Ritopek

Ritopek
Suburban settlement
Ritopek
Coordinates: 44°44′N 20°39′E / 44.733°N 20.650°E / 44.733; 20.650
Country	Serbia
Time zone	CET (UTC+1)
• Summer (DST)	CEST (UTC+2)

Ritopek (Serbian Cyrillic: Ритопек) is a suburban settlement of Belgrade, the capital of Serbia. It is located in the Belgrade's municipality of Grocka, 20 km east of Belgrade and 19 km west of the municipal seat, on the right bank of the Danube, across the village of Ivanovo in Banat region of the Vojvodina province.

History

In Roman times, Ritopek was called Tricornium (Latin for three-horned fortification) and had an important military camp Castra Tricornia. Its name originated from three distinctive hills dominating the landscape, one of which sank or was simply washed away into the Danube. The settlement gave name to the Romanized Thracio-Celtic^[1] tribe of Tricornenses. A 258AD ceremonial breast plate with stylistic illustrations belonging to Legio VII Claudia^[2] soldier Aurelius Herculanus has been found^[3] and many other artifacts of the Roman period such as silver coins that were washed ashore once the Đerdap Dam was constructed. Ritopek is damaged practically every time the Danube spills over (like the floods in April 2006).

The elementary school in Ritopek was one of the first schools in Serbia, established in 1838. Together with the school, the villagers built the first church which finally took shape in 1868 and is dedicated to the Holy Trinity.

Economy

Economy is almost entirely based on the agriculture, especially the intensive fruit growing with vast orchards around the village. The villagers mainly live off growing cherries, apricots and apples, and there are some remnants of vineyards. A summer festival, Dani trešnje (Days of cherry) is held in the village. As the village is stretched almost 5 km along the road, new section on the road of Smederevski put is modern, commercially oriented (gas stations, restaurants, workshops, parking lots, etc.), and connects urbanistically Ritopek with Boleč and Vinča, thus being the easternmost part of the continuous built-up area of Belgrade.

Population

Ritopek is statistically classified as a rural settlement (village). Historical population of Ritopek according to the official censa of population:^[4]

• 1921 - 1,540
• 1948 - 1,892
• 1953 - 1,980
• 1961 - 1,956
• 1971 - 1,886
• 1981 - 2,002
• 1991 - 2,163 (de jure)
• 1991 - 2,045 (de facto)
• 2002 - 2,349 (de jure)
• 2002 - 2,284 (de facto)

Coordinates: 44°44′N 20°39′E / 44.733°N 20.650°E / 44.733; 20.650

References