Gradiste

Gradište exists because the terrain surrounding Niš—southern Serbia's largest city after Belgrade—required defensive positions that later became permanent settlements. The village name itself means 'fortified settlement' or 'fortress site,' indicating its origin as a medieval defensive position. The nearby Kulina archaeological site proves that strategic habitation here predates the Serbian medieval period.

The village sits in Merošina municipality within the Nišava District, part of the Morava valley's southern reaches where the river system narrows before entering the Niš basin. This geographic position made the area strategically valuable across centuries: control of the Morava-Nišava junction meant control of the corridor linking the Danube to the Aegean. Every power that held Niš—Romans, Byzantines, Serbs, Ottomans—needed fortified outposts in the surrounding hills.

The 2002 census recorded 596 inhabitants in 174 households, with an average of 3.43 members per household. The population had already declined from 652 in 1991, and the average age of 44.9 years indicates an aging community. The demographic trajectory follows the pattern of Nišava District villages: proximity to Niš creates commuting possibilities but also accelerates outmigration of young people who prefer urban residence.

Merošina municipality as a whole has experienced the post-industrial transition common to southern Serbian towns—the decline of socialist-era industry without equivalent replacement employment. By 2026, Gradište's trajectory depends on whether Niš's economic development generates spillover into satellite villages, or whether the fortress hill that gave the village its name watches over an ever-older population—the name 'Gradište' becoming archaeological rather than descriptive.