History
The village of Rainca is an Albanian-inhabited residency belonging to the municipality of Presevo and lies to the north of the Presheva Valley in Serbia. Rainca is located between Presevo and Bujanovac and is a bridge for these two municipalities. The oldness of the village has made it one of the biggest in the Presevo valley. It is located in the 12th kilometer of the regional road of Presevo-Bujanovac, while the distance from the city of Bujanovac is 14km. Rainca in the north is bordered by the village of Letovica of Bujanovac, in the east with the Somolica of Bujanovac , in the south with Corrotica of Presevo and in the west by Gare of Presevo.
The altitude of the village is 463m. The village lies in the Valley, between the two hills and in the middle have its own river. Rainca belongs to the hilly-terrain area and has a suitable position because it has two economic zones: the plains used for agriculture, and the hilly part for farming,viticulture and forestry. Rainca’s past is closely related to the past of the Presevo region. It is inhabited by the Albanian population also before was inhabited by the Illyrian Dardan tribe, whose root is undoubtedly today’s Albanians. This is also evidenced by archaeological, ethnological, anthropological, cultural-historical, linguistic data etc.
Ottoman Turkey occupied the Presevo region in 1445. During the years 1519, 1528 and 1570 in Rainca there were only Christian families of the Catholic faith. During the year 1912 Rainca had 130 houses and 717 inhabitants, where there were 9 houses inhabited by Serbs due to the occupation of the Serbian army. Rainca, according to the 2002 population census, had 2933 permanent residents. Today, Rainca has over 600 houses, with an average of 4.38 people per house, and with construction is further expanding in the direction of the rails.
Since the population census of 1948 to 1953 there has been an increase of the population while during the years 1953-1961 has decreased due to the migration of the population to Turkey. The migration of the population from Rainca to the 1970s was in the direction of Presevo, Pristina, and after these years to Western Europe.
In this chart are some of the residents’ statistics over the years in Rainca:
Year | Population |
1948 | 1426 |
1953 | 1742 |
1961 | 1683 |
1971 | 1832 |
1981 | 2020 |
1991 | 2110 |
2003 | 2933 |
Reference : Rainca Vendbanimi i vjetër Dardan-Shqipëtar në rajonin e Preshevës (Monografi ) – Vebi Fazliu & Xhemaledin Salihu
