Lazarevac

History

During the Interbellum, there was an auxiliary military airfield in Lazarevac, part of the air defense of the state capital, Belgrade.

On 7 April 1941, during the German bombing of Belgrade, air force unit "Arad", employing 60 Štuka airplanes bombed the airfield in an effort to destroy as many Yugoslav planes as possible. A majority of planes, used for training flights, were either destroyed or demolished; a total of nine airmen were killed in action. The Memorial Church of St.Demetrius, with ossuary, was also damaged in the attack.

The area of the former airfield is today occupied by the health center "Dr Đorđe Kovačević" and the Special Hospital for the endemic nephropathy, but neither the location nor the graves are marked in memory of the 1941 events. In 1984 one of the town streets was named after the killed airmen, albeit erroneously: instead of "Nine airmen", the street was named "Six airmen". In January 2018, dedication of the memorial plaque on the location of the former airfield was announced.

In 1971, the municipality of Lazarevac, along with Mladenovac, was annexed to the city of Belgrade.

Settlements

Aside from the town of Lazarevac, the municipality comprises the following settlements:

• Arapovac
• Barzilovica
• Baroševac
• Bistrica
• Brajkovac
• Burovo
• Cvetovac
• Čibutkovica
• Dren
• Dudovica
• Kruševica
• Junkovac
• Leskovac
• Lukavica
• Mali Crljeni
• Medoševac
• Mirosaljci
• Petka
• Prkosava
• Rudovci
• Sokolovo
• Stepojevac
• Strmovo
• Stubica
• Šopić
• Šušnjar
• Trbušnica
• Veliki Crljeni
• Vrbovno
• Vreoci
• Zeoke
• Županjac

The village of Sakulja was resettled in 1984. It was officially abolished in October 2019 and its territory was annexed to the neighboring Junkovac.

Demographics

As of the 2022 census, the municipality of Lazarevac has a total population of 55,146, while the settlement has a population of 27,635.

Ethnic groups

The ethnic composition of the municipality ():

Economy

Lazarevac is the home to the Serbian largest coal mining and smelting complex RB Kolubara.

The following table gives a preview of total number of registered people employed in legal entities per their core activity (as of 2022):

Education

The town has 3 elementary schools, OŠ Vojislav Voka Savić, OŠ Dule Karaklajić, and OŠ Knez Lazar, which together have about 3000 students. There are also 2 high schools, Kolubara Technical School and the Lazarevac Gymnasium.

Sports

FK Kolubara is the local football club, they played the 2021–22 and 22-23 seasons in the Serbian top tier, the SuperLiga.

Attractions

One of the main attractions in Lazarevac is the Church of St. Demetrius. It is essentially a mausoleum, a main memorial room, built in the memory of Serbian and Austro-Hungarian army soldiers that were killed at the Battle of Kolubara. 40,000 killed soldiers, both Serbian and Austro-Hungarian, were buried in the memorial ossuary of the church's crypt. It is the largest World War I necropolis in Serbia. "The Committee to raise a memorial church and crypt in Lazarevac" was established in order the build the church. In the 1937 Committee was disbanded and "The Society for raising a memorial church with crypt in Lazarevac" was formed instead, led by a priest Borivoje Đorđević. Finally, the temple was built by the Russian émigré architect Ivan Afanasjevič Rik between 1938 and 1941. In the architectural and urban environment of Lazarevac, the temple stands as a significant achievement of interwar Serbian church architecture.

There is also a Modern gallery in the town, with the rich collection of paintings, graphics and sculptures, the "Kamengrad" ("Stoneville"), a park enriched with the stone sculptures chiseled by Bogosav Živković, and a Cultural Center. Outside of the town there are three wooden churches from the 18th century, a spring of natural mineral water and several archaeological finds. Other touristic features in the vicinity of Lazarevac include the Ćelije monastery and the Vrače hill, where Dimitrije Tucović, Serbian socialist theorist, was killed in November 1914 during the Battle of Kolubara.

In Baroševac grow a grove of giant sequoia trees which were brought from California as a part of a program to find species for re-foresting the barren bottom of the coal mines' emptied parts. The trees had only reached a height of 30m , and are continuing to be studied as they develop in this manufactured habitat.

There is a game hunting ground "Kolubara" in the municipality.

File:Wiki Šumadija III Lazarevac 018.jpg|Town center street promenade File:Wiki Šumadija III Biblioteka Lazarevac 087.jpg|Dimitrije Tucović Library File:Wiki Šumadija III Lazarevac 0201.jpg|Culture center File:Wiki Šumadija III Lazarevac 027.jpg|Retail park File:Jezero Očaga, Jezero, 09.JPG|Lake Očaga

References

References

1. {{Serbian municipalities 2006
2. "Насеља општине Лазаревац". Statistical Office of Serbia.
3. {{Serbian census 2022
4. (12 August 2014). "Kako je Lazarevac dobio ime". mojasrbija.rs.
5. Branka Vasiljević. (31 January 2018). "Bombardovanje aerodroma u Lazarevcu zaboravljena priča". Politika.
6. "Насеља општине Лазаревац".
7. Branka Vasiljević. (6 October 2019). "Sakulja i Ropočevo izbrisani s mape grada". Politika.
8. "Comparative overview of the number of population in 1948, 1953, 1961, 1971, 1981, 1991, 2002, 2011. and 2022". [[Statistical Office of the Republic of Serbia]].
9. (2023). "ETHNICITY - Data by municipalities and cities". [[Statistical Office of the Republic of Serbia]].
10. "MUNICIPALITIES AND REGIONS OF THE REPUBLIC OF SERBIA, 2023.". [[Statistical Office of the Republic of Serbia]].
11. Dimitrije Bukvić. (12 December 2008). "Kopovi "Kolubare" - biser industrijskog turizma". [[Politika]].
12. Jelena Čalija. (22 December 2018). "Војни меморијали - заборављени сведоци страдања у Великом рату". Politika.
13. [http://spomenicikulture.mi.sanu.ac.rs/spomenik.php?id=554 Spomenici kulture]
14. [http://beogradskonasledje.rs/kd/zavod/lazarevac/spomen-crkva-lazarevac.html Cultural monument of outstanding value, Memorial Church in Lazarevac]
15. Dimitrije Bukvić. (26 March 2011). "Turistički prsten na sat od kruga "dvojke"". [[Politika]].
16. [http://www.novosti.rs/vesti/naslovna/aktuelno.69.html:341694-Lazarevac-Visoke-sekvoje-nicu-iz-uglja Novosti - Lazarevac: High redwood sprouting from coal (Serbian)]
17. Branka Vasiljević. (5 August 2018). "Lovci u Beograd stižu porodično". Politika.