Ovča (, ; or ) is a suburban settlement of Belgrade, the capital of Serbia. It is located to the northeast of the city, in the municipality of Palilula.
Name
In Serbian the settlement is known as Ovča (Овча), in Romanian as Ofcea or Ovcea, in Hungarian as Ovcsa or Bárányos, and in German as Gisellenhain.
Location
Ovča is located in the northern Banat section of the Palilula municipality (Pančevački Rit), 13 kilometers north of downtown Belgrade. The settlement is located 6 kilometers to the east of the settlement of Padinska Skela and the Zrenjaninski put road connects Belgrade with the city of Zrenjanin, in Vojvodina.
History
First recorded mention of the village of Ovči is from 1456, as part of the Syrmia county of the Kingdom of Hungary. The name has a Slavic origin. As some of the first settlers were Romanian shepherds, it is believed that this gave name to the settlement (Serbian word ovčar means "shepherd" in English). The village was captured by the Ottoman Empire in 1537, and was included into the Sanjak of Smederevo. It was granted a waqf status by the sanjak-bey Mehmet-pasha, for the mosque and imaret (public kitchen) of Belgrade's Dorćol district.
In the mid-18th century the village was evacuated because of the plague outbreak and Ovča sentry outpost was built instead. Turned into a wasteland, the village was repopulated in 1813.
Ovča was part of the municipality of Borča until 30 May 1952 when it got its own municipality. However, in 1955 all the municipalities of the Pančevački Rit were merged into one, municipality of Krnjača, which in turn became part of the municipality of Palilula in 1965. A movement for restoring former municipality of Krnjača (under the name of Dunavski Venac) is gaining momentum since the early 2000s.
Population
Population, by the censuses, has been erratic, but is generally stagnating in the past several decades. The apparent decline of population by almost one quarter in the 1970s is a result of change of the administrative borders of the settlements, as many outer farms and smaller sub-settlements were regrouped into adjacent Padinska Skela, which in turn grew by these measures by over 400%. According to the last census of 2011, population of Ovča was 2,742.
Ethnic groups
The ethnic structure of Ovča: Census 1931 (1,452): Romanians (96,42% or 1,400), Serbs (1,58% or 23), Germans (1,38% or 20), Slovaks (0,48% or 7), Hungarians (0,14% or 2) Census 2002 (2,567): Serbs (63.96% or 1,642), Romanians (27.46%), Romani (1.36%), Yugoslavs (0.85%), Macedonians (0.62%), etc.
Economy
Despite being classified as an urban settlement, the majority of economic activity in Ovča is still agricultural. Prominent features are the large bowl natural gas tanks which dominate the flat landscape. Ovča is also accessible by train as it lies on the Belgrade–Pančevo railroad.
A new stretch of highway between the Zrenjanin road and Ovča was built and opened in October 2015, as a part of the northern Belgrade bypass connecting Pančevo with the new Mihajlo Pupin Bridge over the Danube. The last section of the bypass, from Ovča to Pančevo road was opened in December 2015. The new road significantly improved transport connections to rather remote Ovča, and is expected to contribute to its development.
Sub-neighborhoods
Ovča Spa
Hydrothermal spring of Ovčanska banja (Ovča spa) is located in the settlement. A pond with an area of and deep has been filled by the natural salt water since the mid-1980s. The spa is not fully arranged for public usage but is very popular among the local population. Water is warm and salty and rich in minerals and sulfur. The healing mud is also used by the visitors. The surrounding canal, used for the melioration of the Pančevački Rit, overflew into the pond, but in 2011 an earthen embankment was constructed which prevented the mixing of waters. Also, the pond was enlarged, cleaned and its bottom was dredged. Surrounding area of was poured with the gravel.
The pond is surrounded by the corn fields. The salt water has been tested and according to the city's regulatory plan for the area, it is a sodium chloride water, with elevated levels of bromine and iodine and low levels of radioactivity. Officially, the water is not suited for swimming but it may be used for the treatment of rheumatism, wounds and bone fractures healing, gynecological diseases, etc.