing. Cashmere, the hair of the Indian cashmere goat, mohair, the hair of the North African angora goat, are types of wool known for their softness. Other animal textiles which are made from hair or fur are alpaca wool, vicuña wool, llama wool, camel hair used in the production of coats, ponchos and other warm coverings.
Angora refers to the long, soft hair of the angora rabbit. Qiviut is the fine inner wool of the muskox. Wadmal is a coarse cloth made of wool, produced in Scandinavia 1000~1500 CE. Sea silk is an fine and valuable fabric, made from the silky filaments or byssus secreted by a gland in the foot of pen shells. Silk is an animal textile made from the fibres of the cocoon of the Chinese silkworm, spun into a smooth fabric prized for its softness. There are two main ty
Vehicle registration plates of Serbia
Vehicle registration plates of Serbia are issued using a two-letter region code, followed by three or four-digit numeric and a two-letter alpha license code, separated by a hyphen. The regional code and the license code are separated by the Serbian shield and a Cyrillic letter combination for the region below. A blue field is placed along the left side edge, as in European Union countries, bearing the ISO 3166-1 alpha-3 country code for Serbia. License numeric code contains combination of three digits, while two letter alpha code is made of combination of letters using Serbian Latin alphabet order, with addition of letters X, Y and W; the standard dimensions of a Serbian license plates are 520.5 × 112.9 mm. Issuance of current license plates started on January 1, 2011 and they will be used alongside the old ones during the transitional period until the end of 2011. Following are the license plate codes by region in Serbian Cyrillic alphabetical order: Serbia has numerous special license plates.
Agriculture plates consist of regional code, Serbian shield, two numbers and three serial letters on lower side. Moped plates have two-letter regional code, Serbian shield, numbers. Trailer plates have a reversed format of the civilian license plates with serial letter first, Serbian shield and numbers and regional code at the end. Taxi plates have identical format of the civilian license plates with regional code first, Serbian shield and numbers and TX as serial letters. Military plates have one letter, an emblem of Serbian armed forces, four numbers. Police and fire service plates have letter П, Serbian shield, six numbers. Vehicles operated by foreign embassies, consulates and diplomatic staff and various international organizations have been given plates with a distinguishing format of two numbers, one letter, three numbers, e.g. 12-L-456. Vehicle owned by a diplomat or by accredited non-diplomatic staff carry a plate with characters printed in yellow on a black background while the vehicle owned by a foreign press agency, a foreign cultural representative or by an office of a foreign company and/or its staff, has plates with characters printed in black on a yellow background The first group of three numbers identifies the country or organization to which the plate has been issued, the second group of three numbers is a serial number.
The letter in the middle is denoting the status of the owner. Additionally, plates have vertically orientated two-letter initials in small letters on the left side indicating the city in which they were issued and two numbers on the right side indicating the year for which they are valid. Portal posvećen registraciji vozila Registracija vozila "Nove tablice od 2011, cena 40 evra". B92. Beta, Blic. 2010-09-30. Retrieved 2010-11-10. Pravilnik o registraciji motornih i priključnih vozila Car Transport in Serbia
Pridvorica (Lajkovac)
Pridvorica is a village in Serbia located in the municipality of Lajkovac, the district of Kolubara. In 2002, it had 227 inhabitants. In 1948, the village had 443 inhabitants, in 1981 it had fallen to 313, in 1991 the population fell again to 277. Satellite view of Pridvorica
Obrenovac
Obrenovac is a municipality of the city of Belgrade. According to the 2011 census results, the municipality has a population of 71,419 inhabitants, while the urban area has 24,568 inhabitants; the largest Serbian thermal power plant TPP Nikola Tesla is located on the outskirts of the municipality. Obrenovac was submerged and evacuated during the 2014 Southeast Europe floods. Obrenovac is situated 30 km south-west of central Belgrade near bends of the river Sava to the north; the river Kolubara flows to the east of the town on its way to join the Sava. Total land area of the municipality of Obrenovac is 411 km2. Apart from the town, it consists of the following villages: Some of the neighborhoods in the town are Topolice, Dudovi, Muzička kolonija,Sljivice, Belo polje and Stočnjak. In the Middle Ages, the area was part of Serbian states. King of Srem Dragutin Nemanjić ruled it between 1282 and 1319, established monasteries in Grabovac and Mislođin. In 1521, it was conquered by the Ottoman Empire. Subsequently, it was site of numerous battles in frequent Ottoman–Habsburg wars and changed hands.
