Fortress Užice

Old town Stari Grad
Užice Serbia
An aerial view of Stari Grad
Old town Stari Grad
Coordinates	43°51′07″N 19°49′44″E / 43.852°N 19.829°E / 43.852; 19.829
Type	Fortification
Site history
Built	12th-13th century
Materials	Stone

Stari Grad (Serbian Cyrillic: Стари Град, pronounced [stâːriː ɡrâd], "Old Town") is the remains of a fortress near the city of Užice, in central Serbia. It is an example of typical medieval Serbian architecture. Historians believe it was built between the 12th and 13th centuries to control movement along nearby roads, and the town of Užice. It is positioned on a large steep cliff, and surrounded on three sides by the river Đetinja. Today it consists of several ruined buildings, including the citadel and many of its surrounding walls. Stari Grad was declared Protected Monuments of Culture in 1983, and it is protected by Republic of Serbia.

Serbian župan from the 14th century, Nikola Altomanović (Vojinović) ruled vast areas from Rudnik, over Polimlje, Podrinje, east Herzegovina with Trebinje, until Konavle and Dračevica, neighboring the Republic of Dubrovnik. He was defeated and blinded in Užice (fortress Užice) in 1373 by a coalition of his neighbors Knez Lazar and Bosnian king Tvrtko I Kotromanić, supported by the king Ludovik I of Hungary.

During next almost five hundred years, the fortress was settled by Turkish army. From that period there is a great number of legends. According to the legend which describes how the Đetinja River got its name, the Ottoman Turks in the times when they ruled these lands, once punished the local Užican people by taking their children and brutally throwing them into the river. Thus the river was named Đetinja rijeka, which in Užican dialect means the children's river.