Aleksandrovac - History
GALLERY
According to historical and archeological sources, Župa's wine trails are more than 3,000 years old. Župa is famed in Serbia's centuries-long viticulture and winemaking tradition. The first written record of the region can be found in the 1196 Studenica Charter, whereby Grand Župan Stefan Nemanja granted Župa's villages to the Studenica Monastery. Throughout the middle ages, Serbia's three largest monasteries, Hilandar, Studenica and Žiča, had their vineyards and wine cellars in Župa.
Župa, dubbed Serbia's Champagne country by French consul Decaux in 1904, is situated in a ravine surrounded by Mt. Kopaonik, Mt. Željin, Mt. Goč and Mt. Jastrebac. Ever since the 1960s, Vino Župa from Aleksandrovac, founded in 1956 by nine agricultural cooperatives and Kruševac-based Rubin, has been a cornerstone of local winemaking and viticulture. For centuries wine has been served as an attribute of power and affluence, as well as being a means of survival. It was consumed by Celtic warriors, Roman legionaries, Byzantine strategists, Serbian župans, monarchs, bishops and archbishops, and Turkish beys.