Donja Jajina

Hisar hill rises 341 meters just 2.5 kilometers north of Donja Jajina, its summit crowned with the remains of a large fortified Bronze Age settlement that has been declared a nature park. This positioning places the village within one of southern Serbia's most archaeologically significant zones—where prehistoric communities built defensible hilltop structures overlooking the Leskovac basin. The hill serves as Leskovac's landmark, visible across the agricultural flatlands that dominate the municipality.

Donja Jajina developed as one of the many villages supplying labor and agricultural produce to Leskovac, Serbia's textile capital during the Yugoslav era. The city's nickname 'Serbian Manchester' reflected its concentration of textile factories that employed tens of thousands of workers from surrounding villages. When Yugoslav industry collapsed in the 1990s, the textile sector disappeared—and with it, the employment that had sustained rural-urban commuting patterns. The 2002 census recorded 1,338 inhabitants in Donja Jajina, a population level that has likely declined further as younger generations emigrate.

Modern Donja Jajina exists in the economic shadow of a diminished Leskovac. The Bronze Age site on Hisar remains an underexploited heritage asset; the nature park designation creates theoretical tourism potential but has not generated significant employment. By 2026, the village's trajectory depends on whether Leskovac's modest economic recovery creates commuter opportunities or whether continued depopulation reduces Donja Jajina to an aging agricultural remnant.