Studenica River
The
Studenica (
Serbian Cyrillic:
Студеница) is a river in southwestern
Serbia, a 60 km-long left tributary to the
Ibar river.
The Studenica originates from the central section of the northern slopes of the
Golija mountain, as the
Crna reka (Black river), at an altitude of 1,615 m. The river flows northward, parallel to the flow of the
Brusnička reka, next to the villages of Crna Reka, Koritnik, Ratari and Pločnik. Between the villages of Devič and Čečina, the Crna Reka and Brusnička reka meet and continue to the north under the name of Studenica.
The Studenica carved a long and deep gorge-like valley, characterized by the arc-shaped stretching in the west-east direction, between the
Radočelo (on the south) and
Čemerno (on the north) mountains. The villages of Usilje, Pridvorica, Mizdraci, Mlanča and Miliće are located in the valley, so as the
Isposnica Monastery and the cave on Čemerno mountain.
But the most important feature in the entire Studenica valley is man-made: the
Studenica Monastery, one of the oldest, largest and most famous of all
Serbian Orthodox Church monasteries (
UNESCO inscripted Studenica Monastery on the
List of World Heritage Sites in
1986). Monastery is located near the village of the same name and after the village of Kosurići, the Studenica curves to the north emptying into the
Ibar at the small town of
Ušće.
The Studenica belongs to the
Black Sea drainage basin, drains an area of 582 km² itself, and it is not navigable.
The name of the river, Studenica, in Serbian means
cold water.
In the valley, the river has a huge hydro electrical potential, but none is used so far. In the late
1980s and early
1990s government strongly pushed a project of damming the river and building a powerful hydro electrical power plant with the artificial lake. After the public outcry and protests from the Serbian Orthodox Church that the artificial lake would damage the monastery idea was finally dropped, though it still pops-up now and then in media.
*
Mala Prosvetina Enciklopedija, Third edition (1985); Prosveta; ISBN 86-07-00001-2
* Jovan Đ. Marković (1990):
Enciklopedijski geografski leksikon Jugoslavije; Svjetlost-Sarajevo; ISBN 86-01-02651-6
