Encyclopedia : N : NI : NIS
- Nis redirects here. For the three letter acronym see NIS
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| Location in Serbia | |||
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| General Information | |||
| Mayor or municipality president | Smiljko Kostić (NS) (since 2004) | ||
| Area>Land area | 597 km² | ||
| Population || 420/km²
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| Coordinates|| [43°19' N 21°54' E]
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| Area code|| +381 18
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| Subdivisions|| 5 Municipalities
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| License plate code|| NI
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| Time zone|| UTC+1
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| Website|| [www.nis.org.yu]
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 Niš or Nish (Serbian: Ниш / Niš, Latin: Naissus, Greek: Naissos) is a city in Serbia situated at 43.3° N 21.9° E, on the river Nišava. Its population is 250,518 (2002 census), and it is the third largest city in the republic. The city covers an area of about 597 square kilometres, including the city of Niš itself, the Niška Banja spa and 68 suburbs. Niš Constantine the Great Airport (Аеродром Константин Велики) is its international airport with the destination code INI. Niš is the administrative center of the Nišava District of Serbia. Situated at the crossroads of Balkan and European highways, connecting Asia Minor to Europe, Niš is one of the oldest cities in the Balkans, and has from ancient times been considered a gateway between the East and the West. Niš is a university center. There are about 28,000 university students at the University of Niš, which comprises 13 faculties. Niš is also one of the most important industrial centres in Serbia, a center of electronics industry (see Elektronska Industrija Niš), industry of mechanical engineering, textile industry and tobacco industry.
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Geography and climateNiš is situated at the 43°19' latitude north and 21°54' longitude east in the Nišava valley, near the spot where it joins the Južna Morava River. It is in Niš that the trunk road running from the north down the Morava River valley forks into two major lines: - the south one, leading to Thessalonica and Athens, - and the east one, leading towards Sofia and Istanbul, and further on, towards the Near East. The central city area is at 194m altitude above sea level (the Main City Square). The highest point in the city area is Sokolov kamen (Falcon's rock) on Suva Planina Mountain (1523m) while the lowest spot is at Trupale, near the mouth of the Nišava (173m). The city area covers 596.71 square km.The climate of the Niš area is moderate and continental, with an average temperature of 11.2°C. July is the warmest month of the year, with the average of 21.2°C. The coldest month is January, averaging at 0.2°C. The average of the annual rainfall is 567.25 mm/m². The average barometer value is 992.74 mb. There are 123 days with rain and 43 days with snow. On the average, the wind force is just below 3 Beaufort. HistoryEarly HistoryThe city's early name under the Roman Empire remained Naissus ("city of the nymphs"), which is the Latin name derived from its original name Naissos, a Greek colony founded in antiquity. At the time of the conquest of the Greeks by Rome, Naissos was used as a base for operations. Niš is a possible location of Nysa, a mythical place in Greek mythology where the young god Dionysus was raised. Naissus was first mentioned in Roman documents near the beginning of 2nd century CE, and was considered a place worthy of note in the Geography of Ptolemy of Alexandria. The Romans occupied the town in the period of the "Dardanian War" (75-73 BC), and the city developed as a strategic crossroads, garrison and market town in the province of Moesia Superior.
 In AD 268, during the "Crisis of the third century" when the Empire almost collapsed, the greatest Gothic invasion seen to date came pouring into the Balkans. The Goths' seaborne allies, the Heruli, supplied a fleet, carrying vast armies down the coast of the Black Sea where they ravaged coastal territories in Thrace and Macedonia. Other huge forces crossed the Danube in Moesia. An invasion of Goths into the province of Pannonia was leading to disaster. The Emperor Gallienus halted the Goths' progress by defeating them in battle in April of 268, and then that September, he came upon the main Gothic force at Naissus and defeated them at the carnage called the Battle of Naissus, the bloodiest battle of the 3rd century, which left thirty to fifty thousand Goths dead on the field. The battle earned Gallienus' chief general Marcus Aurelius Claudius his surname "Gothicus", although the cavalry commander Aurelian was the real victor. The battle of Naissus ensured another two centuries