In the book "Kruševski pomenik" from 1713, which was kept in the Dobrun monastery near Višegrad, settlement of Bežanija was mentioned for the first time under its present name as far as 1512, as a small village with 32 houses, populated by Serbs. In this time, the village was under the administration of the medieval Kingdom of Hungary, and was part of the Syrmia County. The inhabitants of the village crossed the Sava river and settled in Syrmia after fleeing the fall of the medieval Serbian Despotate under the hands of the Ottoman Empire (hence the name "bežanija", "refugee camp" in archaic Serbian). "Kruševski pomenik" was later transferred to the National Library of Serbia and perished during the German bombing of Belgrade on 6 April 1941.