Djurinci
Roman mining village turned depopulating suburb—Đurinci's 878 residents live above Kosmaj's 5,000 collapsed mineshafts, losing 20% per decade to Belgrade.
Đurinci exists because Kosmaj needed villages—and because mining empires leave descendants. This settlement of 878 people (2022 census, down from 1,088 in 2002) sits on the slopes of Kosmaj mountain in Sopot municipality, 6 kilometers from the municipal center. The mountain beneath once financed Roman wealth: 5,000 collapsed mining shafts within a 5-kilometer radius, over a million tonnes of lead and silver slag dumps from 1st and 2nd century extraction. When Despot Stefan Lazarević issued his Mining Law in 1412, extraction resumed; he spent his final years hunting these forests and died on these slopes.
Today the mines are silent. Kosmaj is a recreational destination for Belgrade weekenders, not an industrial zone. Đurinci's economy follows the pattern of depopulating rural Serbia: the village loses 10-20% of its population per decade, young people migrate to the capital 40 kilometers away, agriculture yields diminishing returns. Public transit connects the village to Sopot-Kosmajski train station—the BG:VOZ commuter rail offers escape to the metropolis that the village cannot match.
By 2026, Đurinci's trajectory is the default Serbian rural trajectory: gradual decline punctuated by holiday-home purchases from urban professionals seeking country retreats. The Roman miners are long gone; their descendants may follow.