for the Empire in the West. Four years later in 272, the son of military commander Constantius Chlorus and an innkeeper's daughter called Flavia Iulia Helena was born in Naissus and destined to rule as Emperor Constantine the Great. The remains of the 4th century Imperial villa at Mediana are an important archaeological site located close to Niš. Mosaic floors and other traces of luxury are preserved in the archaeological museum on the site. Other aristocratic suburban villas are clustered nearby. The 4th century Christian basilica in Niš is one of the oldest Christian monuments. Though the emperor Julian strengthened the walls, the very prosperity of Naissus made it a target and it was destroyed by Attila in 443. Attila the Hun conquers Naissus with battering rams and rolling towers—military sophistication that was new in the Hun repertory. After the Huns captured the city of Naissus they massacred the inhabitants of the city. Years later river banks outside the city were still covered with human bones as a reminder of the devastation the Huns had inflicted. When Priscus passed through in 448 on his way to Attila's court, Naissus offered a grim spectacle: When we arrived at Naissus we found the city deserted, as though it had been sacked; only a few sick persons lay in the churches. We halted at a short distance from the river, in an open space, for all the ground adjacent to the bank was full of the bones of men slain in war. Afterwards Justinian I did his best to restore it, but Naissa never recovered its 4th century urbanity. Middle AgesLast half of the 6th century CE saw the first major migrations of Slavs and Avars. During the 6th and 7th century CE, Slavic tribes attempted to take Niš eight times. During the final attack in 615 CE the invaders took the city, and most of the Roman population fled or perished, but some small traces survived in the local Vlach population. The city and the arable land in the area was settled by Slavs.In the 9th century the Bulgarians became masters of Naissus, the Hungarians in the 11th century, during which the town's milita fought a successful battle against the People's Crusade on 3 July 1096. The Byzantine Emperor Manuel I Comnenus reconquered it once more in 1173, and towards the end of the 12th century the town was in the hands of the Serbian prince Stephen Nemanja, who received hospitably the German emperor Frederick Barbarossa and his crusaders. In 1375 the Ottoman Turks captured Naissus for the first time from the Serbians. The fall of the Serbian state, conquered by Sultan Murad in 1385, decided the fate of Niš as well. After a 25-day long siege the city fell to the Turks. After the Battle of Kosovo in 1389, the Constantinopol-Wien road grew deserted. In 1443, Niš fell into the hands of Ludanjin. The town itself was given back to the Serbs, while Branković gave it over to Đorđe Mrnjavčević. In the so-called Long Campaign, Christian armies, led by the Hungarian military leader Janos Hunyadi (known as Sibinjanin Janko in Serbian folk poetry) together with Serbian Despot Đurađ Branković, defeated the Turks and repelled them to Sofia. An important battle was fought near Niš, which remained a free city for a whole year after that. Early Modern and Modern periodsNiš succumbed to Turkish rule again in 1448 and remained thus for the following 245 years. In the period of Turkish rule, Niš was one of the seats of Turkish military and civil administration. Niš Fortress, built in that period, still represents one of the most beautiful and best preserved edifices in the Balkans.1723 The extant fortification is of Turkish origin, dating from the first decades of the 18th century (1719-1723). It is well-known as one of the most significant and best preserved monuments of this kind in the Mid-Balkans. The Fortress was erected on the site of earlier fortifications - the ancient Roman, Byzantine, and later yet Mediaeval forts. The Fortress has a polygonal ground plan, eight bastion terraces and four massive gates. It stretches over 22 ha of land. The rampart walls are 2,100 m long, 8 m high and 3 m thick on the average. The building stone, brought from the nearby quarries, was hewn into rather evenly-shaped blocks. The inside of the rampart wall was additionally fortified by a wooden construction, 'santrač', and an additional bulwark, 'trpanac'. On the outside, the Fortress was surrounded by a wide moat, whose northern part has been preserved to our days. Beside the massive stone rampart walls, the southern Stambol gate and the western Belgrade gate are pretty well preserved. Partly preserved are the water gates, while the northern Vidin gate and the south-east Jagodina gate are preserved only in remains. With a complete reconstruction of all the gates, Niš Fortress would once again become, arcitecturally and functionally, a closed fortification system. In 1737, Niš was seized by the Austrian army, in their campaign against the Turks. The war ended in 1739.
 At the beginning of the 19th century the crucial thing for the renewal of the Serbian state was the liberation of Niš from the Turks. The Serbian leader Karađorđe, in his talks with the representatives of Russia, as well as in his talks with Napoleon and the Turks, pointed out that Niš had to belong to Serbia. The Serbian insurrection army headed towards Niš in order to take it and go ahead towards Old Serbia and Kosovo. Karađorđe's suggestion was to use the whole army to liberate Niš, while the rest of the commanders demanded to attack Niš from four different points. The latter was accepted. On April 27, 1809, the Serbian insurrection army with its 16,000 soldiers approached the villages of Kamenica, Gornji and Donji Matejevac, near the town of Niš with Miloje Petrović as Commander-in-chief. The Serbian soldiers made six trenches. The first and biggest was on Čegar Hill with voivoda Stevan Sinđelić at the head. The second one was in the village Gornji Matejevac (near the newly rebuilt Latin Church) with Petar Dobrnjac as the commander. The third trench was north-east to Kamenica, with voivoda Ilija Barjaktarević. The fourth trench was in Kamenica with Miloje Petrović as the chief commander. The fifth trench was in the mountain above Kamenica and under the control of voivoda Pauljo Matejić, while the sixth one was made in Donji Matejevac. Miloje Petrović's request to attack Niš directly was not accepted. The demand was to wait and to besiege the town. Meanwhile the Turkish army was reinforced with 20,000 soldiers from Adrianople, Thessalonica, Vranje and Leskovac. The Turks attacked the trench of Petar Dobrnjac on 30 May. The following day, on May 31, 1809, the most prominent trench on Čegar Hill, under the command of Stevan Sinđelić, got attacked. The battle lasted the whole day. As Milovan Kukić witnessed, "the Turks attacked five times, and the Serbs managed to repulse them five times. Each time their losses were great. Some of the Turks attacked, and some of them went ahead, and thus when they attacked for the sixth time they filled the trenches with their dead so that the alive went over their dead bodies and they began to fight against the Serbs with their rifles, cutting and sticking in their enemies with their sabers and knives. The Serbian soldiers from other trenches cried out to help Stevan. But there was no help," as Milovan Kukić said, "either because they could not help without their cavalry, or because Miloje Petrović did not allow it. Anyway, when Stevan Sinđelić saw that the Turks had took over the trench, he ran to the powder cave, took out his gun and fired the powder magazine. The explosion was so strong that all the surrounding was shaken, and the whole trench caught in a cloud of dense smoke. Stevan Sinđelić who up to that moment had reached everywhere, helping and encouraging everybody went into the air." Three thousands Serbian soldiers and more than double of that on the Turkish side were killed on Čegar Hill. An important monument from early 19th century Serbian uprisings against Turkish reign is the Skull Tower (Ćele kula), a tower which incorporates human skulls (those of dead Serbian "rebels") in its construction, a monument likely unique in its design. Following the rout of the Serbian army by the Austrians, Bulgarians and Germans in World War I, King Ferdinand of Bulgaria entertained the German Kaiser Wilhelm II at Niš in January 1916. The Kaiser was greeted by the following dubious mock-Roman salutation: Ave Imperator, Caesar et Rex. Victor et gloriosus es. Nissa antiqua omnis Orientis populi te salutant redemptorem, ferentem oppressis prosperitatem atque salutem, which translates as: "Hail Emperor, Caesar and King: You are victor and glorious. In ancient Niš all the peoples of the east salute you, bringer of prosperity to the oppressed." During the time of German occupation in WWII, the first Nazi concentration camp in Yugoslavia was near Niš. In 1942 an armed revolt led to an escape. The escapees were guerrillas from Tito's movement who was captured by German forces during the Battle of Kozara. This escape is featured in Miomir Stamenković's film Lager Niš, 1987. In 1996, Niš was the first city in Serbia to stand against the oppressive regime of Slobodan Milošević. A coalition of democratic opposition parties called Zajedno (Together) won the local elections in Niš in 1996. The first democratic mayor of City of Niš was Zoran Živković, who later became the Prime Minister of Serbia in 2003. Historical Sites
EconomyThe city of Niš is the administrative, industrial, commercial, financial and cultural center of the south-eastern part of Republic of Serbia. The position of Niš is strategically important, located at the intersection of European highway and railway networks connecting Europe with Asia. Niš is easily accessible, having an airport - Niš Constantine the Great Airport and being a point of intersection of numerous railroad and highway lines. It is in Niš that the trunk road running from the north down the Morava River valley forks into two major lines: - the south one, leading to Thessalonica and Athens, along the Vardar River valley, - and the east one, running along the Nisava and the Marica, leading towards Sofia and Istanbul, and further on, towards the Near East. These roads have been widely known from ancient times, because they represented the beaten tracks along which peoples, goods and armies moved. Known as 'Via Militaris' in Roman and Byzantine periods, or 'Constantinople road' in Middle Ages, these roads still represent major European traffic arteries. Niš thus stands at a point of intersection of the roads connecting Asia Minor to Europe, and the Black Sea to the Mediterranean.Niš is one of the most important industrial centres in Serbia, well-known for its tobbaco industry, industry of electronics, construction industry, industry of mechanical engineering, textile industry, colour metal industry, food processing industry, industry of rubber goods. Tobbaco industry
Construction industry
Electronics Industry
CultureMuseums and monuments
SportThe city of Niš is home to numerous sport clubs including the following:
Local MediaNewspapers
MunicipalitiesThe city of Niš consists of five municipalities: The first four are located in city proper and fifth in Niška Banja spa.Suburbs of Niš include: In Medijana municipality:
External links
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