Bolvan Fortress

Bolvan Fortress (Serbian: Тврђава Болван / Tvrđava Bolvan), also known as Bovan Fortress (Serbian: Тврђава Бован / Tvrđava Bovan) or Jerina's City (Serbian: Јеринин град / Jerinin grad) is a fortress located 9 km from Aleksinac, near the village and lake Bovan.

Likely built on the foundations of the Roman castrum Praesidium Pompei, the fortress is first mentioned in 1395, in a legal document by Princess Milica of Serbia. It served as a salt depository during the period of Moravian Serbia, as well as a border fortress in the Serbian Despotate.

The name Bolvan or Bovan likely came from the Proto-Slavic word "bolvan" meaning idol, which might imply that there was a Slavic temple with a wooden statue of a Slavic divinity located at the site. Another name of the fortress, more prevalent in folklore, is Jerinin Grad (Jerina's City), after Irene Kantakouzene, the wife of Despot Đurađ Branković and a member of the Byzantine Greek noble family of Kantakouzenos. Her role in using forced labor and imposing high taxes during the construction of Smederevo earned her the nickname Prokleta Jerina (Cursed Jerina).

The story of Smederevo's construction got ingrained in the people's memory that many of the fortresses, even the ones that were never a part of Branković's realm, were named after Jerina. A folklore story about Bolvan suggests that Jerina's fortress was actually built on the adjacent hill Ljiljač, and connected it to the main fortress with a hanging bridge above the gorge, so she could easily cross between the two towers. However, there are no indications that she had ever had taken any part in Bolvan's construction or reconstruction.

The fortress is situated above the Moravica River, 9 km northeast of Aleksinac, near the village and lake of Bovan, at the exit of the Bovan Gorge, where the Moravica makes a sharp curve. The main part of the fortress was situated on the Kulina hill, but there were also fortifications of two adjacent hills, Kitica (from which little to no traces exist today), and Ljiljač (now under the lake Bovan).

Although the elevation difference between the base and the top of the hill is not large (237 meters above sea level), Bovan completely dominated its surroundings. The medieval town extended in the north–south direction and encompassed two peaks of the rocky hill, Kulina. Its builders skillfully chose this location and adapted the fortification to the uneven and rocky terrain. The materials and construction methods are characteristic of the medieval period: broken and cut stone with lime mortar, and the use of wooden beams for the walls.

Access from the east and north was blocked by the river, and from the west by the steep slope of the hill. To the south, where access is easiest, an artificial dry moat was built. On the larger of the two peaks is a donjon tower. This part of the fortress is entered through a gate in the northern wall, which leads to the pass between the two peaks, where the main gate might have been. On the smaller peak, there was a tower that was likely connected by a wall to the main part of the town. The donjon tower has an almost square base with external dimensions of 8.5 x 8 meters and 4.4 x 4 meters, with a wall thickness of about 2.2 meters.

Today, the remains of the donjon tower and the walls in the main part of the town are visible, where the remnants of two more towers can be discerned. At the base of the hill, near the modern bridge over the Moravica, there is a preserved medieval stone bridge. Near the fortress, Lake Bovan, an artificially constructed lake on the Moravica was built in 1978, as a source of fresh water and a popular destination for tourism, fishing and outdoor activities.