Surčin

Surčin (Serbian Cyrillic: Сурчин, pronounced [sǔrt͡ʃiːn]) is a municipality of the city of Belgrade. It is located in the eastern Syrmia region in Central Europe, 32km west of downtown Belgrade. As of 2022 census, it has a population of 45,452 inhabitants.

It is the newest municipality of Belgrade, having split from the municipality of Zemun in 2003. Its most important feature is the Belgrade Nikola Tesla Airport, located just a few kilometers west of the town. This municipality is a suburb of Belgrade.

The area of the town has been settled since prehistoric times, and archaeological findings from ancient eras are common. So far, it is established that previous settlements existed in the Stone Age, Neolithic, Bronze Age, and Roman era.

From 1991 to 2002, the population of the municipality grew from 35,591 to 38,695. Most of that growth came from the refugees from the Yugoslav Wars (mostly Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina). Since many of the refugees were integrated into the Serbian citizenship after 2002, it is to be expected that the official population has grown significantly.

Surčin was the seat of its own municipality until 1965 when it was annexed to the municipality of Zemun (prior to that, municipalities of Boljevci and Dobanovci were annexed to the municipality of Surčin). A movement for splitting from Zemun has been very vocal since the 1990s and though it did not fulfil some of the conditions required by the Belgrade City statute for creation of a new municipality (mainly, a population of over 50,000), Belgrade City assembly voted to detach Surčin from Zemun officially on 24 November 2003. The newly-formed municipality remained under the administration of the municipality of Zemun until the next municipal elections and finally got its own administration on 3 November 2004. However, municipal administration and the overall political situation in Surčin has been highly unstable ever since.

As the town was growing, a new neighborhood called New Surčin (Novi Surčin) developed to the east, making urban connection to Ledine, the westernmost extension of New Belgrade's urban tissue. Construction of the new church, at the corner of Vojvođanska and Matice Srpske streets, began in August 2023. The land was donated by the local resident Živko Madžarević. The Serbian Orthodox Church will be dedicated to the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

Surčin is located in the eastern Syrmia region, 20km west of downtown Belgrade. It borders the municipalities of Zemun (north) and Novi Beograd (east). The western border of the municipality is the administrative border of the province of Vojvodina, while the Sava river forms the border to the municipalities of Čukarica (south-east) and Obrenovac (south).

The area of the municipality is flat and marshy as the entire southern section belongs to the floodplain of the Sava. Numerous smaller streams (mostly channeled) flow through the municipality, most notably the Galovica and Jarčina. Channeled stream Šuganica, fed by its own source, is located in the western section of the town itself. Other distinct geographical features are the ponds of Fenek and Živača, a large woody area of Bojčin (Serbian: Bojčinska šuma) and Progarska ada, one of the largest islands in the Sava.