Kragujevac (Крагујевац) (population around 200,000) is a city in Serbia and the prime city of the Sumadija region. It is located on the Lepenica River at 44.02° North, 20.92° East(The World Gazetteer). Its name stems from word "sparrow-hawk" in Serbian language. Kragujevac is known for its weapons munitions and car factory, Zastava, which produces Yugo automobiles. The University of Kragujevac (f. 1976) is also located there. The first University in Serbia was founded in this city in 1838, as well as the first Grammar school(Gymnasium), Printworks (both in 1833), Theatre (1834) and Military school (1837). During the period of 1818- 1839, Kragujevac was the capital of a Domain of Serbia, during the reign of the Serbian prince Milos Obrenovic.
City insignia
Kragujevac experienced a lot of historical turbulence, not always without severe casulties.First mentioned in Turkish documents from the 15th century as a "village of Kragujevdza" (the name comes after the bird griphon - "kraguj" in Serbian), Kragujevac has undergone a number of ordeals, and the worst must be the massacre of males and a number of schoolchildren in World War II, when Nazis shot 7000 people on October 21, 1941, retaliating for a partisan attack on German soldiers - 50 people for one wounded, 100 for a dead soldier. Among the killed was a whole generation of boys taken directly from the school. The monument for the executed pupils is a symbol of the city. This atrocity has inspired a poem Krvava bajka (Bloody fairy tale) by Desanka Maksimovic, a well known female poet from the former Yugoslavia.
The architecture of Kragujevac is rather interesting, displaying the fusion of two diametrically different styles -- traditional Turkish(nowadays almost completely gone) and 19th century German "secession" style. Modern conceptions have not passed by Kragujevac, but they were manifestly influenced by the architectural thought of Communist socialist realism.
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City view |
High school |
See also: List of cities in Serbia and Montenegro
