"Naissus - The Town of Nymphs" a Nis Travel Page by Ankhesenamun

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With friends in Cegar

First, i have to say that Nis is my big LOVE. Yes, i´m really in love with this city. And there are a lot of reasons for it.
I could write books about it, but the best way to discover the soul of this city (and it really has a big soul) is to visit it.
But i will tell something about the history of Nis.

Situated at the crossroads of the Balkan and European roads, connecting Asia Minor to Europe, Niš is one of the oldest cities in the Balkans, and has from ancient times been considered a gateway between the East and the West.

According to a legend, Niš was founded by a Prince Nisa, who built it using the nearby Humska Cuka stone. There is abundant archaeological evidence that Niš was inhabited in prehistoric times. Near today's Tvrdjavski most (Fortress bridge), in 1878, a soldier excavated a 153 mm long prehistoric axe-hammer made of basalt from Ostrovica, in the Nišava gorge near Niš. Another similar artifact, roughly hewn and 155mm long, was excavated from the ancient tombs near the Nišava River, and a flintstone saw was found near Vrežina. All the archaeological finds dating from about 4000 BC are exhibited in the National Museum of Niš.

The town was named after the Nišava River, which was named Navissos by the Celtic inhabitants of the town.It is supposed that the ancient name of the town Naissus (celtic Navissos), meaning "the town of nymphs",
originated in the Celtic belief that the magic Nissa (now Nišava) was the river of nymphs. Each new conqueror gave the town a new name: Roman Naissus, Byzantine Nysos, Slovene Niš, or German Nissa.

I

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Medijana

Chronology

4000 - 3000 BC Archaeological findings from the prehistoric sites of Bubanj and Humska Cuka testify that Niš was inhabited as early as in the New Stone Age (Neolithic) and the Early Bronze Age.

2000 BC Several Archaeological sites in the immediate vicinity of Nis reveal prehistoric settlements on Bubanj, in Hum, Gornja and Donja Vrezina, Trupale and Gornja Toponica.

8th century BC Nis area represented the border-zone between the Illyrians and the Thracians.

3rd century BC The Illyrians were defeated by the Celts, who conquered the whole region, and gave Nis its first recorded name: Naissus (The City of Fairies).

75 BC The Nis area was conquered by the Romans during the Dardanian war.

161 AD The first surviving records, by Claudius Ptolomei, in which Nis was mentioned as one of the four biggest cities of Dardania.

2nd century Naissus was an important Roman military centre - a Municipium.

274 Constantine Flavius Valerius was born in Nis.

306 Constantine Flavius Valerius was proclaimed Roman Emperor Constantine the Great.

4th century Ancient Nis, with Constantine's residence at Mediana, flourished in prosperity, as a military and administrative centre of the Roman Empire.

441 Nis was devastated by the Huns, as were many other cities in the Balkans.

1185 Serbian Zupan Stefan Nemanja took over the city of Nis.

1189 In Nis, Stefan Nemanja met Frederick I Barbarossa, the leader of the Crusaders, to discuss the strategy against the Byzantium.

1385 Nis was seized by the Turks for the first time. The siege lasted for 25 days.

1443 In the so-called Long Campaign, Christian armies, led by the Hungarian military leader Janos Hunyadi (known as Sibinjanin Janko in Serbian folk poetry) together with Serbian Despot Djuradj Brankovic, defeated the Turks and repelled them to Sofia. An important battle was fought near Nis, which remained a free city for a whole year after that.

1570 The Dubrovnik colony in Nis was mentioned by German diplomat Rime in his travelogues.

1723 The Nis Fortress was built. It is one of the best-preserved and the most beautiful edifices in the Balkans erected during Turkish rule.

1737 Austrian armies seized Nis for the second time and held it for 85 days

1766 Metropolitan Gavrilo published 'Sindjelija', the first book published here.

1809 The beginning of the Serbian campaign against the Turks. The first battles were fought near Nis.

May 31st 1809 Stevan Sindjelic, Karadjordje's voivoda, led the Nis Campaign army which fought the Turks at Cegar Hill near Nis, and was eventually defeated.

January 11th 1878 Nis was liberated from the Turks. 1878 "Project for the Regulation of Nis", designed by Winter started being applied in Nis town planning. The first Grammar School (Gimnazija) was founded.

1881 The first bank was opened in Nis.

1882 The Teachers' Training College was founded in Nis.

1884. god. The Nis - Belgrade railway line was opened to traffic.The first issue of the local newspapers "Niski vjesnik" was published.

1885 The first hardware workshop was founded. It later grew into the first and the biggest enterprise in the town.

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Bubanj

Chronology II

1886. god. In Nis, the law was passed by which the Serbian Royal Academy was constituted.

1887 "Sindjelic", the first local theatre, was founded in Nis.

1889 The Public Library was opened; The building of the County Administration (Banovina) was erected.

1894 The Girls' College was founded in Nis.

1897 The citizens of Nis saw the first movie.

1900 The first issue of "Gradina", local literary magazine, was published.

1903 The first Workers' Culture Club was
founded.

1905 Nadezda Petrovic, well known Serbian paintress, founded the Fine Arts Colony in Sicevo, in the vicinity of Nis.

1906 The first full-time cinema was opened in a pavilion in Sindjelicev Trg (Sindjelic Square).

1908 The Sicevo hydro-electric power plant was built on the Nisava River near Nis.

1914 At the beginning of World War I, Nis became the war seat of the Serbian Government and the National Assembly.

December 7th, 1914 The Nis Declaration: the National Assembly issued a declaration, explaining the aims of the liberation war and announcing the constitution of a new state, in which all the South-Slav peoples would be united.

1915-1918 During World War I, Nis was occupied by the German and Bulgarian armies.

October 12th, 1918 Nis was liberated from the Germans.

1941 World War II. Nis was occupied by the Germans, who set up the Red Cross Concentration Camp in a Nis suburb. More than 12 000 prisoners were killed during the war, most of them shot on Bubanj Hill near Nis.

February 12th 1842 A successful escape from the Red Cross Concentration Camp was organized.

October 14th 1944 Nis was liberated from the Germans.

1965 1965 The University of Nis was founded.

1966 An important cultural festival established in Nis: Filmski susreti, the Yugoslav Film Festival of Actors' Achievements.

1969 1969 Another cultural event established in Nis: Yugoslav Choral Festival (YCF), the International Festival of Amateur Choirs.

1971 "Narodne novine", the first modern local newspaper founded.

1975 Nis became the administrative centre of Nis Region.

1992. god. Nis became the centre of the Nisava Administrative District.

November 17th 1996 After the local elections, and the attempted fraud by the supporters of the ruling party, the citizens of Nis stood up in peaceful protest. It took the citizens 100 days of protest rallies to force the regime to accept the election results.

January 27th 1997 On St Sava's Day, the City Assembly was constituted.

September 4th 1998 The Consulate of the Republic of Greece was officially opened in Nis. This was the first time in Serbian history that a diplomatic office was opened in a Serbian town other than the capital.