Austrian Regent of Serbia Charles Alexander, Duke of Württemberg built a summer house in nearby village of Stubline. During a period of Austrian rule, between 1688. and 1717, the town was called Zweibrücken, during the Turkish rule it was called Palež as a reference to frequent looting and fires it was subjected to. On 11 April 1815, during the Second Serbian Uprising, the town was burned to the ground by Serbian forces in a battle against Ottomans, it was restored in 1859 by prince of Serbia Miloš Obrenović. The Municipality of Obrenovac was incorporated within community of Belgrade municipalities in 1957; the Day of the Municipality is December 20, the date of the decree of Prince Miloš Obrenović by which the name of Obrenovac was instituted, its patron day is the Holy Trinity. Obrenovac was Serbian town which suffered the greatest damage by the unprecedented floods in May 2014. Most of the population has been evacuated to safety. Sudden surge of water from Kolubara river on May 15 devastated the town, killing at least 14 persons, with several persons still missing.
According to the 2011 census results, the municipality of Obrenovac has a population of 72,524 inhabitants. The ethnic composition of the municipality: The largest Serbian thermal power plant TPP Nikola Tesla is located on the outskirts of the town. Touristic facilities include the Zabran forest on the right bank of the Sava, it is located outside of the urban zone of Obrenovac, northeast of the town and west of the Kolubara's mouth into the Sava. It is accessible by boat as it has a peer; the forest arranged excursion sites. Not far from the Zabran is the hotel "Obrenovac", located at the entry into the town from the Belgrade direction; the hotel has thermal pools. In the village of Skela, in the western section of the municipality, there is a popular attraction of ethno-yard which includes the mini-zoo; the forest is one of the rare remaining autochthonous high forests in the floodplains of the Sava and Kolubara rivers. The forest influences the microclimate and mitigates the bad aftermaths of the Obrenovac's high level of industrialization.
There is a game hunting ground "Posavina" in the municipality. There is a green market in the centre of the town, flea market to the south of the town on the Valjevo road; the most famous football club from Obrenovac is FK Radnički Obrenovac. The oldest school in the town is found next to Topolice, it carries the name of Jovan Popović. The school was built by Miloš Obrenović; the following table gives a preview of total number of employed people per their core activity: Obrenovac High School Three bus lines connect Obrenovac with Belgrade: 860, 860E and 861A. Obrenovac is twinned with following cities and municipalities: Kumanovo, North Macedonia Staré Mesto, Slovakia Bergen, Norway Zoran Radojičić, member of the National Assembly of Serbia List of cities in Serbia Obrenović Dynasty Subdivisions of Belgrade List of Belgrade neighborhoods and suburbs Official website
2014 Southeast Europe floods
Between 13 and 18 May 2014 a low-pressure cyclone designated Tamara and Yvette affected a large area of Southeastern and Central Europe, causing floods and landslides. Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina suffered the greatest damage, as the rain was the heaviest in 120 years of recorded weather measurements. By 20 May, at least 62 people had died as a result of the flooding, hundreds of thousands had been forced from their homes. Towns of Obrenovac in Serbia and Doboj in Bosnia and Herzegovina account for most victims, after being inundated by several-meter high waters from nearby rivers. Floodwaters caused over 2,000 landslides across the Balkan region, spreading damage across many towns and villages; the rains activated torrents and mudslides, subsequently several rivers in watersheds of Sava and Morava rose and flooded surrounding valleys. Official counts indicate that over 1.6 million people were affected in Serbia and Bosnia, after a week of flooding. Assessments of the damage range up to 3.5 billion € for Serbia and Herzegovina.
