Prokuplje
Prokuplje is a city and the administrative center of the Toplica District in southern Serbia. According to 2011 census, the city urban area has a population of 27,333 inhabitants, while the administrative area has 44,419 inhabitants.
Prokuplje is one of the Roman sites of Serbia. It was a kaza center in Niš sanjak as "Ürgüp" during Ottoman rule and was incorporated in the Kingdom of Serbia in 1878.
Geography
Prokuplje is located between municipalities of Blace, Kuršumlija, Bojnik, Žitorađa, Merošina, Aleksinac, and Kruševac.Climate
Prokuplje has an warm-summer mediterranean climate that's close to a humid subtropical climate.History and archaeology
Neolithic and Copper Age
The traces of early settlements can be found at Neolithic sites such as Macina, Kavolak west of Prokuplje and settlements on the south slopes of Jastrebac in Donja Bresnica village. The Vinča period is preserved at the Pločnik site, situated on the left side of the road from Prokuplje to Kursumlija, west of Prokuplje, underneath the modern village, on the left bank of the Toplica river. Together with Belovode, Pločnik is one of two Vinča culture sites from Serbia considered the worldwide earliest to produce evidence of copper smelting. The occupation periods are between c. 5350-4650 BC for Belovode and 5200-4650 BC for Pločnik, making Pločnik the second-oldest copper smelting site so far discovered anywhere in the world. There are two theories about the emergence of metalworking: the smelting technology was either discovered in one region only, at or near the Fertile Crescent in what is now southern Iran and emanated from there around the world, or it happened independently in different places, the Vinča culture area of Serbia and Bulgaria being one of them, and for now the oldest to be researched and dated. In October 2008, Serbian archaeologists at Pločnik found a copper axe believed to be 7,500 years old, making it 500–800 years older than what had previously been considered to be the beginning of the Copper Age and suggesting that the human use of metal is older than previously believed.Classical antiquity
The agricultural Vinča settlements were replaced by the emerging Thracians and then the invading Celtic Scordisci in 279 BC. Pieces of ceramics found by the Latin Church are traces of those tribes' movement on their way to Greece.Between 73-75 BC, after the Romans subjugated the tribes of the region, this part of Serbia became a part of the Roman province of Moesia. At the time the settlement was known as Hammeum or Hameo, its oldest preserved name. It was located on the Roman Via Militaris, a road that connected the central Balkans with the Adriatic, passing through nearby Naissus. In July 2008 a major Roman spa was unearthed.
At the end of the 4th century AD, when the Roman Empire was divided, the Toplica region became part of the Eastern Roman or Byzantine Empire. The place became known as Komplos or Komblos. Some historians believe that Komplos was rebuilt by Emperor Justinian.
Middle Ages: the Slavs
When South Slavic tribes first settled in this area in the 6th century, Komplos was rendered as the Slavic Prokuplje.The first written document mentioning today's town name is from AD 1395, when Duchess Milica gave as a present to St. Panteleimon Monastery on holy Mount Athos in modern-day Greece, two houses and some other property from the town of St. Prokopius. Today's name of the town of Prokuplje was first seen in use after the translation of the relics of St. Prokopius from Niš to Prokuplje in 1396.
In the Early Middle Ages, during the rule of Stefan Nemanja, Prokuplje is not mentioned in any written documents. From the 7th century and during the Middle Ages, Slavs who settled there became majority in the area, as could be seen from mainly Slavic toponyms. There was a small population consisting of Romanised Vlachs, who mainly left the area in the past, as the Morava basin was the main invasion route for the attacks on the Roman Empire. The settlement gained its importance during the reign of Tsar Lazar Hrebeljanović, before the Ottoman invasion, when the fortress on Hisar Hill was rebuilt. Between 1385 and 1387, the Battle of Pločnik took place in the Toplica region, in which the Serbian forces of Prince Lazar defeated the invading Ottoman army of Sultan Murad I.
