Great Morava - WikiHQ

The Great Morava (, ) is the final section of the Morava (), a major river system in Serbia.

Etymology

According to Predrag Komatina from the Institute for Byzantine Studies in Belgrade, the Great Morava is named after the Merehani, an early Slavic tribe who were still unconquered by the Bulgars during the time of the Bavarian Geographer. However, after 845, the Bulgars added these Slavs to their societas (they are last mentioned in 853).

Length

The Great Morava begins at the confluence of the South Morava and the West Morava, located near the village of Stalać, a major railway junction in Central Serbia. From there to its confluence with the Danube northeast of the city of Smederevo, the Velika Morava is 185 km long.

Technical problems of making this waterway would be enormous (neither the Morava nor the Vardar are navigable), the usefulness of its creation is debatable (whether the route would be used much), and the estimated costs are deemed prohibitive.

Settlements

Although Morava valley has always been the most populous part of Serbia, disastrous floodings prevented people from settling on the river banks itself. The only urban settlement on the river banks is Ćuprija, but it often suffers from floods (including several times in the 1990s).

Other urban settlements, built a little further away from the river itself, include: Paraćin, Jagodina, Batočina, Lapovo, Svilajnac, Velika Plana, Požarevac and Smederevo. Smaller places and villages include: Varvarin, Glogovac, Markovac, Veliko Orašje, Miloševac and Lozovik.

Tradition

The Romans called it Margus (in addition to that, the Zapadna Morava was named Brongus, and Južna Morava was Angrus). The modern-day city of Ćuprija existed in Roman times as Horreum Margi (meaning "The Granary of Margus").

In Serbian history, its valley became the cradle of the modern Serbian state in the beginning of the 19th century (so called "Moravian Serbia"; Moravska Srbija). Many songs were written in celebration of Morava and its fertility, but most of them also talked about casualties and damages done by the river during floods.

Songs are even made today about it; the most famous are: Oj Moravo ("Oh, Morava"), Moravo, tija reko ("Morava, you quiet river"), Uz Moravu vetar duva ("Wind blows up the Morava"), Na Moravi vodenica stara ("Old mill on Morava"), Moravac kolo ("Morava kolo"), etc.

Oj Moravo may be the most characteristic:

:'Oj Moravo, moje selo ravno,

:Kad si ravno što si vodoplavno

:Kiša pade, te Morava dođe,

:Te poplavi moje selo ravno

:A u selu Jovanove dvore,

:I u dvoru Jovanovu ljubu'

:Oh, Morava, my plain village,

:If it's so plain, why do you flood it

:Rains came, so Morava rose,

:And flooded my plain village

:And in the village it flooded Jovan's home,

:And in it, his loving wife

Works cited

References

Mala Prosvetina Enciklopedija, Third edition (1985); Prosveta;
Jovan Đ. Marković (1990): Enciklopedijski geografski leksikon Jugoslavije; Svjetlost-Sarajevo;
PIM "Ivan Milutinović", Belgrade, Serbia; Morava - Vardar (Axios) Navigation Route (About 1,200 km shorter route (three days shorter time of navigation) from Belgrade to Port of Thessaloniki than across Danube, Black Sea and Aegean Sea. Electric power production, improvement of water quality and regulation of flooding wave.)
Morava - Vardar (Axios) Navigation Route map
Hydropower and navigation system "Morava" (Concepts of regulation of rivers Great Morava and South Morava for navigation and hydropower production.)