Timok Frontier

There a region in Serbia also called the Frontier. It is in eastern Serbia, in the Timok river valley, a mountainous area, today bordering with Rumania and Bulgaria. In the times under the Turks, particularly in the period of the struggle for liberation in the 19th century, the Timok Frontier was notorious by a fierce resistance of the Serbian haiduks.

LANGUAGE

The Romanian name is Valea Timocului, the Bulgarian, Timoško. The expression comes from the old Roman district of Timachiom.

RELIGION AND TRADITION

The Timočka Krajina area is well-known by the well preserved old folk customs and superstitions.

ART

I am giving my life, but not Krajina (the Frontier), are the well-known Hajduk Veljko’s words.Serbian epic songs describe the heroic struggle against the Turks.  A group of those songs is preserved in a composition of a Mokranjac’s Song Wreath. Stevan Mokranjac (1856–1914), the most famous Serbian composer was born in Timočka Krajina, in Negotin.

GEOGRAPHY

The region is rich in copper and gold, particularly in the Bor area. The Negotin area, Negotinska Krajina, is renown for its vineyards. Wines from Krajina are quite famous. The Timočka Krajina major towns are: Zaječar, Bor, Negotin, Knjaževac, Sokobanja, Kladovo, Boljevac and Majdanpek. The biggest being Zaječar, of about 70,000 population.

The Timočka Krajina people are almost all Orthodox. The Vlahs declare themselves as Serbs, but speak Romanian.

HISTORY

The archaeological sites of Lepenski vir, Golubac, Trajan’s Bridge, Trajan’s Table, Gamzigrad and others point to a rich cultural past of the region in the Roman times. In the early Middle Ages, the region was under the rule of the Vidin Prince, a Serbian vassal. Krajina was liberated from the Ottomans in 1833.