Grljan is a

suburb A suburb (more broadly suburban area) is an area within a metropolitan area, which may include commercial and mixed-use, that is primarily a residential area. A suburb can exist either as part of a larger city/urban area or as a separate ...

of the

city A city is a human settlement of notable size.Goodall, B. (1987) ''The Penguin Dictionary of Human Geography''. London: Penguin.Kuper, A. and Kuper, J., eds (1996) ''The Social Science Encyclopedia''. 2nd edition. London: Routledge. It can be def ...

Zaječar Zaječar ( sr-Cyrl, Зајечар, ; ro, Zaicear or ) is a city and the administrative center of the Zaječar District in eastern Serbia. According to the 2011 census, the city administrative area has a population of 59,461 inhabitants. Zaječar ...

Serbia Serbia (, ; Serbian language, Serbian: , , ), officially the Republic of Serbia (Serbian language, Serbian: , , ), is a landlocked country in Southeast Europe, Southeastern and Central Europe, situated at the crossroads of the Pannonian Bas ...

, near the Bulgarian border. According to the 2002 census, the

town A town is a human settlement. Towns are generally larger than villages and smaller than cities, though the criteria to distinguish between them vary considerably in different parts of the world. Origin and use The word "town" shares an ori ...

had a population of 2,839.Popis stanovništva, domaćinstava i Stanova 2002. Knjiga 1: Nacionalna ili etnička pripadnost po naseljima. Republika Srbija, Republički zavod za statistiku Beograd 2003. Grljan is mentioned for the first time in Turkish documents from 1530. In 1784, Austrian spy Franz Pokorny in his report mention this village as a Christian settlement with 120 homes and Turkish roadhouse with capacity for 40 horses. The town's elementary school was founded in 1842, which makes it one of the oldest schools in district. In the Serbian-Ottoman War (1876-78), Grljan was buried to the ground. Its church was built in 1899. Great influence for economic development of this local community had mines near Vrska Cuka. In beginning of 20th century Grljan had a briquette factory. After World War Two, Grljan was headquarter of companies TIMBAS (Timok coal mines) and Investgradnja. Since that period in the village, there is now only a small industrial zone. From 1978. there has been a unique festival of authentic music of Serbia, which gather the best artists on traditional wind instruments. Todor Kostadinov, fighter from the

First Serbian Uprising The First Serbian Uprising ( sr, Prvi srpski ustanak, italics=yes, sr-Cyrl, Први српски устанак; tr, Birinci Sırp Ayaklanması) was an uprising of Serbs in the Sanjak of Smederevo against the Ottoman Empire from 14 February 18 ...

, and Radul-Bey Gligorijević, landowner and founder of Radul-begov Konak in Zaječar, are notable people from the town.

References

Populated places in Zaječar District {{ZaječarRS-geo-stub