Šabac (Шабац, Hungarian: Szabács, Turkish: Böğürdelen) is a city and municipality located in Serbia at 44.76° North, 19.69° East along the Sava river in the historic region of Mačva. It is the administrative center of the Mačva District of Serbia. The city has a population of 55,163 (2002), while population of the municipality is 122,893. It gained city rights in 2007 by the decision of the National Assembly of Serbia.
The first settlement on the current location of Šabac dates from the Middle Ages, a document from 1454 records a town called Zaslon. It was part of the Slavic Serbian state until it fell to the Ottoman Empire(Turchish). In 1470 the Turks built the first fortress in the town and named it Bejerdelen (translation: "that which strikes from the side"). In 1476 the Hungarian king Matthias occupied the fort and it remained under Hungarian rule till 1521. The fort passed from Ottoman to Austrian rule several times later as it was on a fairly important geostrategic position. The border town was also a prominent place for commerce.
The etymology of the newer and present name, Šabac, is uncertain, but it's probably a morphing of the word Sava. Šabac became a site of importance in Serbian history in the First Serbian Uprising. In 1806, Karađorđe Petrović led the Serbian insurgents into one of the first victories over the Turkish army near the village of Mišar near the city of Šabac. The Obrenović family also left a mark on the city as the place of residence of the enlightened Jevrem Obrenović, brother of Prince Miloš Obrenović, who modernized and urbanized the city after the Second Serbian Uprising. During this time (1820s-1840s), the first hospital, pharmacy, Serbian grammar school, gymnasium, theatre and musical society were established in Šabac.
The Turkish army finally vacated the fort at Šabac in 1867 completely ending the Ottoman presence in the area. The first newspaper was printed in Šabac in 1883, and the city was also the first place in Serbia where women started visiting coffee shops (on Sunday afternoons, as it was customary for men at the time). The city prospered until the First World War when it was severely destroyed and had its population halved (from cca. 14,000 to 7,000). The World War I is also remembered for the battle on the nearby Cer mountain where the Serbian army under general Stepa Stepanović won an early victory against Austria-Hungary in August 1914, the first Allied victory in the war.
The Yugoslav period was marked by renewed progress. The chemical factory "Zorka" was opened in Šabac in 1938 and marked the city development. However, this was interrupted by World War II and the occupation by Nazi Germany. During this time, some 5,000 citizens of Šabac and 20,000 more people were imprisoned in the Šabac concentration camp, eventually causing the death of around 7,000 people. The city was finally liberated by the Partisans in 1944.
After World War II, Šabac grew into a modern industrial city with the aforementioned chemical plant "Zorka". It achieved particular growth in the 1970s when the first modern sports hall, hotel, stadium, as well as a number of schools, kindergartens and other institutions were built to accommodate for the population growth. Notably, the swamp Benska bara at the city outskirts was drained and turned into a residential neighbourhood, and a new concrete bridge over Sava was built that connected it with the surroundings better. The city and the periphery number around 75,000 residents today, making it one of the larger cities in Serbia.
Coat of arms of Šabac is used at 3 levels, as Primary, Middle and Big coat of arms of.
|Ethnic Groups in the Municipal Area (2002 Census)|
|Muslims by nationality||512|
|Ethnic Groups in the Urban Area (2002 Census)|
|Muslims by nationality||489|
Šabac had one of the best economies in ex-Yugoslavia before the 1990s, when Chemical Industrie "Zorka", the main company in Šabac, collapsed during the sanctions. Many great firms like "Šapčanka", "Izgradnja" and "Nama" smashed during the bad years for the Yugoslav economy. Today there are some powerful companies like "Šabačka Mlekara", "Narcis Popović", "Zorka Pharma" and US Steel. The main industries of Šabac today are agriculture, transportation and food production.
|Number of emmployees per activity|
|Communal, public and personal service||631|
|Heltcare and social work||2548|
|Administration and social assurance||724|
|Property stock and charter||419|
|Traffic, storage and communication||1670|
|Hotels and restaurants||394|
|Wholesale and retail, repair||2515|
|Distribution of power, gas and water||655|
|Fishing, agriculture and forestry||540|
Several teachers' associations exist in Šabac.
This is a list of elementary schools in Šabac.
This is a list of high schools in Šabac.
The length and status of roads in the municipality is:
The railroad through Šabac connects Ruma (corridor X) and across Šabac, Loznica and Zvornik proceed Drina and connect Serbia with Bosnia and Herzegovina. A branch which connected this line with Bogatić (Petlovača - Bogatić) is locked out. The railway is used only for the transport of goods and raw materials (for "Zorka" factroy), and the transport of passengers is negligible. Šabac has a problem of an unfavourable location of its railroad station and unfavourable (for city and railway) connection of east work zone. The Northern work zone is not connected to the railway.
The main current problems of repair and development of this sector are: deterioration of infrastructure, lack of locomotives and rail cars, lack of modern information systems, lack of rules which will speed process of work on all levels, and insufficient usage of modern techniques in building and maintaining rail.
Potential is in traffic geography position of region, existing infrastructure and odds of comparatively fast revitalisation of infrastructure, trains and other facilities.
Šabac is twinned with the following cities: