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INTRODUCTION
Earth,
Water, People - those are the three proto elements
out of which any town is born. All together, they
make up the beginning as well as the later stage
of any human history. Yet in their accord there
lies hidden a secret of identity of a settlement.
A settlement that is special and inimitable, no
matter how many faces it may have put on in the
course of Time, the fourth proto element.
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In
the life of Obrenovac, water does not refer only to
its rivers. Although the rivers could do. For they
shaped the area where Obrenovac first came to be and
still is, lasting on. They brought about fertility
from which it stemmed up. They have opened up roads,
set up borderlines. They have caused destruction and
rendered more beauty. They still do so. And they will
continue, as long as there is future ahead.
The story does not end here, not even with the underground
stream, mineral and healing. It could have added a
last name to Obrenovac and determined its development.
For that was foretold as far as the end of 19th century,
when it was exclaimed that Obrenovac was a fortunate
place as there would be a spa there, better than those
in Germany! And there used to be a spa. Could be here
again! The water still is! |
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creative element of water is in what it offers, in
potentials, motivation, in the idea of connection
with other regions, remote and unfamiliar. This element
moulds a physiognomy of a settlement, its life, its
economy… Each time anew, Obrenovac has changed
its face, recognizing and discovering some of the
currents it has been able to sail along. |
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its most ancient form, water could have made each
story about this town senseless. It could have left
every possibility clogged deep down under the sea
blue. Under the Panonian Sea. It did not, however.
It chose to flow away from this area, to dry up and
open the courses of new and different abundances of
life. It is simply the destiny of some towns that
they should come to be. And, if water is concerned,
Obrenovac really is a fortunate place! |
Photos
by FOTO
RAJKO |
The
Municipality of Obrenovac stretches along the mid
part of the Lower Kolubara Basin, penetrating with
its eastern and southern sides into Sumadija, down
the wide valleys of the rivers Kolubara and Tamnava.
In the West it leans against Pocerina brinks, while
its northern edges are rimmed by the curving meanders
of the river Sava, right before its arrival to Belgrade
and confluence with the Danube. It covers the area
of 409 square kilometres, out of which 42 have so
far occupied the urban parts.
Most of the terrain is definitely plain, whereas some
parts are rolled and mildly hilly, propped up against
the western fringes of Avala Piedmont and Peak Parcan
in the East and Southeast and against the slopes of
Cer Piedmont in the West. The 221-metre high Bukovik
Peak dominates the hills. The lowest point is at 73
metres above the sea level, in the Piosca area. |
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the map of the world, you can find it between 44o
30' and 44o 45' of the northern latitude and 20o and
20o 20' of the eastern longitude. By air, Obrenovac
is about 80 kilometres far form the eastern and western
state borders and some 140 kilometres away from the
northern and 350 kilometres from the southern borderlines.
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Significant
roads meet in Obrenovac. From Belgrade, only 29 kilometres
far toward the East, these roads run westward to Sabac,
Loznica and then Bosnia-Herzegovina and Croatia, i.e.
to Valjevo and Ibar regional road, farther away toward
the Adriatic Coast. To the eastern, southern and western
traffic roads will soon be added a northern one, across
the new bridge over the Sava, it is almost visible
now. When completed, it will bring back to this crossroads
town the significance it used to have when the border
between Austria-Hungary and Serbia ran along the Sava
and Obrenovac, through the Port and Customs in Zabrezje,
represented the export link of the Serbian state with
the Middle European and West European countries of
that age.
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