Velika Plana (, pronounced ) is a town and municipality located in the Podunavlje District of Serbia. As of 2022, the town has 14,609 inhabitants, while the municipality has 35,451. Velika Plana lies on the left bank of Velika Morava.
The municipality of Velika Plana has 13 settlements. The town is composed of three townships: Town Mains, Stari Odbor (the Old Downtown), and Bresje. Town Mains is further subdivided into the neighbourhoods of Centar, Bugarija, ÃÂurakovac, Kod à ½elezniÃÂke (railway station area), Gloà ¾a-Ciglana (brick factory area) where a tiny Morava river village has been reconstructed, and MagareÃÂa Glava ('Donkey Head'). There is also a satellite so-called weekend settlement () next to the Pokajnica monastery between Velika Plana, Staro Selo and Radovanje.
As of the 2011 census, the municipality had 40,902 inhabitants.
The ethnic composition of the municipality:
The origins of industry in Velika Plana are connected to its agricultural environment and starts in the 1880s. Before World War II, there were three slaughterhouses-meat processing plants here, first that of Italian citizen of German origin Toni Klefià ¡ (Tony Klefisch), and later that of Germans Christian Scheuàand Wilhelm Schumacher, and the one whose stocks were owned by a group of three larger and seven smaller Serbian entrepreneurs.
After World War II, all this property was nationalised and unified into a huge plant, expanding to include all sorts of food and food-related production, all the way to clothes and duvets with goose down. These have, however, folded in the 1990s with the disastrous events concurrent with the breakup of the former Yugoslavia.
Today, the main form of industry is a branch of Goà ¡a FOM from Smederevska Palanka and the newly opened plant which produces parts for the military industry.
The following table gives a preview of total number of registered people employed in legal entities per their core activity (as of 2018):
The main Serbian A1 motorway from Subotica to Nià ¡ goes by the town. The town is also an important railroad junction. Twin tracks go south toward Nià ¡, a track goes west to Belgrade, and a track goes north to Mala Krsna junction, where it splits towards Belgrade, Smederevo and Poà ¾arevac. This, in combination with the fact that many bus lines from southern Serbia to Belgrade and Vojvodina make a stop at the town bus station, makes Velika Plana an important transportation hub of central Serbia.
Velika Plana has three elementary schools in the town itself: Sveti Sava (previously named Moà ¡a Pijade), KaraÃÂorÃÂe (previously named ÃÂiloà ¡ MitroviÃÂ), and Nadeà ¾da PetroviÃÂ, and 11 in the surrounding suburbs and villages.
It also has three high schools: a gymnasium, technical high school and business assistant high school.
The Velika Plana Veterinary Centre started artificial insemination in cows in 1957 and later expanded to other livestock and claims to be one of the leading centres of its kind in Southeastern Europe.
Town has large town park near centre and several smaller parks across town.
At the outskirts of the town are three important ecclesiastical monuments: the early 15th century Koporin Monastery where Despot Stefan LazareviÃÂ, son of Prince Lazar of the Battle of Kosovo is buried; the early 19th century Pokajnica Monastery built as a sign of repentance (Serbian: /) by the murderer of KaraÃÂorÃÂe, leader of the First Serbian Uprising and the founder of the KaraÃÂorÃÂeviÃÂ royal family of Serbia and later Yugoslavia; as well as a small church built by King Alexander KaraÃÂorÃÂeviÃÂ of Yugoslavia at the exact place of his ancestor's murder.
The latter two are within from each other, and easily reachable by public transit. Koporin is more secluded but still within from the other two.
The Plana Demo Fest rock music festival has been organised since 2009 and is sponsored by the Velika Plana Youth Community Centre.
Velika Plana is twinned with: