| Drina |
Articles about Drina |
Information AboutDrina |
|
LENGTH & NAVIGATION The Drina is formed by the Tara and Piva Rivers, both of which flow from Montenegro and converge on the border of Bosnia , at Šćepan Polje. From there, it flows 346 km northward, mostly along the border of Bosnia and Serbia , into the Sava River near Sremska Rača in northwestern Serbia. Measured from the source of the Tara, it's longer headwater, the Drina is 487 km long. River is not navigable. However, with the Tara River, it represents main tourist attraction in the Balkans for kayaking and, especially, rafting. GEOGRAPHY The Drina originates on the slopes of the mountains of , which it divides in two halfs, eastern Mačva in Serbia, and western Semberija in Bosnia. There river meanders, creates shallows, islands and sandbars which resulted in several course changes, as previously it flew into the Sava near Šabac , 30 km to the east from present mouth. Sometimes it floods it's valley, the most disastrous being the flood in 1896. when town of Ljubovija was completely destroyed and rebuilt on higher altitude. TRIBUTARIES Major left tributaries: (at Foča ), Lim (the longest one, 220 km, at Brodar), Rzav (at Višegrad ), Ljubioviða (at Ljubovija ) and Jadar (near Lešnica ). POWER The Drina originates at an altitude of 432 m, while it flows into the Sava at 75 m, but descent of 357 m is not constant because of many gorges and bends, still more than enough to generate an estimated 6 billion kWh of electricity. Also, discharge steadily grows: 125 m3/s at Ċehotina's mouth, 183 m3/s at Lim's mouth, 328 m3/s at Drinjača's mouth and final 370 m3/s on the Drina's mouth into the Sava. However, power capacity are not used fully, as only three power stations were constructed so far: Zvornik (1947-55, capacity 90 MW, creating artificial lake Zvornik (Bosnian: Zvorničko jezero, Serbian: Зворничко језеро), Bajina Bašta (1966, plus reversible addition in 1982, capacity 440 MW, creating artificial lake Peruċac (Serbian: Перућац) and Višegrad (mid/late 1980's). SETTLEMENTS Because of the unhospitable terrain & without railways and major roads, surrounding territories are sparsely populated. It's crossed by several bridges, at Višegrad, Skelani , Bratunac and Zvornik (in Bosnia) & Loznica and Badovinci in Serbia. Other important places include Foča & Goražde in Bosnia, and Ljubovija, Mali Zvornik & Banja Koviljača in Serbia. The newest bridge is at Badovinci, named ''Pavlovića ćuprija'' (Serbian: Павловића ћуприја), built by donations from Serbian-American married couple Slobodan & Mira Pavlović. They also had a plan to build a modern, 50.000 population big city named Slobomir on both sides of ''Pavlovića ćuprija'', but because of the political situation & financial construction, idea was dropped. THE RIVER DRINA IN SERBIAN SAYINGS In it's lower, meandering course, the Drina is called 'kriva Drina' (bent Drina), which entered in Serbian language as a phrase when someone wants to untangle something complicated, that he wants to 'straighten bent Drina'. THE RIVER DRINA IN MUSIC In World War I, in period 6-16 November 1914, the Drina was a battlefield for bloodiest battle between Serbian & Austian-Hungarian army, , which was banned for a while by Communist government cause it didn't portrait Communist & partisan's war adventures, but real, bloody battle, and it played Binički's march as a part of soundtrack, cause march was considered semi-banned at that time. But the biggest impact river had in culture probably is a novel Na Drini ćuprija (Bridge on Drina) by Yugoslav only Nobel prize winner for literature, Ivo Andrić , who wrote about building of bridge near Višegrad by Ottomans in XVI century. The Slovenian band Laibach did a cover version of ''March on Drina'' titled ''Mars on River Drina'' in their NATO , released in 1994 during the Yugoslav Wars . REFERENCES
|