for its own craftsmen and shops. In 1882, Municipality of Ropočevo filed a motion to declare Sopot varošica (small town). The motion was rejected at the time. The post office was opened in 1907 and agricultural cooperative in 1909. The village was electrified in 1955 and reached by the asphalt road in 1956. In 1960 it was connected to the Grocka water supply system, but majority of homes still used water from individual wells and water springs. Phone lines were established in 1970. Tides began to turn in the rivalry between Ropočevo and Sopot after World War II, especially after the 1970s. Being encircled by Ropočevo, Sopot couldn't physically expand and overrun the neighboring village in population, but was becoming more important administratively. Ropočevo lost its municipal status and the newly established local community, which comprised both settlements, was named after and seated in Sopot, which attained a statistical town status by 1991. Characteristics The settlement is not a compact one but rather diffused, consisting of six localities: three older, Venac, Alinac, Obršina, and three younger, Lovene, Senje and Orlovac. Administratively, by the 2010s Ropočevo completely encircled Sopot, "like a ring". Two settlements were even joined in one cadaster land parcel, with . Economy A marble quarry was opened in the village in 1887, and was closed in 1958. By the 1990s, Ropočevo developed into the suburban agricultural and fruit-growing settlement, with 11,8% of agricultural population. Population Population is predominantly Serbian. It is mostly settled by the families from Montenegro, Bosnia, Gruža, Jasenica, , eastern Serbia, surroundings of Vranje and Sjenica. Main family slavas are Saint John the Baptist, Saint Peter, Mratindan, George's Day in Autumn, Saint Nicholas and Aranđelovdan. The village slava is Intercession of the Theotokos. Settlement grew until World War II. The village experienced a depopulation in the 1948-1981 period, with population dropping from 2,247 in 1948 to 1,869 in 2004. Since then, population began to grow. According to the 2011 census, the last one when Ropočevo was listed as a separate settlement, the population was 2,628. Administration Though Ropočevo was statistically separate settlement from Sopot, the two conjoined settlements formed one local community (mesna zajednica), sub-municipal administrative unit. In 1975, Belgrade City Assembly filed a motion to abolish Ropočevo's status as a separate settlement, but it failed. In October 2019, city assembly finally adopted the motion and merged Ropočevo with Sopot, which by this move more