Kragujevac is located in the central part of Serbia, 140 km south of Belgrade. The city built on the banks of the Lepenica River, between the mountains Rudnik, Crni vrh and Gledić, represents economic, educational, cultural, health and administrative center of Šumadija.
The first written record of the settlement was made by the Turks in 1476/77, since the Christian population withdrew from it, after the Turkish takeover. In those writings, it is mentioned as Karagovindža, a typical Turkish palanka with cobbled streets, log houses, palaces and a mosque, a settlement “on the road to Belgrade, 19 days away from Constantinople”.
Kragujevac experienced its real prosperity from 1818, when it was declared the capital of the restored Serbia. Namely, the favorable central geographical position, the nationally homogeneous population, in contrast to Belgrade, which was under Turkish administration, led Prince Miloš to choose Kragujevac, which became the state center.
Turkish Palanka becomes a town where a whole series of institutions is founded for the first time in the history of the Serbian state - "Novine Srbske", "Knjaževsko - Serbian Orchestra”, "Knjaževsko - Serbian Theater", the first gymnasium, the Lyceum, the first gallery, the first court "Sud Kragujevac", pharmacy, museum and library.
With the relocation of the capital to Belgrade in 1841, the period of stagnation of Kragujevac has begun. Nevertheless, the city remained the center of political life, so the most important assemblies in Serbia until 1878 continued to be held there.
The recent history of the city was most decisively influenced by the relocation of Topolivnica in 1851. This has made the conditions for Kragujevac to acquire the essential characteristics that it still carries today, an industrial center where lively political activity takes place and where, often long before in other parts of Serbia, advanced aspirations were rooted.
At the beginning of the 20th century, Kragujevac became a strong commercial center, additionally attracting numerous settlers, so in the First World War it was the third largest city in Serbia.
As an important strategic center, Kragujevac experienced frequent destruction both in the First and Second World War, which the city will especially remember for the great tragedy of the mass shooting of its inhabitants in 1941.
In the post-war period, Kragujevac was marked by two processes - strong industrialization and the establishment of the University. Both of them contributed to the development of the city and the increase in the number of inhabitants.
Today, Kragujevac is the fourth largest city in Serbia, one of the strongest administrative, cultural, industrial and educational centers. It covers an area of 835 square kilometers, with 180,252 inhabitants - the city is the largest in Šumadija, and the fourth in the Republic of Serbia. The territory of the city consists of 57 settlements with 78 local communities with 147,473 people living in urban areas, and 32,779 in rural areas.
