Kruševac
is a city located in the Republic of Serbia,
Serbia and Montenegro at 43.58° North,
21.32° East. Its name stems from the
word for "bread" in Serbian.
According to the 2002 census it had a
population of 59,371. It is the administrative
center of the Kruševac municipality
and of the Rasina District of Serbia.
A commercial center, it has a hydroelectric
plant and an important chemical industry.
The seat of the kings of Serbia until
1389, it has retained the ruins of a medieval
castle. The medieval city of Krusevac
was founded by the Prince Lazar, between
1371 and 1377. It was the capital of Serbia
till 1402. Prince Lazar Hrebeljanovic
(1329 – June 28, 1389), also known
as "Tsar Lazar", was a Serbian
noble who fought and perished at the Battle
of Kosovo, to which his name and life
are inextricably tied. He is a mythical
figure in Serbia, and a saint of the Serbian
Orthodox Church.
Lazar
was born in Prilepac in 1329, the son
of a minor vlastelin (noble). He was educated
at Tsar Dusan's court in Prizren, where
he later held the office of "stavilac".
He was later promoted to knez by Dusan's
successor Tsar Uros. Despite his imperial
title, Uros was a weak and ineffectual
leader, allowing local nobles to gain
power and influence at the expense of
the central authority. Lazar left Prizren
in the early 1370s, and devoted himself
to the consolidation of his power in the
northern Serbian regions around his court
in Krusevac. Although a pledged vassal
to Uros, he refused to participate in
the Battle of Marica, at which the bulk
of the imperial Serbian army was destroyed
by an Ottoman force. Soon afterwards,
Uros, the last of the Nemanjic emperors,
passed away. Through a combination of
diplomacy, military action, and family
alliances, Lazar emerged from the resulting
power vacuum as the most powerful Serbian
noble not in the Ottomans' service.
|
|