Damage in Serbia, jointly estimated by EU, World Bank group and UN officials, stands at 1,55 billion euros. Officials in Bosnia stated; the events initiated a large international aid campaign, with numerous countries and individuals donating humanitarian and monetary support for the affected areas. On 30th of May, a low-pressure area formed over the Adriatic Sea, as polar air from Central Europe penetrated into the Mediterranean basin; the cold polar air mass met with humid subtropical air, leading to low pressure. On 14 May, the low moved over the Balkans; as a result heavy rain fell within the region. Serbian and Bosnian meteorologists named the formed cyclone "Tamara". On 15 May, the daily amounts of rainfall broke historical records in Belgrade and Loznica. By 15 May, the monthly rainfall in Belgrade had broken the historical record, reaching 205 l. By Saturday, May 17, the rain had subsided, the weather became warmer and sunnier, somewhat easing relief and rescue efforts. On 18 May, the cyclone moved further northwest.
The main flooding region was the watershed of the Sava river, which forms a border between Bosnia and Croatia, flows into Serbia, drains into the Danube in Belgrade. On Wednesday, 14 May, heavy rainfall caused torrential floods across mountainous regions, which destroyed bridges and infrastructure, caused numerous landslides; the deadliest impact occurred on Thursday, 15 May, when water levels in several right-bank tributaries of the Sava and uncontrollably rose at an unprecedented rate, flooding towns in their valleys. The Bosna river in central Bosnia flooded the cities of Doboj, Zavidovići and Šamac, while the Kolubara, near Belgrade, did the same to Obrenovac. Subsequently, the Sava itself rose to record-high levels, threatening the cities of Slavonski Brod, Šabac and Sremska Mitrovica and numerous villages, but the damage was contained as the population, helped by army and volunteers, strengthened flood defenses. Nonetheless, embankments gave way in several places. Heavy rainfall was experienced in the region on 3 and 4 May, affecting Romania and Bosnia.
The event left a number of flooding incidents and high rivers. A state of emergency was declared in parts of Bosnia by local government. Though heaviest affected areas were in the valleys of the Sava and Kolubara rivers, the center of the flood was the drainage basin of the Bosna river and its mouth into the Sava. Water in the Sava broke through the newly constructed embankment on the left bank in Croatia and flooded the Lower Syrmia region; the water uncontrollably rushed into the Bosut river which flows back into the Sava in Serbia. In Serbia, the heaviest floods were in the Kolubara river basin where the major rainfall caused extreme torrents in the mountains, causing the hydrological coincidence, a fact that high tidal waves appeared on both the left and the right tributaries of the Kolubara. Rivers of Peštan and Vraničina spilled over, flooding the surface mine "Tamnava-Zapadna Polje", within the Kolubara mines; the flooded mines captured 200 million m3 of the flood water. Belgrade's Institute "Jaroslav Černi", funded by UNDP, compiled a study "Improvement of the water protection in the Kolubara drainage basin".
Hydrological section of the report concludes that the cyclone caused the "continual rain of temperate intensity", which however lasted for too long. In May, the measured 48-hours rainfall was higher than the millennial rains in Loznica while the return period in Belgrade and Valjevo was 400 years. Return periods of the flow in the Kolubara was 120-520 and at the confluence into the Sava, when the Kolubara flooded Obrenovac and the mines, the discharge was 1.456 m3/s. If the system against the floods was finished and functioning properly, that mines and Obrenovac weren't flooded, the discharge would be 2.460 m3/s. In the drainage basin of the Bosna river in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the rains in some places were exceeding the return period of 5,000 years. At the same time, during the massive overspill in the basin, the return period of the maximal discharge was only 152 years and of the wave volume was 189 years. After the reconstruction of the flood in the controlled environment, it was concluded that the discharge of
Serbia in the Middle Ages
Serbia in the Middle Ages refers to the medieval period in the history of Serbia. The period begins in the 6th century with the Slavic migrations to Southeastern Europe, lasts until the Ottoman conquest of Serbian lands in the second half of the 15th century; the period is extended to 1537, when Pavle Bakić, the last titular Despot of Serbia in Hungarian exile, fell in the Battle of Gorjani. The Slavs in general were mentioned by the Roman historians Tacitus and Pliny the Elder and by Claudius Ptolemy, under the name Veneti in the 1st and 2nd century AD. At the turn of the 5th and 6th century, Byzantine author Procopius and Gothic historian Jordanes mention them as Sclaveni. By this time, the Slavs settled in the wide areas of central and eastern Europe - Slovakia, Bohemia, central Danube valley and east of the Carpathians, in modern Romania - thus reaching the northern borders of the Balkan Peninsula, called the Peninsula of Haemus at the time. First mentions of the people named Serbs are recorded by Tacitus in 50 AD and Pliny the Elder in 77 AD. 4th century author Vibius Sequester mentions them, while his contemporary, historian Ammianus Marcellinus refers to the Carpathians, north of the Danube, as the "Serbian Mountains".
