Donja Raca
Šumadija uprising heartland village (40,000 years of settlement); near Karađorđe's home in Rača; 2026 depends on agricultural viability or continued youth emigration.
Over 200 archaeological sites across Šumadija confirm human presence dating to 40,000 years ago during the Paleolithic, placing Donja Rača within one of Serbia's most continuously inhabited regions. The village sits 3 kilometers east of Rača town in central Serbia's agricultural heartland—the same territory where Karađorđe Petrović launched the First Serbian Uprising against Ottoman rule in 1804, transforming Šumadija's peasant villages into the nucleus of the modern Serbian state.
Donja Rača developed within this revolutionary geography. Rača municipality's population reached 9,638 by 2022, but the town itself remains modest, lacking the industrial development that concentrated populations in regional centers like Kragujevac. The 2002 census recorded 1,008 inhabitants in Donja Rača—a figure that has likely declined as younger generations migrate toward urban employment. The architectural heritage includes 'Karađorđe's home' in nearby Rača, built 1929-33 to house orphans from the Danube Banate, its design by architect Dušan Mičević once considered among Yugoslavia's finest public buildings.
Modern Donja Rača functions as an agricultural village within Kragujevac's extended economic zone. The Fiat auto plant in Kragujevac (now Stellantis) provides the region's major industrial employment, though commuting distances limit practical access for Donja Rača residents. By 2026, the village's trajectory depends on whether agricultural modernization creates viable local livelihoods or whether continued youth emigration reduces the settlement to elderly-only occupation.