Ripanj
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Рипањ Ripanj |
|
| Country: |  Serbia |
| Subdivision: | City of Belgrade, Voždovac municipality |
| Population: | 10,741 (2002) |
| Area code: | 011 |
| Postal code: | 11232 |
| License plates: | BG |
Ripanj (Serbian Cyrillic: Рипањ) is a suburban settlement of Belgrade, the capital of Serbia. It is located in Belgrade's municipality of Voždovac.
Contents |
[edit] Location
Ripanj is located some 30 kilometers south of Belgrade, on the southern slopes of the Avala mountain, in the valley of the Topčiderka river. It is the southernmost settlement in the municipality, on the northern side of the Lipovica woods, near the tripoint of the municipalities of Voždovac, Barajevo and Sopot.
[edit] Population
Ripanj is statistically clasiffied as a rural settlement (village) and taking in account its number of population, it is often cited as one of the largest villages in Serbia. Population has been stagnating for the last several decades, according to the official censuses of population:
- 1863 - 1,839
- 1921 - 5,012
- 1948 - 7,205
- 1961 - 7,588
- 1971 - 7,882
- 1981 - 10,463
- 1991 - 10,312
- 2002 - 10,741
[edit] History
It is believed that settlement got its name from the large rock in the vicinity, called Ripa. The location is an old mining area as it is known that already Romans were extracting mercury and silver and the tradition was later continued by the medieval Saxon miners. One of the major Serbian industrialists in the early XX century, Đorđe Vajfert, also owned several mining fields. The mercury extraction from the Avala mountain ended in the second half of the XX century.
The village got its first school in 1824, the same year when the first church was built. The small, wooden church (crkva-brvanara) was later replaced with the large Church of the Holy Trinity in 1892.
[edit] Characteristics
Ripanj is still largely agricultural settlement. The electrotechnics factory "Elektrosrbija" is located in Ripanj, so as the three "Minel" factory departments.
Ripanj is located in the northern, low Šumadija and the neighboring plateau is named after the settlement (Ripanj plateau), south of the Pinosava plateau. A railway Belgrade-Niš (both parallel lines) passes next to the settlement and the tunnel south of Ripanj is named the "Ripanj tunnel".
[edit] Boroughs
As a relatively large, elongated settlement, stretched along the road and railway (there are five railway stations within the Ripanj area), it developed outer boroughs or comprised the formerly separate settlements. Some of the largest are:
- Bela Zemlja ("white land"), east of downtown Ripanj;
- Brđani ("hilly (village)"), south-west;
- Kolonija ("colony");
- Prnjavor ("ragged place"), east of Bela Zemlja;
- Stražarija ("guard tower");
- Trešnja ("sweet cherry"), an easternmost settlement of Ripanj, a popular picnic area located north of the Ralja river, on the northern slopes of the 310 meter-high Koviona hill, along the Belgrade-Kragujevac road. It is 32 kilometers south-east of Belgrade and closer to Vrčin in the municipality of Grocka than to Ripanj and the village of Mala Ivanča is just south of it. It is located in the afforested valley, rich in big game. The surrounding area comprises a small artificial pond, two cold water springs, a restaurant, weekend-settlement and a car camping park.
[edit] References
- Jovan Đ. Marković (1990): Enciklopedijski geografski leksikon Jugoslavije; Svjetlost-Sarajevo; ISBN 86-01-02651-6
- Turističko područje Beograda, "Geokarta", 2007, ISBN 86-459-0099-8
|
|||||
