Zabrežje () is a village and the suburban settlement of Belgrade, the capital of Serbia. It is located in the municipality of Obrenovac and makes one urban unit with its municipal seat. Zabrežje was known as an important border settlement, in the 19th century, and a major transportation hub, including river port, in the first half of the 20th century.
Location and geography
The settlement is located in the alluvial plain on the Sava's right bank, at an altitude of . It is a semi-compacted settlement elongated along the roads. On the south it is fully grown with its municipal seat, Obrenovac, which is away. It consists of three neighborhoods (spatial-physical units): Grad, Brdo and Ružičići. Being part of urban Obrenovac area, it was included in the general urban plan of Obrenovac in 1996, becoming essentially a suburban settlement.
The village occupies the area of the large, peninsula-like meander of the Sava. Built up area of Zabrežje stretches in the east–west direction, spawning two opposite banks of the Sava, on the starting, and on the ending section of the meander, roughly from the Sava's 30th to the 40th kilometer. In the western section, the built up area continues to the south, reaching Obrenovac. North and south of the settlement are vast agricultural fields, including the areas and localities of Vič, Krčevine, Kruške, Babića Ćošak, Miljkovica, Plošće (north), Begluk, Ćelija, Tešnjak and Tamnava (south). Western area is called Grmik. Across the Sava, to the west, is the Syrmian sub-region of Crni Lug while to the north is the village of Boljevci, all in the Surčin municipality.
Area of the settlement is . Locality Vić Bare has water springs. Earth embankment was built along the Sava's bank, stretching for . In the southeastern extension, along the Sava's right bank is the main Obrenovac's excursion area, Zabran.
Name
Name is influenced by the geography. Looking from the southwest, the settlement is located behind the -high hill of Petlovo Brdo. After one of the Serbian words for hill, breg, comes the word zabrežje - area behind the hill.
History
Zabrežje was mentioned for the first time in 1429.
First diplomatic letter in modern Serbia was written in the house of Pantelija Ružičić in Zabrežje, on 14 March 1804, during the First Serbian Uprising against the Ottoman rule. Archpriest Mateja Nenadović wrote and sent letters, among others, to Stefan Stratimirović, the Metropolitan of Karlovci. As the border settlement, since across the Sava was the territory of Austria-Hungary, the village in time a custom house, pier, railroad and port authority were built or established. There were two salt evaporation ponds in the village, one owned by the captain Miša Anastasijević and another by the Greek entrepreneur Kostas Salidis.
From 1900 to 1955, Zabrežje was a major transportation hub. including river, railway and road traffic. Both the passenger and freight steamboats docked in the village's port, while there were regular ship lines to Belgrade, on the east, and Šabac, on the west, on every three hours. Steam train, popularly and generically called ćira in Serbia, connected Zabrežje with Herceg Novi on the Adriatic coast and Sarajevo and Mostar in Bosnia and Herzegovina, via Valjevo and Čačak. As there was no bridge across the Sava, the pier in Zabrežje was equipped with the slipway, to accommodate he ferry which transported the entire train composition. Across the river, ferry sailed to Boljevci where the train was placed on the tracks again and continued in the directions of Vienna and Budapest.
Thanks to the importance it had, many developments in Zabrežje surpassed those of an average or important village in Serbia. Though never grew much in terms of population (population of 2,000 reached only in the 1950s), the village had Zabreški grad, or Zabrežje Town, a commercial complex which included two hotels, and Workers Colony. It was visited by several heads of state, including emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria and king Alexander I of Yugoslavia. It has numerous grocery stores, craft shops (including candy production) and the local beer tradition. The Simović family owned the sawmill.