Vinča
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Vinča (Serbian Cyrillic: Винча) is a suburban settlement of Belgrade, the capital of Serbia. It is located in the Belgrade's municipality of Grocka, on the site of the Vinča culture (Belo brdo), one of the earliest cultures of Europe.
Location
Vinča is located on the confluence of the Bolečica river into the Danube, on the Danube's right bank, 13 km east of Belgrade and 15 km west of its own municipal seat of Grocka. It is situated along the stream of Makački potok, which empties into the Bolečica.
Population
Vinča is statistically classified as a rural settlement (village). Originally it was situated 3 km from the road of Smederevski put, but as the settlement expanded it now stetches from the Danube to the Smederevski put, making urbanistic connections to the surrounding settlements of Ritopek, Boleč, Leštane and Kaluđerica, though making one continuous built-up area with Belgrade itself. Like the surrounding settlements, Vinča is an immigrant settlement with steady population growth:
- 1921 - 1,425
- 1971 - 2,271
- 1981 - 3,653
- 1991 - 5,054
- 2002 - 5,815
Economy
Vinča's economy is mostly based on agriculture, but it also experience the most diversity of all the municipal settlements.
The experimental farm of Radmilovac, a section of the Agricultural Faculty of the Belgrade University is located to the east. In 2006 began the reconstruction and expansion of the farm, with new pools and projected covered areas that will turn Radmilovac into and experimental ground for future agricultural production.
The area along the Smederevski put turns into a commercial zone as gas pumps, restaurants, work shops and supermarkets are built. Vinča is on the route of the projected highway in the Bolečica river valley (separating from the Belgrade-Niš highway at Bubanj Potok) and a new bridge over the Danube (Vinča-Omoljica bridge) but the construction is not expected to begin before 2008.
Institue for Nuclear Sciences 'Vinča' (with now defunct nuclear reactor) was established on January 21, 1948 as the Institute for Physics by the Serbian top physicist Pavle Savić. It was renamed the Institute for Physical Sciences 'Boris Kidrič' in 1953 and has its present name since January 1, 1992. In 2003, in an effort to secure the radioactive materials from the Institute's depos, as the reactor was finally shut down, U.S. governmet aided Serbian in process of the materials removal, so that it wouldn't be stolen by the terrorist. A secret, all-night operation with mass use of helicopters caused panic in Belgrade as population thought an accident happened at the Institute.
Belgrade's city landfill (deponija) is located in Vinča. It raised many ecological questions for years as only in the 2000s some of the major problems concerning waste managing began to solve. However, despite some recent improvements, the landfill is still far from the European standards of ecology.
Tourism is mostly centered around the archeological find of Belo brdo (Serbian for white hill) and the museum of the Vinča culture, with boat trips down the Danube from downtown Belgrade to the small Vinča dock, right below the find, with several fish restaurants on the bank. Hotel 'Radmilovac' on the Smederevski put is the major such facility from Belgrade to Smederevo.
Politics
A recent motion, as a result of big economic and demographic discrapancy between the western and eastern parts of the municipality, mentions Vinča of the possible seat of the future municipality formed from the western part of the municipality of Grocka, comprising Kaluđerica, Boleč, Leštane and Ritopek.
References
- Mala Prosvetina Enciklopedija, Third edition (1985); Prosveta; ISBN 86-07-00001-2
- Jovan Đ. Marković (1990): Enciklopedijski geografski leksikon Jugoslavije; Svjetlost-Sarajevo; ISBN 86-01-02651-6
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