Ivanjica

History

Following the Serbian Revolution which took place in early 19th century, and Serbian liberation from the Ottoman Empire, Ivanjica has gained the status of village in 1833, after the Prince of Serbia, Miloš Obrenović took the area. Ivanjica got the status of a town on June 16, 1866 through the Prince Mihailo Obrenović’s decree, thus becoming one of the first towns in the region.

With the 1878 Congress of Berlin recognition of the independence of Principality of Serbia, King Milan I founded the Kingdom of Serbia. In 1918, Kingdom of Yugoslavia was formed, following the World War I. From 1929 until the beggining of the World War II, Ivanjica was part of Drina Banovina.

With the end of World War II, Ivanjica was part of Užice Oblast. At the time, Ivanjica was the administrative center of so called Moravica County (Serbian Cyrillic: Моравички срез). That changed in 1964, when counties were replaced with regions and municipalities, thus way creating municipality of Ivanjica, as a part of Užice District. Since the founding, Ivanjica's population was mostly living in the rural areas, with less than 5% living in the town. That bagan to change with the period of industrialisation which hit Ivanjica during the 1960s. That caused rural population to move to the urban areas of municipality. Until the 1990s urban population made up to 31% of total municipality's population.

Following the Government of Serbia Enactment of 29 January 1992, Ivanjica became part of Moravica District, with the administrative center in Čačak, thus way becoming naturally more connected to the region. In 2003, a monument of Draža Mihailović, former Chetniks leader who was born in Ivanjica, was set in town center on his 110th birth anniversary.

Today, Ivanjica is a modern little town and the municipality with around 32,000 citizens. It is the economic, cultural, administrative and health care center of the municipality. Its development is based on agriculture, lumber industry and tourism as three main bearers of prosperity.

Cultural monuments

The Old Bazaar (Serbian Cyrillic: Stara čaršija) - stands for the center of the town, which was declared good for a remarkable stationary culture in 1987. The center of the town, especially the main street, Milinka Kušića, retains its authentic appearance dating back to the middle of the 19th century. Most of the structures were built after the Great Fire in 1846, which burned the town to the ground which was stopped after some houses where blown up to prevent spread. Old Bazaar was used for a decades as backdrop for making movies and TV shows in the golden age of Yugoslavian cinematography. Promotion of the Old Bazaar as a place for making films started with Soja Jovanović making the first version of Branislav Nušić's Sumnjivo lice, in the 1950s. Later Zdravko Šotra made the TV show Više od igre, and after that, the movies Sok od šljiva, Užička republika and so on. For this film era authentic ambiance of a town from the 19th century was desirable, so Ivanjica was named "Little Hollywood".

There are several monuments of culture in the area of the Old Bazaar:

Culture institutions and events

The bearers of cultural development in the municipality of Ivanjica are numerous institutions and organizations. The leading role among them belongs to the Ivanjica Culture Centre and the Svetislav Vulović Library.

Some of Cultural events are: Hunters’ Fair and Wolf Hunt, Parade of Folk Creative Work - Sounds of Golija, Motorcycle Meetings in Ivanjica, Most Beautiful Love Poem Competition, If May Were All the Time, Parade of Reciters and many others.

In 2010, cultural event Nušićijada was renewed by initiative of Cultural Artistic Society "Dom Kulture" from Ivanjica. This is a specific cultural Festival in-wrought with humor, entertainment, old town spirit returns to the scene after 40 years.

Tourism

The beginnings of the development of tourism in Ivanjica municipality are connected with the 1930s when Ivanjica was proclaimed to be a spa and a climatic place.

Tourist charm of Ivanjica municipality is based on its rich natural and cultural resources, long history and tradition, specific identity of numerous sites and cordiality of Ivanjica’s hosts. Ivanjica has numerous possibilities for the development of all kinds of tourism: medical, village, sports, hunting and fishing, excursion, congress, and festival and event tourism. This municipality was proclaimed to be the first air spa in Serbia in January 2000, while Golija Mountain is Biosphere reserve under the UNESCO protection. As far as the available accommodation capacities are concerned, the municipality has around 1000 beds in classified facilities and around 200 beds in village households, in the town and in the suburbs.

