Brusnik, Zaječar
Brusnik (Serbian Cyrillic: Брусник) is a village situated in the Zaječar municipality of the Republic of Serbia (formerly in Negotin municipality, as it is 37 km from Zaječar and just 21 km from Negotin, which is somewhat similar to the locations of the town of Negotino and the village Brusnik in Macedonia).
Brusnik Брусник | |
|---|---|
Village | |
 | |
  Brusnik | |
| Coordinates: 44°06′11″N 22°26′17″E | |
| Country |  |
| Regions | Eastern Serbia |
| District | Zaječar |
| Municipality | Zaječar |
| Elevation | 140 m (460 ft) |
| Population (2002) | |
| • Total | 456 |
| Time zone | UTC+1 (CET) |
| • Summer (DST) | UTC+2 (CEST) |
| Area code(s) | (+381) (0)19 |
Located roughly halfway between the end points of Prahovo-Zaječar railway line, it is the sole major railway junction on it.
Like many other villages in Eastern Serbia, specifically the Timok region, Brusnik has "pivnice"/"pimnice", a separate but attached set of temporary residences, aligned in streets and with shops, but not a school, post office or medical facilities (which remain only in the village itself), located 5 km away from the village proper and used for a month or so during the grape harvesting and wine making season.
Due to their exceptional quality, Brusnik wines were exported to the paramount centre of winemaking, France, as early as the mid-19th century, but today with a sharp decline in population and after the devastating effects of mismanagement during Josip Broz Tito's socialism, Slobodan Milosevic's nationalism, and NATO's illegal destruction of Serbia's infrastructure in 1999 during the Kosovo war, Brusnik's wineries—and economy overall—is devastated (not unlike that in a greater part of Serbia's countryside).
Demographics
1948=1,398| 1953=1,432| 1961=1,350| 1971=1,076| 1981=846| 1991=589| 2002=456|
Public fountains & Church
There are a dozen public fountains in, and on the outskirts of, the village, built between mid-19th and mid-20th centuries. One of the bigger ones is Mita's Fountain (Mitina česma), built at the turn of 19th/20th century by the local merchant Dimitrije Mita Kojić.
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The Brusnik parish church was built in 1897–1900, and consecrated to All Saints (a rather unusual feast day for a small town church, usually reserved for secondary cathedrals and basilicas in large bishopric cities) in 1900, by Serbian Orthodox Church Bishop Meletius (Meletije) of Negotin-Timok.