Lebane

Lebane Лебане
Town and municipality
Serbian Orthodox church
Coat of arms
Location of the municipality of Lebane within Serbia
Coordinates: 42°55′N 21°44′E / 42.917°N 21.733°E / 42.917; 21.733Coordinates: 42°55′N 21°44′E / 42.917°N 21.733°E / 42.917; 21.733
Country	Serbia
Region	Southern and Eastern Serbia
District	Jablanica
Settlements	39
Government
• Chairman of the Municipality	Zoran Ilić Ilka (SNS)
Area
• Municipality	337 km2 (130 sq mi)
Elevation	275 m (902 ft)
Population (2011 census)
• Town	10.062
• Municipality	21.802
Time zone	CET (UTC+1)
• Summer (DST)	CEST (UTC+2)
Postal code	16230
Area code	+381 16
Car plates	LB
Website	www.lebane.org.rs

Lebane (Serbian Cyrillic: Лебане) is a town and municipality located in Jablanica District of the southern Serbia. The municipality is located at 41°45'N and 21°45'E and has a population of 21,802 while the town itself has 10,062 inhabitants (according to 2011 census). The elevation of the town of Lebane is between 275.2 and 420 masl.

The town is located at the confluence of the rivers Jablanica and Šumanska Reka, in the alluvial plain created by the former. Just northeast of the town a larger plain called Leskovačko polje extends toward the town of Leskovac, which is the district seat.

Ethnic composition of the municipality:

Prehistory and Medieval times

The favorable location and the richness of nature made Jablanica valley important place since the earliest times. Traffic affordable and fertile, Leskovac valley has provided favorable conditions for the settlement of population. Archaeological findings, of which the most important are Hissar and Caričin grad (Iustiniana Prima) show that life in this area, continuously evolved from prehistoric man to date.

First mention of Lebane as Hlebane dates back to 1512.

After the liberation from the Ottomans

Lebane is formed as a village of the same name after the liberation in 1878. Visiting Serbia in 1880s, M. Rakic writes about it as a "big village populated by Serbs, in a valley, on the river Jablanica, on its left bank." Only when Lebane got the role of Jablanica district headquarters, it began to gradually develop in a direction of a small town.

The core of this small town was a series of houses along the Jablanica which is 45m wide here (as is even now); at the end of this series are the buildings of the Court and Municipality. The main feature of this town were two huge cottonwood trees with a volume of not less than 10 m and three huge walnut tree on the right bank of the river, near the pedestrian bridge. One of these cottonwods survived as one of the most reckognizable Lebane's landmarks, in front of the Justiniana - Caričin Grad hotel, until 2008, when it was hit by a lightning and had to be removed.