The settlements of Ljig and Belanovica: Origin and development

Abstract

Lig and Belanovica are two main settlements in the municipality of Ljig and the only ones which, according to the legal criterion, have a status of town settlements. They originated out of need for the smaller local centers in the regions of the District of Kolubara, with villages and hamlets dispersed or semi -dispersed in type. They originated as road settlements in the second half of the 19th century and at the beginning of the 20th century. Ljig developed at the major traffic artery Belgrade-Gornji Milanovac, at the crossroads where from the road branches off towards Mionica and Valjevo, while Belanovica originated at the old road Belgrade-Rudnik, which nowadays does not have the former significance and occupies the peripheral location in relation to Ibarska Highway. The settlements originated spontaneously along with passing from natural to the economy of goods in order to carry out certain economic function in relation to the territories which gravitate towards them. Belanovica was declared to be a small town in 1904. Ljig was declared in 1922 when it was formed as a traffic, trade and commercial center of the wider region. Ljig then obtained its first regulative plan, and later three more. The development of these settlements went differently into several phases, so that Ljig was formed as the primary, and Belanovica as the secondary center in the system of the settlements of the municipality of Ljig with certain spheres of influences on other settlements in the surroundings.