ÃÂuprija (Serbian Cyrillic: ÃÂÃÂÿÃÂøÃÂð, ) is a town and municipality located in the Pomoravlje District of central Serbia. The population of the town is 16,522, while the municipality has 25,325 inhabitants (2022 census).
The Romans founded the town as a fort Horreum Margi (Horreum: Granary, Margi: Morava) on the road from Constantinople to Rome, where it crosses the river now known as Velika Morava. It served as a Roman military base, had a shield factory and gained the status of municipium before AD 224. In 505, the Romans were defeated by Goths and Huns under Mundo, a descendant of Attila the Hun.
Under Slavic rule, it became known as Ravno (literal translation to English would be "flat"), since it is in a flat river valley. Some local names (of the villages Paljane and Isakovo, of the river Mirosava) recall the major clash in autumn 1191 between the Serbs (under Stefan Nemanja) and the Byzantines (under Emperor Isaac II Angelos).
In the 15th century, ÃÂuprija became part of Ottoman Empire. After conquering this settlement, the Turks built a bridge or "köprü" in Turkish â hence the name of the town. Shortly after the First Serbian Uprising began, in 1805 one of the first and most important battles was won by Ivankovac, near ÃÂuprija. Serbian uprisers under the leadership of dukes Milenko StojkoviÃÂ, Petar Dobrnjac, and Stevan SinÃÂeliàdefeated a Turkish army which led to further spreading of the Uprising through all of Belgrade Pashaluk. Four years after that, in 1809, ÃÂuprija Elementary school was founded.
During the Second Serbian Uprising, Serbian prince Miloà ¡ Obrenoviàmade an oral agreement in ÃÂuprija which enabled Serbs in Belgrade Pashaluk to collect their own taxes, to participate in proceedings against Serbs and to establish a National Office composed of Serbian princes. After 1834, the town started to grow economically and eventually merged with the nearby villages of MuÃÂava, MrÃÂajevci, and à ½irovnica. In the Ottoman era, ÃÂuprija was the town of Smederevo with the highest concentration of Albanians. Contemporary Serb author Joakim Vujiàrecorded more "Turkish Arnauts than Serbs" in 1826 in the town. After the war, Obrenoviàbegan a campaign to buy out all Muslim Albanian households in the town. In 1853, "DobriÃÂevo" farm was founded. This led to the establishment of the Agricultural school in 1899. In 1911, a Sugar factory called "à  ELK 911" was founded.
During the 19th century, ÃÂuprija was the center of Nahiyah. After 1890, it was the seat of Morvaski okrug (Morava County).
From 1929 to 1941, ÃÂuprija was part of the Morava Banovina of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia.
In World War II, a special ÃÂuprija-ParaÃÂin partisan troop was formed in order to fight against the German Wehrmacht. On September 26, 1941, 35 members of this troop were shot by German occupiers. The Second World War finally ended in ÃÂuprija on October 13, 1944, when town was liberated from the Wehrmacht during the so-called Belgrade Operation.
During the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia in 1999, the town's center was heavily damaged. Some buildings still remain in ruins. As of 2011 census, the municipality had 30,645 inhabitants.
Aside from the town of ÃÂuprija, the municipality includes the following 16 settlements:
The municipality of ÃÂuprija had a population of 30,645 inhabitants, according to the 2011 census results. All settlements in municipality have Serb ethnic majority except two villages, Bigrenica and Isakovo with Vlach ethnic majority.
The following table gives a preview of total number of registered people employed in legal entities per their core activity (as of 2018):
Sport activities in ÃÂuprija are developed. Thanks to many athletes and coaches (such as Vera NikoliÃÂ, Dragan ZdravkoviÃÂ, Sneà ¾ana JoloviÃÂ-PajkiÃÂ, Zora Antià-TomeciÃÂ, Miroslav PavloviÃÂ, Vladan ÃÂorÃÂeviÃÂ, Duà ¡an Koà ¡utiÃÂ, Vlada JovanoviÃÂ, Ljiljana à  uà ¡njar and Aleksandar Petroviàetc.) ÃÂuprija was well known as "the Athletics town". Beside athletic, football, basketball, handball, tennis and volleyball are extremely popular sports in ÃÂuprija.
ÃÂuprija's football club "Morava" was founded in 1918 and is currently competing in the third-tier Serbian League East. It has its own stadium with a capacity of 10,000 sport fans. In ÃÂuprija, there also could be found a dance club.
ÃÂuprija lies on international road and railway links south of Belgrade and north of Nià ¡. The main source of income is the College of Nursing and Agriculture. Ravanica Monastery, built in 1381 by Lazar of Serbia, is to the east.
ÃÂuprija has a humid subtropical climate (Cfa) with hot summers coupled with cool nights and moderately cold, snowy, and very cloudy winters. Precipitation peaks during the month of June.
ÃÂuprija is twinned with: