Rakovica, Belgrade

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Rakovica (Serbian Cyrillic: Раковица, ) is an urban neighborhood and one of 17 municipalities which constitute the City of Belgrade, the capital of Serbia.

Neighborhood

Location

Rakovica is located in the valley of the Topčiderka river, where the brook of Rakovički potok flows into the river, 9-10 kilometers (~6&nbsp;mi) from Terazije, downtown Belgrade. The neighborhood developed between two large woods, Košutnjak on the north and Manastirska šuma, on the south, north of the Rakovica monastery. It is bordered by the neighborhoods of Kanarevo Brdo on the north-east, Miljakovac on the east, Kneževac on the south and Vidikovac and Skojevsko Naselje on the west. As in many cases, the boundaries between the neighborhoods are not firmly set, so in some parts Rakovica overlaps with Kneževac or Miljakovac, for example. The neighborhood of Selo Rakovica (Village Rakovica) is some 6-7 kilometers (~4&nbsp;mi) further to the east, belongs to the municipality of Voždovac and is generally not associated with the term Rakovica.

History and name

The first settlement on the territory of present Rakovica was mentioned in the Ottoman 1560 population census as a village called Vlaha. Tradition has it that the place got its name after the crayfish (Serbian: rak, rakovica) , which allegedly inhabited the Rakovički potok which streamed through the village. The first mention of the monastery, already under the name of...
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