Negotin

The etymology of the town's name is unclear, and there are three possibilities as to its background:

1. The Romance/Latin name origin thesis, such as the merchant place (cf. Romanian "negoț" or Spanish "negocios"), and the fact that Negotin is in a region with the presence of a significant Vlach of Serbia minority, just like its namesake Negotino in North Macedonia.
2. There is also the Slavonic origin hypothesis:, Proto-Slavonic .."něga" means "care" and the suffix "-ota//-otina" means "the action undergone or carried out", thus rendering Negotin as "a place of retreat for healing", and the city historically being located secluded amidst marshes would support the Slavonic hypothesis.
3. "Negotin" may yet have been derived from Celtic words "neges" and "tin", meaning "The fortress of war".[3]

Negotin is first mentioned in 1530 as a settlement.

The Thracians dominated the region with the Celtic Scordisci advancing after 279 BC. The Roman conquest in the 1st century BC weakened the Paleo-Balkan tribes. The Moesi, a Thracio-Dacian tribe, were defeated by the Roman army under the Marcus Licinius Crassus who was Roman consul in 30 BC. The region was organized into Moesia Inferior in 87 AD by Emperor Domitian. Later was included in the province of Dacia Remesiana.

Hellenistic religious influence is attested through archeological findings in Rovine and Tamnič where Heracles was worshipped: a relief of Zeus, Herakles and Dionysos found in Bukovo.[4]

The Roman site of Selište with necropolis has been excavated in the village of Rogljevo. Silver and gold fibulae from 250-320 AD have been found at sites in Negotin.[5]

During periods in the 9th-11th centuries and the 13th century the territory of modern-day Zaječar was a part of the Bulgarian Empire.[6][7][8][9][10]

Until the beginning of the 18th century, Negotin was a small town, with no strategic and little cultural importance, within the Ottoman territory of Rûm, in the nahi of Krajina, which along with some other parts of Sanjak of Vidin had a certain degree of autonomy as a vaqf of Valide Sultan (each reigning sultan's mother), in that all tax was collected by the local Orthodox Christian Serbian or Vlach Knez and not by a Moslem state officer.

At the beginning of the 18th century Austrians conducted a major build-up as a fortified town and their stronghold in their south-eastern territories (i.e., while they held it, in 1717–1739, when it was a part of the newly established territorial unit of the Banat of Temeswar). After a period of renewed Turkish occupation, Negotin was temporary occupated in 1804 by Hajduk Veljko's rebels during the First Serbian Uprising.

After being liberated in 1804-10, Negotin quickly gained on importance and size. The civilized life thrived and the government, as in the most parts of then-liberated Serbia, achieved much in matters of education and modernization. However, these great days were short lived: In 1813, after Napoleon had successfully taken Russia and Austria out of the game and therefore helping Serbia, the Turks crushed the ill-fated state of the Serbs. The defenders of Negotin chose not to evacuate and became besieged in the then-fortified town. Eventually, a Turkish gunman sighted Hajduk Veljko and shot his cannon. Veljko was hit in the chest by a cannonball and died immediately. His co-fighters buried him in an unmarked grave, so that the Turks couldn't exhume and decapitate him, as they used to do with all fallen Christian fighters. Once again, Negotin was conquered.

The Second Serbian Uprising of 1815 brought nothing to Negotin initially, having only liberated Belgrade and its vicinity. Thanks to the smart diplomacy of the Prince Miloš Obrenović, this part of the country was once and for all liberated in 1833, with practically no fighting.

Negotin Cathedral

Until the formal declaration of independence in 1878, Negotin had achieved very much in a build-up of its position as a regional cultural, education and religious center. The first state school was opened in 1824, followed by a gymnasium in 1839. In time, the old Church of Our Lady became too small for the bishop of Negotin, so a grand new cathedral church was built in 1876.

At the same time, many Negotinians went to famous European universities, seeking education and enlightenment, e.g., Stevan Mokranjac, one of the five most important Serbian composers and Đorđe Stanojević, a physicist and an astronomer who later became University of Belgrade Rector.

Cultural life thrived, with many choral and other artistic societies. Most of the educational institutions had been opened in a matter of months after being opened in Belgrade (e.g., public library). In this period the idea of moving the town to the banks of the Danube first took a stronghold with the government and local officials. This has never happened, although other administrations have tried to do this. The town was simply too big for moving. Still, Negotin was not far from the Danube, only about 4 miles, so river transportation was possible for its trade. However, the town's position had a serious disadvantage — it was very close to the Danube, but lower than the river, so it had always been surrounded by many swamps and ponds. In the meantime, the town of Zaječar, being much closer to Niš and, therefore, to the rest of Serbia, was slowly taking over as a regional center. This advantage became much clearer especially with the construction of the railroad. Negotin was, though, more to the north and thus closer to Belgrade and the rest of Serbia, but those roads led through inaccessible mountain terrain, whereas it was much easier to go to the south, so Zaječar was, in terms of transport, much better off than Negotin. Until the beginning of the First World War, Zaječar had overtaken Negotin in terms of size and importance.

The two dynasties' vying for power, resulting with, in 1903, rebellious officers killing the king and queen of Serbia, Aleksandar Obrenović and Draga Mašin, had little impact on the fate of the town. The Balkan Wars of 1912–1913 didn't bring much to this area. However, units from this part of the country took part in almost all the battles of both wars, earning respect and glory.

On July 28, 1914, a former kind of ally that turned enemy, Austria-Hungary, declared war on Serbia. After initial successes by the Serbian armies, in the winter of 1915/16, the vastly outnumbered Serbia could no longer repel the attacks by the combined armies of Austria-Hungary, Germany and Bulgaria. But, instead of capitulating, the Serbian government chose to go into exile, with its army. Negotin was soon occupied and it remained so until the fall of 1918.

Negotin became a part of the newly formed Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes. From 1929 to 1941, Negotin was part of the Morava Banovina of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia.

The period between the two world wars was very much like the pre-war years. Negotin continued to lose on its size and importance; Zaječar was becoming the new regional center. Much of this was also happening due to poor environmental conditions in Negotin and its surroundings, as mentioned above. In the 1930s, the government and local officials started a huge irrigation project, aimed at getting rid of swamps around the town and gaining more agricultural land for the ever-growing population. As for industry, there had been some modest investments in the area, but the town itself remained strongly committed to its previous roles of trading center and preserving its old manufactures, many of which were now, quite obsolete. Still, there had been some progress and it was, unfortunately, stopped by World War Two in 1941.

As the war raged in Europe, the Kingdom of Yugoslavia had been spared, at least during the initial two years. Still, it hadn't done much to prepare for the inevitable, mostly because of unsettled national problems in the Kingdom. Therefore, as the German, Hungarian and Italian forces attacked on April 6, 1941, Yugoslavia simply fell apart after only two weeks of fighting. Many officers and soldiers, mostly from Serbia, had been taken prisoners of war and transported to the prisoner-of-war camps in Germany, Austria, Poland and as far as Norway. Although Negotin hadn't seen much of the fighting, in the summer of 1941, some guerilla resistance had been reported. Most of these "partisan" forces had been subsequently taken out of action during the summer and fall of 1941, with their fighters captured and killed. As for the remainder of the war, there hadn't been any major battles or atrocities recorded in the area. Just as the Germans easily and without resistance came in 1941, so did the Partisans and the Soviet troops, on their way to Belgrade and further. Negotin was liberated on September 12, 1944, after less than 3½ years of German occupation.

According to the 2011 census, most of the settlements in the Negotin municipality had Serb ethnic majority. The settlement with a Vlach ethnic majority is Kovilovo. An ethnically mixed settlement with relative Vlach majority is Aleksandrovac. Older census results show a higher share of Vlach population, but due to the serbianisation process from the 20th century, their number dramatically decreased in favor of the Serbs. For example, the 1921 census counted 32,591 persons in the Negotin municipality, composed by 17,201 (53%) Vlachs; 15,340 (47%) Serbs and mixed families; and 50 others.

The ethnic composition of the municipality:

The highlight of the cultural life of Negotin is the annual musical celebration called Mokranjčevi Dani, after Stevan Mokranjac the Serbian composer.

The town has one orphanage, one kindergarten and day care center, three elementary and four high schools, some of which are vocational. There is also an elementary school for children with handicaps.

The Negotin hospital offers all basic and many specialist services to this and neighboring municipalities.