VRANJA, the capital of the Vranja department of Serbia, Yugoslavia. Pop. (1931) 9,817, a large proportion being Alba nians. The town is picturesquely situated on hilly ground with a stream running through it spanned by six stone and two wooden bridges. The inhabitants are employed chiefly in the cultivation of flax and hemp and in the making of ropes, but there are also cloth, glass, porcelain, iron ware, paper, boot, lamp and oven factories and leather tanneries in the town, while the fertile land around it produces wheat, maize, fruit and vegetables, as well as cattle.
Vranja was captured by the Montenegrins in the Russo-Turkish war of 1877-8, and assigned to Serbia by the Treaty of Berlin (1878). The gold washing station in the district was abandoned during the World War (1914-18). Vranyska Banya, 4 m. E., is a much frequented summer resort.