Turistička organizacija Veliko Gradište

INTRODUCTION

Long time ago there was a settlement at the confluence of the Pek river into the Danube. A merchant from a nearby village drove in a carriage loaded with all kinds of goods to this settlement every day. Asked-do you have to go every dayt-the merchant usually answered:" i have to,the town requires ( grad este).» So,one unique word-gradiste derived from these two words.

HISTORY

In the north-eastern part of Serbia, on the edge of the Carpatian mountains and Panonian plain, there is the town of Veliko Gradiste situated near the confluence of the river Pek into the Danube. The urban history of Veliko Gradiste started at the end of 1ST and the beginning of 2ND century of new era when the romans, in search for ore, conquered the territory of tracks' tribe pickens. At that spot they founded castrum - a very important military fortress, and a civil settlement Pincum which was named after the river Pincum - nowdays Pek. This town was a very important place and under dhtect authority of emperor Hadrian. This fact explains the adjective big (veliko) in town's name. The slavic name, Veliko Gradiste appeared for the first time in Ravanica's charter of 1381. During the reign of duke Milos the town had an important role in trade and export of cattle into Pest and Vienna. Before many towns in Serbia it got the post office,telegraph,steamship port,as well as many cultural institutions: primary school Secondary School, library, Printing shop, chobr, but also a hospital and a pharmacy. In the year of 1908 Veliko Gradiste was one of the first Serbian towns to get an electro-industrial society whose founders later built the first power plant on the river Pek. The electricity from this plant was the product of original Siemens turbines. This power plant supplied the whole area with electricity for half a century.

TRANSPORT

The municipality of Veliko Gradiste streches over 344 square kilometres, includes 25 villages and 28,000 inhabitants. The town it self numbers the population of 6,500 people. Djerdap highway runs through Veliko Gradiste. This town is 120 kilometres away from Belgrade. A regular ship line across the Danube connects Veliko Gradiste with Moldova bv Romania.

THE OLD TOWN AND THE SQUARE

The main street, which is a part of the old town, represents a particularly valuable urban part. There are a lot of nice old buildings built at the end of 19™ century. They are impressive buildings decorated with interesting ornamental facade. The city hall, in earlier days the district office, is situated in the town centre. Together with the church, secondary school and the library it rounds the nice square. Some time ago there was a scale on the square used for measuring goods for export to vienna and pest, and because of that the square has the name zitni (wheat) square. The church of st. Archangel Gavrilo was built from 1847 to 1852. its architecture is in style of neoclassicism and romanticism and the walls are covered with valuable frescos. The building of grammar school was built in 1930 in serbian-byzantin style according to the plan of Petar Jovanovic. The most famous people from Veliko Gradiste went to this school. the first principal was zivan zivanovic, a writer of the first economy in Serbia. Veliko Gradiste has had a status of a bordering town for a long time because first it was on the border with Austro-Hungarian empire and nowdays it is on the border with Romania. Veliko Gradiste is a regular port for all foreign ships because it has the customs station.

THE PARK

The major part of Veliko Gradiste's landscape is the park from 1908, situated near the danube quay just behind the central square. A couple of monuments dominate in the park. The monument dedicated to the soldiers from the balkans war and world war i is the work of a sculptor sim a roksandic. The monument dedicated to the soldiers from world war it is the work of a sculptor dejan bogdanovic On the best sot in the park there is the monument of a well-known citizen^ violinist vffituoso,Vlastimnt Pavlovic Carevac who dedicated the whole of his life to preserving serbian national folk music. As a sign of honour to this great artist the annual music festival "Carevcevi dani* ( the days of Carevac ) is held in Veliko Gradiste,when young violinists compete and try to reach the level of Carevac* artistic ability. A walking path which connects Veliko Gradiste with the Silver lake starts from the Danube quay. There are benches and lamps along the path and traffic is forbidden.

THE LIBRARY

The library building is the charitable foundation of Sava Z. Obradovic and his wife Kata. The time of its building is unknown- n is a ground floor building with high mansard roof and as such ft represents an archjtmciual value for Veliko Gradiste. Apart from thr library/there is the museum department, and the gallery of paintings and sculptures of Milan Besarabic one of the ten academic sculptors and painters who came from this small town. The proof that Veliko Gradiste had a brick plant and a coin factory even in the times of greeks and romans,during the reign of emperor hadrian,are bricks and a coin with the Pincum seal from the 2nd century.