Dolac
Valley toponymy—Dolac's diminutive name marks landscape depressions across Serbia, each a settlement in a shelter that first settlers found favorable.
Dolac exists because Serbian toponymy marks terrain features—and because 'dolac' (small valley, diminutive of 'dol') describes the landscape depressions where settlements naturally cluster. Multiple villages across Serbia share this name: in Bijelo Polje, in Bela Palanka municipality (two separate settlements), in Kraljevo municipality, and likely others. Each marks a valley that first settlers found favorable for habitation.
The pattern is common across Slavic lands: descriptive names capturing geographical features that oriented travelers before maps and that persist in administrative records. A 'dolac' promised shelter from wind, access to water, and slopes that might be terraced for cultivation. Whether this particular Dolac sits in Kraljevo, Bela Palanka, or another municipality, it shares the toponymic logic with its namesakes.
By 2026, villages named Dolac face the same challenges as Serbia's roughly 4,600 rural settlements: demographic decline as young people migrate to cities, agricultural mechanization reducing labor needs, and services consolidating in larger towns. The valleys that attracted first settlers remain; the populations that sustained village life continue shrinking.