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Kragujevac (Крагујевац, krǎɡujeʋats) is the fourth largest city in Serbia and the administrative centre of the Šumadija District. It is the historical centre of the geographical region of Šumadija in central Serbia, and is situated on the banks of the Lepenica River. According to the 2022 census, City of Kragujevac has 171,186 inhabitants. Kragujevac was the first capital of modern Serbia and the first constitution in the Balkans, the Sretenje Constitution, was proclaimed in the city in 1838. A unit of the Scottish Women's Hospitals for Foreign Service was located there in World War I. During the Second World War, Kragujevac was the site of a massacre by the Nazis in which 2,778 Serb men and boys were killed. Modern Kragujevac is known for its large munitions (Zastava Arms) and automobile (FCA Srbija) industries, as well as its status as an education centre housing the University of Kragujevac, one of the region's largest higher education institutions. The name Kragujevac comes from 'kraguj' the Serbian name for cinereous vulture. In the Middle Ages, this bird was common in the woods of the area, and was used for hunting. The city's name means 'kraguj's tower', and the bird is represented on the city's coat of arms. Over 200 archaeological sites in Šumadija confirm that the region's first human settlement took place around 40,000 years ago during the Paleolithic era. The Jerina cave, located near the village of Gradac in the direction of Batočina, is dated to have been inhabited from around 37,000 BP to 27,000 BP. Dugouts dated to 5,000 BC have been found in the city's vicinity, in the localities of Grivac, Kusovac, Divostin, Donje Grbice and Dobrovodica. These remains belong to the Neolithic Starčevo culture, which, in this area, spread along the river valleys of Lepenica and Gruža. The best known artifacts are the fertility figurines called Divostinke ("Girls from Divostin"). At the time of Roman conquest in 9 AD, the territory of the present-day city was largely inhabited by Illyrians (mainly the Dardani) and Celts (the Scordisci).

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Related concepts (26)

Šumadija

Šumadija (Шумадија, ʃumǎdija) is a geographical region in the central part of Serbia. The area used to be heavily covered with forests, hence the name (from šuma 'forest'). The city of Kragujevac is the administrative center of the Šumadija District in the Šumadija and Western Serbia statistical region. The region is very fertile, and it is known for its extensive fruit production (apples, grapes, plums, etc.). Šumadija received its name from the dense and impassable forests which covered the region, particularly in the 16th and 17th centuries.

Kragujevac

Shtokavian

Shtokavian or Štokavian (ʃtɒˈkɑːviən,_-ˈkæv-; štokavski / штокавски, ʃtǒːkaʋskiː) is the prestige supradialect of the pluricentric Serbo-Croatian language and the basis of its Serbian, Croatian, Bosnian and Montenegrin standards. It is a part of the South Slavic dialect continuum. Its name comes from the form for the interrogative pronoun for "what" što (Western Shtokavian; it is šta in Eastern Shtokavian). This is in contrast to Kajkavian and Chakavian (kaj and ča also meaning "what").