Valjevo Град Ваљево |
||
---|---|---|
City and municipality | ||
City of Valjevo | ||
Valjevo panoramic view, Stjepan Filipović monument, Tešnjar, Old water mill, Petnica Lake, Nenadović Tower, River Gradac.
|
||
|
||
Location of the municipality of Valjevo within Serbia |
||
Coordinates: 44°16′N 19°53′E / 44.267°N 19.883°ECoordinates: 44°16′N 19°53′E / 44.267°N 19.883°E | ||
Country | Serbia | |
Region | Šumadija and Western Serbia | |
District | Kolubara | |
Settlements | 77 | |
Government | ||
• Mayor | Stanko Terzić (SPS) | |
Area | ||
Area rank | 16th | |
• City | 22.56 km2 (8.71 sq mi) | |
• Municipality | 905 km2 (349 sq mi) | |
Elevation | 199 m (653 ft) | |
Population (2011 census) | ||
• Rank | 14th | |
• City | 59,073 | |
• City density | 2,600/km2 (6,800/sq mi) | |
• Municipality | 90,312 | |
• Municipality density | 100/km2 (260/sq mi) | |
Time zone | CET (UTC+1) | |
• Summer (DST) | CEST (UTC+2) | |
Postal code | 14000 | |
Area code | +381(0)14 | |
ISO 3166 code | SRB | |
Car plates | VA | |
Website | www |
Valjevo (Serbian Cyrillic: Ваљево, pronounced [v̞âːʎɛv̞ɔ]) is a city and the administrative center of the Kolubara District in western Serbia. According to the 2011 census, the administrative area of Valjevo had 90,312 inhabitants, 59,073 of whom were urban dwellers.
Valjevo occupies an area of 905 square kilometers; its altitude is 185 meters. The city is situated along the river Kolubara, a tributary of the Sava river.
Apart from the city, the municipality of Valjevo includes the following settlements:
In the nearby village of Petnica scientists found the first complete neolithic habitat in Serbia and dated it at 6,000 years old. In Roman times this area was part of the province of Moesia. Valjevo was mentioned for the first time in 1393. It was an important staging post on the trade route that connected Bosnia to Belgrade. Valjevo became significant during the 16th and 17th centuries under stable Ottoman rule.
At the beginning of the 19th century most of the territory of Serbia rapidly transformed. The Serbian revolution began with armed rebellion. In 1804, the local Serb population had rebelled against the Turkish lords and liberated a large part of Serbia. One cause for the revolution was the killing of two prominent Serbian commanders by the Ottoman Turks. The two well-known knights, Ilija Bircanin and Aleksa Nenadovic, were killed in Valjevo on the bridge over the Kolubara.
The settlement's development accelerated further in the 20th century, when Valjevo became an important industrial and cultural center. During the First World War the battle of Kolubara was fought in the immediate vicinity. A large hospital for the wounded was in the town. The city suffered widespread destruction in World War II. At the end of the 20th century it was repeatedly bombed during the NATO attack on Yugoslavia.