Vranje

Vranje lies in the valley country of the South Morava, between the central Balkans and the roads leading towards Macedonia. Anna Komnene first mentioned it in the eleventh century, when the Serbian ruler Vukan briefly took it from Byzantium. The town later became part of the Serbian state and gave its name to a district of villages and pastures. Trade with the mining town of Novo Brdo encouraged settlement in the surrounding countryside. The Ottomans captured Vranje in 1455 and made it the seat of a district.