Crna Trava

Crna Trava (, ) is a village and municipality located in the Jablanica District of southern Serbia. According to the 2022 census, the population of the village is 338 inhabitants, while population of the municipality is 1,063. This is the smallest by population and poorest municipality in Serbia. Crna Trava is famous for its migrant builders, who are considered the best in the region and are colloquially described as "building half of Yugoslavia".

The name of the village in Serbian translates to Black Grass. According to the local myth, the origin of the name dates back to 1389, when Battle of Kosovo took place. A Serbian reserve army unit, composed of Serbian archers and cavaliers, decided to take a rest on a grass field of Vilin Lug ("Fairy Grove") while travelling to the battlefield. Since the flowers and other herbs covering the field were highly poisonous, the soldiers became intoxicated, thereby they did not wake up on time for the battle. Realizing that fact, they cursed the grass that poisoned them, branding it "black" grass. However, there is no historical trace of how the settlement got its name. Variant "Kara Kas" (Turkish for black grass) appeared during the Ottoman period.

Crna Trava is located southeast from Leskovac, seat of the Jablanica District. It is situated at the mouth of the Čemernica river into the Vlasina river. The settlement lays in the hollow between the mountains of Čemernik, Ostrozub and Plana. The surrounding landscape is mostly untouched by the urbanization, covered with grass and thick forests which create pleasant micro climate. The winters, however, are usually harsh in the region. The snowdrifts, especially on the Čemernik mountain, can be up to tall, cutting off the surrounding villages.

Crna Trava is famous for its construction workers. For decades they travelled through Serbia and Yugoslavia, worked on the construction sites and the male variant of the demonym, Crnotravac (plural Crnotravci), became a synonym for a good builder. Many companies bare that name, even though they are not located in Crna Trava. They arrived in Belgrade in 1820. They built everything, from kafanas to public and government buildings. Their central gathering point was Belgrade, where they gathered in the kafana "Kikevac" in the Čubura neighborhood. Belgrade has the oldest attested construction done by the Crnotravci: building of the kafana "Dva Jelena" in the neighborhood of Skadarlija, with the surviving inscription "this building was built by the big mustached Đorđe Crnotravac in 1832". Number of migrant workers continued to grow in the next decades, and in 1906 it was recorded that the Crnotravci made 80% of all construction workers in Belgrade.

The first school, succeeded today by the modern elementary school "Aleksandar Stojanović", was founded in the first half of the 19th century. The school has outposts in the surrounding villages of Krivi Del, Gradska and Sastav Reka. There is also the secondary school "Milentije Popović", founded in 1919. It is a technical vocational school for construction geodetic technicians geometers. The school has a dormitory for its students. In order to revive the settlement, because of the massive depopulation, the schoolbooks, lodging and food are free for all students. The only cultural institution in the village is the library "Sestre Stojanović", with 26,000 books. Since 2017, the library has an electronic classroom. The first reading room in Crna Trava was founded in 1804, while the present library was formed in 1996.