De Administrando Imperio, compiled by the Byzantine Emperor Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus mentions that the Serbs relocated from the land of Bojka called the White Serbia. Historiography can't pinpoint for sure where that is, but the general consensus is that it was the Polabí valley in Bohemia. Other hypotheses place it in the upper course of Oder and Vistula, in modern Poland or in the western Ukraine. After a death of the Serbian chieftan, his two sons took over the rule and divided Serbs in two groups. One remained in White Serbia. Sclaveni settled the western Balkans in the 6th and 7th century. Jointly with the Antes, another Slavic group, they conducted intrusions south of the Danube and Sava rivers into the Balkans, the territory of the Byzantine Empire ruled by Justinian I, who revived the Roman Empire; the arrival of the Avars in the Pannonian Plain in 567 pushed. The Slavs followed the Avars in their destructive enterprises, into the Byzantine territory, they destroyed and conquered one by one city and fortress which constituted the Danubian Limes, northern border of the empire, like Sirmium and Singidunum.
In 584 and 586 the Slavs besieged Thessaloniki, on the Aegean Sea, raided Dalmatia in 597 while the entire limes collapsed by 602. The decisive phase followed from 610 to 626, when the Slavs raided the inland of the Balkans, destroying large cities and ravaging the area between the Danube on the north and south of Greece, including the repeated sieges of Thessaloniki in 616 and 618, of Constantinople itself in 626. Only defeat at Constantinople stopped the raids and pacified the situation on the peninsula, but by that time large portions of the Balkans were inhabited by the Slavs; the history of the early medieval Serbian Principality is recorded in the DAI. The emperor Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus assembled it from 948 to 952 for his son and heir Romanos II; the aim was to warn the young prince on the problems. The Serbs are mentioned in the total of 8 chapters, from 29 to 36; the most important is the chapter 32, titled "About the Serbs and the lands in which they dwell today". The DAI drew information on the Serbs from, among others, Serbian sources.
On the origin of the Serbs, the DAI says that "Serbs originate from the unbaptized Serbs called White Serbs, which live on the other side of the Turkey, in the land which they call Bojka, close to the Frankish Empire and the great Croatia, unbaptized known as the White Croatia."The emperor describes how the Serbian tribe was divided in two, with one group migrating to the Balkans: "As two brothers inherited the rule over the Serbs after their father, one of them, taking a half of the people with him, migrated over to Heraclius, emperor of the Romans, who took him in, gave him the settling location in the Theme of Thessalonica, since called Servia. But, after a while, those same Serbs decided to return to their land and the emperor dispatched them. After they crossed the Danube, they changed their mind and sent out a note to the Emperor Heraclius, through the strategos of Singidunum, that they want him to give them another land to settle, and since the modern Serbia and Paganija and the so called land of Zachlumia and Travunija and the land of Konavle remained desolate because of the Avars, the emperor settled Serbs in these lands, they were subordinated to the emperor of the Romans, the emperor brought priests from Rome to baptize them and teach them to perform the pious duties in order, displayed the Christian faith to them."
Another source on early Serbia from the 8th and 9th century are the Royal Frankish Annals by Einhard. It was the oldest historical manuscript which mentioned the name Serbs and gave some details about them; the DAI mentioned. Through linguistical studies, it is concluded that the Early South Slavs were made up of a western and eastern branch, of parallel streams divided in the Timok–Osogovo–Šar line. Archaeological evidence in Serbia and Macedonia
Serbia
