Velika Plana

Infobox Serbia municipality
native_name = Велика Плана|official_name=Velika Plana
image_shield = Grb Velikap.jpg
district = Podunavlje
mayor = Dejan Šulkić (DSS)
area_km2 = 345
population_total = 44470 | mpop=16210
latd = 44| latm = 20|longd = 21| longm = 05
code = 26
settlements = 13
plates = SD
postal_code= 11320
website =
notes =

Velika Plana (Serbian: Велика Плана), is a town and municipality located in the Podunavlje District of Serbia. In 2002, the population of the town was 16,210, whilst the population of the municipality was 44,470.

It lies on the left bank of Velika Morava. Although the river doesn't run through thevery town centre, it flows by at 4 km from the main town square and is considered to be the town's river.

The main Serbian highway goes through this town, as well as the Belgrade - Niš - Skopje railway. Those two major traffic roads make this town a crossroad of important roads.

Education

Velika Plana has three elementary schools: "Sveti Sava", "Мiloš Mitrović", and "Nadežda Petrović" in the town itself and 11 in the surrounding suburbs and villages.

It also has three high schools: a gymnasium, a technical high school and a business assistant high school.

Leisure and Historic Monuments

In the center of the town is a beautiful town park. The town also has a few more, smaller parks.

At the outskirts of the town are three important ecclesiatical monuments: the mid-15th century Koporin nunnery where Despot Stefan Lazarević, son of Prince Lazar of the Battle of Kosovo is buried; the early 19th century Pokajnica monastery built as a sign of repentance (Serbian: покајање) by the murderer of Karađorđe, leader of the First Serbian Uprising and the founder of the Karađorđević / Karageorgevitch royal family of Serbia and later Yugoslavia; as well as a small church built by King Alexander Karađorđević of Yugoslavia at the exact place of his ancestor's murder.

The latter two are within 4 km from each other, and easily reachable by public transit. Koporin is more secluded but still within 11 km from the other two.

Settlements in the municipality of Velika Plana

* Velika Plana
* Veliko Orašje
* Donja Livadica
* Krnjevo
* Kupusina
* Lozovik
* Markovac
* Miloševac
* Novo Selo
* Radovanje
* Rakinac
* Staro Selo
* Trnovče

Trivia

The notorious petty thief, and a hitman/murderer of Serbian emigrés in Western Europe for UDBA, Željko Ražnatović aka Arkan was officially promulgated into a "freedom fighter" by the Milošević's secret police at a night meeting of his fellow criminals/future looters and war criminals near the monastery Pokajnica, which the monks objected to, held on the 11th of October 1990.

In 2000 Serbia's Democratic Party held annual conference at the Pokajnica hotel conference centre in Velika Plana at which the programme for ousting Milošević was proclaimed; it was carried out.

Famous People

* Radomir Lukić, jurist and Professor at the Belgrade Law College
* Vojislav Koštunica, former President of Yugoslavia and Prime Minister of Serbia (see Wikipedia in Serbian [http://sr.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%9C%D0%B8%D0%BB%D0%BE%D1%88%D0%B5%D0%B2%D0%B0%D1%86] and [http://sr.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%92%D0%BE%D1%98%D0%B8%D1%81%D0%BB%D0%B0%D0%B2_%D0%9A%D0%BE%D1%88%D1%82%D1%83%D0%BD%D0%B8%D1%86%D0%B0] )
* Snežana Savić, movie actress

Sister Cities

* Budva, Montenegro

In the times of SFRY also:
* Čazma, Croatia
* Brežice, Slovenia

but the relationship with those two has cooled during the wars for ex-YU succession in the 1990s.