page_title: Serbia in the Middle Ages
section_title: Assessment and aftermath
hierarchical_section_title: Serbia in the Middle Ages / Assessment and aftermath
caption_attribution_description: Panoramic photo of small town Smederevo Fortress. (Photo taken from above the entrance gate)
context_page_description: Serbia in the Middle Ages refers to the medieval period in the history of Serbia. The period begins in the 6th century with the Slavic migrations to Southeastern Europe, and lasts until the Ottoman conquest of Serbian lands in the second half of the 15th century. The period is also extended to 1537, when Pavle Bakić, the last titular Despot of Serbia in Hungarian exile, fell in the Battle of Gorjani.
context_section_description: The fall of the medieval Serbian despotate marked the discontinuation of the free development of society and economy based on the foundations built by the Serbian people since the period of the migration. Those foundations were, like in the rest of the Europe, feudal. Population was diversified according to the usual divisions of the societies in the period, producing numerous goods and creating huge wealth for the ruling, noble and upper classes. Wealth produced in Serbia was at the time subject of numerous stories which spread both to the east and the west of Europe, though many of them were obviously exaggerated.
  Mining was most important in the economy of the state, though it developed only in the 13th century and fully blossomed in the 15th century, amidst the most turbulent period in the state's history. The mining intensified the trading turnover, enhanced the building and expansion of the cities and empowered the citizens' class in them. The new relations and social forces, already turning traditional in the Serbian feudal society were nipped in the bud by the Ottoman destruction of the Serbian state. For the entire economy, and especially the mining, the period of primitiveness and regression began.
  With the conquest, Serbia was cut off from the European cultural and political community in which she carved its own place. Being in the region under the both Byzantine and Italian cultural influence, medieval Serbia developed a significant culture of its own. Comparison of the cultural development of Serbia and the rest of Europe in the 15th and the 19th century, when Serbia regained independence from the Turks, shows the massive loss and lagging behind as a result of the 1459 events.
  Mining town of Novo Brdo is considered one of the major examples of this. Described by Constantine of Kostenets as a "truly gold town" in the 15th century, gold and silver mine was surrounded by the town which had a population of 40,000 in 1434 (more than London, England). Due to its size and affluence, it was nicknamed majka svih gradova ("mother of all towns"). Novo Brdo had a sewage system and street lights. Miners worked 6 hours a day, had uniforms, their own mining anthem, music and flag, while two times a year they had right to go on a vacation, in which case they were awarded 3 gold coins "for the road". In that same year, there were 125 different consuls from foreign states and cities residing in Novo Brdo. The first legal document which regulated economic relations in mediaeval Serbia (Law on Mining) was adopted in Novo Brdo, by the orders of despot Stefan Lazarević. Though close to the location of the Battle at Kosovo in 1389, it succumbed to the Ottomans only 66 years later, in 1455. Despite greatness and richness, the mine survived only until the late 16th century, when the mining completely stopped. It was resumed only in 1964, while the settlement itself, though seat of a municipality, is statistically a small village with a population of only 183 by the 2011 census.
caption: Smederevo Fortress today. With its fall in 1459, the medieval Serbian state was extinguished.
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