Ottoman rule
15th-17th centuries
In 1454, Prokuplje was besieged by the Ottomans and during the next 423 years of Ottomans rule the name of the place was Urcub or Okrub. It was part of the Sanjak of Niš.During the Ottoman rule, in the period between the 16th and 17th centuries, the town's importance increased, similarly to other towns in the region, such as Kruševac, Stalac and Leskovac. Prokuplje prospered through the trade connections with Dubrovnik.
1689-1878: wars and ethnic changes
During the Great Turkish War, there was a massive local rebellion of Christian Serbs in support of the Austrian troops who were advancing in the area. Prokuplje was captured by Austrian troops and Serbian Militia in 1689, but after the Ottoman counter-offensive, the town was burned down during the Austrian retreat of 1690, in spite of Habsburg colonel Antonije Znorić's orders to the contrary. Serbs, who had supported the Austrian troops, after their withdrawal started increasingly emigrating from the area, while there was an increase of Muslim Albanian migration into the town.Toponyms such as Arbanaška and Đjake shows an Albanian presence in the Toplica and Southern Morava regions that dates to the medieval era. The rural parts of Toplica valley and adjoining semi-mountainous interior was inhabited during Ottoman rule by compact Muslim Albanian population, while Serbs in those areas lived near the river mouths and mountain slopes; both peoples inhabited other regions of the South Morava river basin. As the wider Toplica region, Prokuplje also had an Albanian majority.
During the 1877–1878 period, these Albanians were expelled by Serbian forces in a way that today would be characterized as ethnic cleansing.
Modern Serbia and Yugoslavia (1877-)
In 1877, the entire Toplica region was captured from the Ottomans by Serbian forces, with Prokuplje changing hands on 19 December 1877. The Berlin Congress of 1878 recongised the city and the wider area as part of Serbia.From 1929 to 1941, Prokuplje was part of the Morava Banovina of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. During the First and Second World War Prokuplje was completely destroyed, but in the post-war period it became an industrial town.
In June 2018, Prokuplje gained the status of a city, along with Bor.
Demographics
According to the last official census done in 2011, the city of Prokuplje has 44,419 inhabitants. A total of 61.5% of its population is living in urban areas. Prokuplje has 14,814 households with 3,00 members on average, while the number of homes is 22,898.Religion structure in Prokuplje is predominantly Serbian Orthodox, with minorities like Muslims, Atheists, Catholics and others. Most of the population speaks Serbian language.
The composition of population by sex and average age:
- Male - 22,056 and
- Female - 22,363.
Ethnic groups
Most of Prokuplje's population is of Serb ethnicity. The ethnic composition of the city:| Ethnic group | Population | % |
| Serbs | 40,936 | 92.16% |
| Roma | 2,145 | 4.83% |
| Montenegrins | 113 | 0.25% |
| Romanians | 75 | 0.17% |
| Macedonians | 74 | 0.17% |
| Croats | 35 | 0.08% |
| Gorani | 24 | 0.05% |
| Others | 1,017 | 2.29% |
| Total | 44,419 |
Economy
Prokuplje has a weak economy, with most of the employed people working in public sector. In 2009, Leoni Wiring Systems Southeast opened a factory in Prokuplje, employing around 1,750 people as of 2013.The following table gives a preview of total number of registered people employed in legal entities per their core activity :
| Activity | Total |
| Agriculture, forestry and fishing | 107 |
| Mining and quarrying | 1 |
| Manufacturing | 4,575 |
| Electricity, gas, steam and air conditioning supply | 95 |
| Water supply; sewerage, waste management and remediation activities | 353 |
| Construction | 364 |
| Wholesale and retail trade, repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles | 1,441 |
| Transportation and storage | 285 |
| Accommodation and food services | 290 |
| Information and communication | 96 |
| Financial and insurance activities | 96 |
| Real estate activities | 6 |
| Professional, scientific and technical activities | 265 |
| Administrative and support service activities | 101 |
| Public administration and defense; compulsory social security | 986 |
| Education | 795 |
| Healthcare and social work | 1,184 |
| Arts, entertainment and recreation | 238 |
| Other service activities | 144 |
| Individual agricultural workers | 204 |
| Total | 11,627 |