In 1978, the Institute for Specialized Rehabilitation was opened and it operates as a state institution which has both medical and tourist character. Its basic activity is medical rehabilitation and provision of services based on recreational medical tourism. Air spa of Ivanjica spreads on 2,165 hectares with 7 hectares belonging to the Institute for Specialized Rehabilitation.

Ivanjica also has several transport links to monasteries Studenica Monastery, Kovilje Monastery etc.

Geography and infrastructure

Ivanjica lies in the southwest of Serbia, at the bank of the Moravica river. It is surrounded by the mountain ranges of Golija, Javor, Mučanj, Čemerno and Radočelo and it is placed in a picturesque valley. Ivanjica's highest elevation is 1833 m, at the Jankov Kamen peak. Mountains are the dominant form of relief in this area and they belong to the Dinaric range. They are rich in forests, clearings, pastures, cold springs, clear rivers and clear air, wild fruit, medicinal herbs and various game.

The river system of the municipality and its neighborhood is made up of clear, clean and unpolluted fast mountain rivers: the Moravica, the Studenica and the Nošnica which, together with their tributaries, curve down the Moravica mountains. There are and two small lakes: Nebeska Suza and Tičar Lake.

Ivanjica lies on IB-21 highway which intersects with IB-23 highway in Požega.

Economy and industry

The municipality of Ivanjica, with a total area of 1090 km², has 49.54% under forests, 47% of arable land and only 3.40% of non-arable land. The economy of Ivanjica municipality is typified by the processing industry, lumber processing, production of textile products and production of raspberry and potato.

Ivanjica belongs to group of economically underdeveloped part of Serbia, with the level of GDP in the range of 60% to 80% of the national average. Coverage of imports by exports is 92%. There are 362 active enterprises in the municipality of Ivanjica. Small enterprises make 95% of the total number of enterprises.

Demographics

According to the latest official census done in 2011, the municipality of Ivanjica had 31,963 inhabitants. Population density of the municipality is 29.3 inhabitants per square kilometer. There is a trend of population decline since the 1960s. The reasons for this trend are bad economic conditions in Serbia, negative natural increase rate and majority of the older population. Depopulation is typical for villages because of the migrations to urban and other areas. The municipality of Ivanjica has 10,388 households with 3,03 members on average, while the number of homes is 13,469.

Religion structure in the municipality of Ivanjica is predominantly Serbian Orthodox (31,541), with minorities like Atheists (26), Catholics (22), Muslims (15) and others. Most of the population speaks Serbian language (31,658).

Estimated composition of population by sex and average age are:

The total of 11,595 citizens have secondary education (36.3%), while the 2,167 citizens have higher education (6.8%). Of those with higher education, 1,182 (3.7%) have university education.

Ethnic composition

Most of Ivanjica’s population is of Serbian nationality (98.6%), while the 63.3% of the municipality’s population is living in rural areas. The ethnic composition of the municipality:

Notable residents

Settlements

Aside from the town of Ivanjica, the municipality of Ivanjica includes the following 48 settlements:

Sport

There are 28 sports clubs in the municipality of Ivanjica. The dominant sports are football, basketball, volleyball, archery and winter sports. According to results, the most successful sport club is a football club FK Javor Ivanjica, which was founded in 1912. In 2012 this football club was celebrating its centenary from club founding. This club was a continuous member of the First League for the last several years. Other popular sport clubs are OK Putevi volleyball club and KK Ivanjica basketball club, playing in the lower, regional leagues of Western Serbia.

On the territory of Ivanjica municipality there are 6 football fields, 2 indoor swimming pools, 2 outdoor swimming pools, 3 gyms, one air rifle range, 29 outdoor fields for recreation, one athletics track, one chess hall and 2 sports halls.