Paraćin (, ) is a town and municipality located in the Pomoravlje District of central Serbia. Located in the Velika Morava river valley, north of Kruševac and southeast of Kragujevac, the town had a population of 22,349 in 2022. It also has a civilian airport.
History
There is a Neolithic archaeological site in the village of Drenovac. Basarabi pottery from the 8th Century BC depicting a domestic rooster was discovered near the town. Coins of Byzantine emperor Justinian (525–565) have been found at the Roman fort at Momčilov Grad.
The medieval town of Petrus was granted by Emperor Dušan to the local župan Vukoslav. Petrus was the center of the , one of the spiritual centers of Medieval Serbia. It comprised 14 monasteries and churches, all from the 14th century, along the rivers Crnica and Grza. As of 2017, several of the monasteries are being restored while there are plans to restore the town of Petrus, too, and to establish a touristic complex which would encompass both the town and the monasteries.
Folklore
Nickname for an inhabitant of Paraćin is Džigeran, derived from the colloquial Serbian word for liver, džigerica, and originating from the 19th century. There are couple of jovial stories how it came about and both stem from the popular local rivalry between the towns of Paraćin and Jagodina. According to one story, Serbian ruler Prince Miloš Obrenović, visited Paraćin. The hosts didn't know what to prepare for the prince, so the townsfolk from the neighboring Jagodina told them to prepare liver, as the prince adores it. Actually, it was quite the opposite, so when prince tasted the liver, which he couldn't stand, he said: Oh liver, are you meat? Oh, people of Paraćin, are you humans? Another story goes that a train hit a turkey in Jagodina (turkey is town's symbol) and dragged it all the way to Paraćin, with only liver remaining on the locomotive.
Settlements
Apart from the town of Paraćin, the municipality includes the following settlements, along with number of residents (2002 census):
- Bošnjane (1012)
- Buljane (1545)
- Busilovac (1041)
- Čepure (825)
- Davidovac (461)
- Donja Mutnica (1051)
- Donje Vidovo (1932)
- Drenovac (2009)
- Glavica (1134)
- Golubovac (267)
- Gornja Mutnica (740)
- Gornje Vidovo (855)
- Izvor (929)
- Klačevica (600)
- Krežbinac (547)
- Lebina (715)
- Lešje (422)
- Mirilovac (835)
- Plana (1244)
- Popovac (805)
- Potočac (1309)
- Raševica (1215)
- Ratare (610)
- Šaludovac (360)
- Šavac (533)
- Sikirica (1038)
- Sinji Vir (251)
- Sisevac (18)
- Striža (1937)
- Stubica (1784)
- Svojnovo (1386)
- Tekija (1251)
- Trešnjevica (1137)
- Zabrega (1211)
Demographics
Economy
The following table gives a preview of total number of registered people employed in legal entities per their core activity (as of 2018):
{| class="wikitable sortable" style="font-size:95%;"
|-
! Activity
! Total
|-
|Agriculture, forestry and fishing||align="right"|127
|-
|Mining and quarrying||align="right"|17
|-
|Manufacturing||align="right"|2,664
|-
|Electricity, gas, steam and air conditioning supply||align="right"|65
|-
|Water supply; sewerage, waste management and remediation activities||align="right"|164
|-
|Construction||align="right"|554
|-
|Wholesale and retail trade, repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles||align="right"|2,421
|-
|Transportation and storage||align="right"|870
|-
|Accommodation and food services||align="right"|350
|-
|Information and communication||align="right"|102
|-
|Financial and insurance activities||align="right"|162
|-
|Real estate activities||align="right"|35
|-
|Professional, scientific and technical activities||align="right"|385
|-
|Administrative and support service activities||align="right"|254
|-
|Public administration and defense; compulsory social security||align="right"|468
|-
|Education||align="right"|762
|-
|Human health and social work activities||align="right"|804
|-
|Arts, entertainment and recreation||align="right"|158
|-
|Other service activities||align="right"|189
|-
|Individual agricultural workers||align="right"|507
|- class="sortbottom"
|Total||align="right"|11,058
|}
Culture
The town has a Home Museum, a library and a "Pitagora" gallery.
Sports
Local football club Jedinstvo competes in the third tier of Serbia's football pyramid.
Tourism
The Sisevac excursion place is the most popular excursion sites in the municipality. This small village with only 15 inhabitants in 2011 is located in the structural basin on the Kučaj mountains, at an altitude of . Sisevac is surrounded by forests and is the location of the Crnica river spring. Due to the favorable microclimate and the natural springs of the mineral water, it was known as the weather spa already in the 14th century.
Another excursion site is Grza, located on the river of the same name. A popular local attraction is the village of Gornja Mutnica near the river Suvara. Although the river runs through the village for a length of only , there are 30 bridges over it.