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Vršac

Vršac (Serbian Cyrillic: Вршац, pronounced [ʋr̩̂ʃat͡s]) is a city in the province of Vojvodina, Serbia. As of 2022, the city urban area had a population of 31,946, while the city administrative area had 45,462 inhabitants. It is located in the geographical region of Banat.

The name Vršac is of Serbian origin, ultimately deriving from Proto-Slavic *vьrxъ, meaning "summit".

In Serbian, the city is known as Вршац or Vršac, in Romanian as Vârșeț or Vîrșeț, in Hungarian as Versec or Versecz, in German as Werschetz, and in Turkish as Virşac or Verşe.

The uniqueness of Vršac is reflected in the fact that it has been inhabited since the dawn of the first cultures. Thus, the oldest traces of human presence in Banat originate precisely from Vršac, since individual finds of Paleolithic flint tools from the middle and younger Paleolithic, Mousterian and Aurignacian cultures were found on the slopes of the Vršac Mountains. The collection of over 5,000 finds from this period constitutes the largest collection of Paleolithic material in the Balkans. There are traces of human settlement from the Palaeolithic and Neolithic periods. Remains from two types of Neolithic cultures have been discovered in the area: an older one, known as the Starčevo culture, and a more recent one, known as the Vinča culture. Near Vršac there are Vatin circles that were estimated to belong to the Vinča culture. From the Bronze Age, there are traces of the Vatin culture and Vršac culture, while from the Iron Age, there are traces of the Hallstatt culture and La Tène culture (which is largely associated with the Celts).

The Agathyrsi (people of mixed Scythian-Thracian origin) are the first people known to have lived in this region. Later, the region was inhabited by Getae and Dacians. It belonged to the Dacian kingdoms of Burebista and Decebalus, and then to the Roman Empire from 102 to 271 AD. Archaeologists have found traces of ancient Dacian and Roman settlements in the city. Later, the region belonged to the Empire of the Huns, the Gepid and Avar kingdoms, and the Bulgarian Empire.

The Slavs settled in this region in the 6th century, and the Slavic tribe known as the Abodrites (Bodriči) was recorded as living in the area. The Slavs from the region were Christianized during the rule of the duke Ahtum in the 11th century. When duke Ahtum was defeated by the Kingdom of Hungary, the region was included in the latter state.

Information about the early history of the town is scant. According to Serbian historians, medieval Vršac was founded and inhabited by Serbs in 1425, although it was under administration of the Kingdom of Hungary. The original name of the town is unknown. There are several theories that its first name was Vers, Verbeč, Veršet or Vegenje, but these theories are not confirmed. The name of the town appears for the first time in 1427 in the form Podvršan. The Hungarian 12th century chronicle known as Gesta Hungarorum mention the castle of Vrscia in Banat, which belonged to Romanian duke Glad in the 9th century. According to some interpretations, Vrscia is identified with modern Vršac, while according to other opinions, it is identified with Orşova. According to some claims, the town was at first in the possession of the Hungarian kings, [citation needed] and later became property of a Hungarian aristocrat, Miklós Peréyi, ban of Severin.[citation needed] In the 15th century, the town was in the possession of the Serbian despot Đurađ Branković. According to some claims, it was donated to the despot by Hungarian king Sigismund in 1411.[citation needed] According to other sources, Vršac fortress was built by Đurađ Branković after the fall of Smederevo.

The Ottomans destroyed the town in the 16th century, but it was soon rebuilt under Ottoman administration. In 1590/91, the Ottoman garrison in Vršac fortress was composed of one aga, two Ottoman officers and 20 Serb mercenaries. The town was seat of the local Ottoman authorities and of the Serbian bishop. In this time, its population was composed of Muslims and Serbs.

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