Vinča

Vinča (Serbian Cyrillic: Винча) is a suburban settlement of Belgrade, the capital of Serbia. It is located in the Belgrade's municipality of Grocka. Vinča "Belo brdo", located in the village is an important archaeological findspot and the eponymous site for the Neolithic Vinča culture.

Location

Vinča is located on the confluence of the Bolečica river into the Danube, on the Danube's right bank, 13 km east of Belgrade and 15 km west of its own municipal seat of Grocka. It is situated along the stream of "Makački potok", which empties into the Bolečica.

Population

Vinča is statistically classified as a rural settlement (village). Originally it was situated 3 km from the road of "Smederevski put", but as the settlement expanded it now stetches from the Danube to the "Smederevski put", making urbanistic connections to the surrounding settlements of Ritopek, Boleč, Leštane and Kaluđerica, though making one continuous built-up area with Belgrade itself. Like the surrounding settlements, Vinča is an immigrant settlement with steady population growth:

* 1921 - 1,425
* 1971 - 2,271
* 1981 - 3,653
* 1991 - 5,054
* 2002 - 5,815

Small bridge across the Bolečica on the "Smederevski put" marks a place where boundaries of four settlements meet (Vinča, Ritopek, Leštane and Boleč). Together they would make a settlement of population over 25,000.

Economy

Vinča's economy is mostly based on agriculture, but it also experiences the most diversity of all the municipal settlements.

The experimental farm of Radmilovac, a section of the Agricultural Faculty of the Belgrade University is located to the east. In 2006 began the reconstruction and expansion of the farm, with new pools and projected covered areas that will turn Radmilovac into and experimental ground for future agricultural production.

The area along the "Smederevski put" turns into a commercial zone as gas pumps, restaurants, work shops and supermarkets are built. Vinča is on the route of the projected highway in the Bolečica river valley (separating from the Belgrade-Niš highway at Bubanj Potok) and a new bridge over the Danube (Vinča-Omoljica bridge) but the construction is not expected to begin before 2008.

The Institute for Nuclear Sciences 'Vinča' was officially established on January 21, 1948 by the Serbian top physicist Pavle Savić as the Institute for Physics, though construction of the site began in 1947. On 15 October 1958, the institute was the site of a fatal criticality excursion in its heavy water-moderated research reactor. One researcher was killed and four others injured. The institute operated two research reactors. The larger 6.5MWt reactor achieved criticality in 1959 and was shut down in 1984. [cite web |title=Research Reactor Details - RA | url=http://www.iaea.org/cgi-bin/rrdb.page.pl/rrdeta.htm?country=YU&site=RA&facno=584 | date=2002-10-07 | accessdate=2007-02-20 | publisher=International Atomic Energy Agency] Another very low power reactor achieved criticality in 1958 and as of 2002 was operational. [cite web |title=Research Reactor Details - RB | url=http://www.iaea.org/cgi-bin/rrdb.page.pl/rrdeta.htm?country=YU&site=RB&facno=585 | date=2002-10-04 | accessdate=2007-02-20 | publisher=International Atomic Energy Agency] The institute was named the Institute for Physical Sciences 'Boris Kidrič' in 1953 and has its present name since January 1, 1992.

In the 1970s a modern urban settlement with small residential buildings was constructed for the employees of the Institute. In 2003, in an effort to secure the radioactive materials from the Institute, the U.S. government aided Serbia in the removal of the material. A secret, all-night operation with mass use of helicopters caused panic in Belgrade as population thought an accident happened at the Institute. Remaining radioactive materials are still stored in the Institute as it is estimated sending it back to Russia will cost over 10 million dollars. The material (about 2,5 tons) is not sufficient for creating an atomic bomb, but enough for several dirty bombs. A fund raising conference was held in Vienna during the meeting of the General Assembly of the International Conference for Atomic Energy in September 2006 and was successful in securing funds for the "Zelena Vinča" ("Green Vinča") project which apart from returning the materials back to Russia until 2008 also projects the sanation of the present radioactive fuel depot and complete decommission of the reactor.

Belgrade's city landfill ("deponija") is located in Vinča. It was opened in the 1977, covers an area of 600,000 square metres and treats over 1,300 tons of waste daily. The landfill raised many ecological questions for years as only in the 2000s some of the major problems concerning waste managing began to solve. However, despite some recent improvements, the landfill is still far from the European standards of ecology.

Tourism is mostly centered around the archeological find of "Belo brdo" (Serbian for "white hill") and the museum of the Vinča culture, with boat trips down the Danube from downtown Belgrade to the small Vinča dock, right below the find, with several fish restaurants on the bank. Hotel 'Radmilovac' on the "Smederevski put" is the major such facility from Belgrade to Smederevo.

Politics

A recent motion, as a result of big economic and demographic discrapancy between the western and eastern parts of the municipality, mentions Vinča of the possible seat of the future municipality formed from the western part of the municipality of Grocka, comprising Kaluđerica, Boleč, Leštane, and Ritopek.

References

* "Mala Prosvetina Enciklopedija", Third edition (1985); Prosveta; ISBN 86-07-00001-2
* Jovan Đ. Marković (1990): "Enciklopedijski geografski leksikon Jugoslavije"; Svjetlost-Sarajevo; ISBN 86-01-02651-6
* "Srpska porodična enciklopedija", Vol. V (2006); Narodna knjiga and Politika NM; ISBN 86-331-2734-2 (NK)