Drazevac

Dražovac developed within one of Serbia's most peripheral regions—the Bela Palanka municipality in the Pirot District, where the Tsarigrad Road once carried travelers between Constantinople and central Europe. The ancient settlement of Remesiana stood here in Dacia Mediterranea, serving as a Roman castrum along the Via Militaris before Dacians, Thracians, and eventually Slavs occupied the terrain. Ottoman authorities built a major caravanserai in 1598-99 to service transit traffic, establishing the administrative framework that would persist through centuries of Turkish rule.

The village sits in terrain that selected for dispersed pastoral settlement rather than concentrated agriculture. Small populations maintained sheep and goat herds across hillsides connecting the Nišava valley to the Bulgarian frontier. The 2022 census found 9,947 inhabitants across the entire Bela Palanka municipality—but distributed across dozens of settlements, leaving individual villages like Dražovac with populations often below 100. This dispersal pattern makes service provision increasingly difficult as depopulation accelerates.

Modern Dražovac exists at the edge of viability. Young residents emigrate to Pirot, Niš, or beyond; elderly landholders maintain properties that will likely be abandoned within a generation. By 2026, the village's trajectory points toward demographic collapse unless the broader Pirot District development—potentially including tourism linked to the Sićevo Gorge and Stara Planina natural areas—creates unexpected employment alternatives.