Drenica River

Infobox River | river_name = Drenica (Дреница)


caption =
origin = Crnoljeva mountain, northwest of Štimlje, Kosovo
mouth = Sitnica, southwest of Kosovo Polje, Kosovo
basin_countries = Kosovo
length = 50 km
elevation =
discharge =
watershed = 447 km²

The Drenica (Albanian: Drenica, Serbian Cyrillic: Дреница) is a river in Kosovo, a 50 km-long right tributary to the Sitnica river. It flows entirely within the Kosovo proper and gives its name to the surrounding Drenica region.

The Drenica originates from the central section of the Crnoljeva mountain, in Drenica region. The river originally flows to the north and receives many streams coming down from the Crnoljeva (on the left) and Goleš (from the right) mountains. The composite valley of the river is densely populated, with several large villages (Krajmirovce, Sedlare, Rusinovce, Banjica, Komorane, Donja Koretica, Dobroševac) and a small town of Glogovac, one of two regional centers of Drenica region.

At Glogovac, the Drenica receives the "Vrbovačka reka" from the left and forms a large elbow turn to the north to the southern slopes of the Čičavica mountain. Near the village of Veliki Belaćevac, the Drenica turns to the south but at the village of Velika Slatina makes another elbow turn to the north, splits in two arms and empties into the Sitnica near the town of Kosovo Polje.

The Drenica belongs to the Black Sea drainage basin, drains an area of 447 km² and it is not navigable.

References

* "Mala Prosvetina Enciklopedija", Third edition (1985); Prosveta; ISBN 86-07-00001-2
* Jovan Đ. Marković (1990): "Enciklopedijski geografski leksikon Jugoslavije"; Svjetlost-Sarajevo; ISBN 86-01-02651-6