Vukovar is a city and the largest Croatian river port on the Danube, in the Croatian part of Srijem. It is also the administrative, educational, economic and cultural center of Vukovar-Srijem County.
Early history and antiquity
The population of the Vukovar area
has been monitored for five thousand years in a continuous sequence
through numerous archeological sites.
The settlement was home
to 2,000 people and was among the largest in that part of the world.
They went from the Danube to the Adriatic, the Vrbas and the
Neretva, to get salt (which they used to salt meat), and they lived
in houses with three rooms, a bedroom, a pantry and a living room
and kitchen. The total area was on average between 25 and 40 square
meters, and the largest had up to 80.
Food scraps were buried
in holes in the ground so as not to attract predators and rats.
Agricultural tools were made of bones and horns, axes were produced
"serially", they had molds into which they suddenly cast metal for
several of them. The boats were made of one piece of wood. They put
glowing stones in the trunk to dig it out, burning it slowly, and
then "fixed" it with tools.
They followed the stars, had a
calendar and knew about the leap years. They made 25 dishes of
different shapes from pottery and each had its own from which to
eat. The famous "Vučedol dove" was actually a partridge and was used
for drinking. The people of Vučedol were the first to make beer on
European soil. It was not very sparse and clear but mushy, and they
drank it through reeds from the Danube.
Significant cultures
of the Late Stone Age (Neolithic) are the Starčevo, Vinča and Sopot
cultures. They were based on a sedentary lifestyle and the
construction of permanent housing. Polished stone tools are in use,
the production of ceramics has been perfected.
Migration
trends and the arrival of new ethnic groups of Indo-European origin
also introduce new technologies. The Copper Age (Eneolithic) period
begins with the Baden, Kostolac and Vučedol cultures. New forms of
production, burial and belief, and more complex social relations
among people are emerging. The way of building houses and cult
objects testify to the connection with the Mediterranean cultural
circle.
The Vučedol culture is especially important for the
Vukovar region. It was named after the locality of Vučedol, which is
located five kilometers from Vukovar, downstream, on the Danube. The
site has been systematically explored, copper processing workshops,
characteristic houses (megaron) and beautiful ceramics have been
discovered, which are especially characterized by white stylized
ornaments on a black background.
There are numerous
archeological sites from the Bronze, Old and Young Iron Ages in the
Vukovar area, which testify to the life of the Illyrians and Celts.
The necropolis of Illyrian graves on Lijeva bara in Vukovar proves
that there was a large settlement here.
The Romans broke out
on the Danube in conquests in the last decades before Christ. They
built numerous fortifications, as a border (limes) towards barbarian
tribes. In the Vukovar area, the Roman sites of Cornacum (Sotin),
Cuccium (Ilok) and Ulmo (Tovarnik) are important. An important Roman
road ran along the Danube. Roman civilization in these areas
influenced the improvement of the economy, wetlands were drained and
the first vineyards were planted.
Settlement of Croats
After the collapse of Roman civilization, the great migration of
peoples and the Avar-Slavic expansion from the sixth century onwards
led to great changes. The confluence of the Danube and the Sava is
the scene of great conflicts and interests of the powerful states of
that time. At that time, Croats settled here.
The beginnings
of today's Vukovar should be sought very early, which is confirmed
by archaeological data. The exceptional topographic position of the
high bank of the Danube at the mouth of the Vuka was an important
defensive point. Here is the center of the whole region at a time
when Prince Pribina, as a Frankish vassal, got a hundred villages
along the river Vuka in the middle of the 9th century. In the first
half of the 10th century, it was recorded that the Hungarians looted
the fortress of Vukovo. A large cemetery with numerous finds
belonging to the Bjelobord culture was explored at Lijeva bara in
Vukovar. The dating of these finds to the 10th or 11th century best
confirms that there was a large settlement in the neighborhood. This
is the time of Croatian national rulers, when, especially for kings
Tomislav and Petar Krešimir IV, all Croatian lands from the Drava to
the Adriatic Sea were united.
In preserved written documents,
Vukovar is mentioned as early as the beginning of the 13th century
as Volko, Walk, Wolkov, or Croatian Vukovo. Since the 14th century,
the Hungarian name Vukovar has been used more and more. At that
time, Croatia was in a state union with Hungary. Vukovar, as well as
the neighboring Ilok, in that period were the guardians of the
Croatian identity in the Danube-Sava interfluve.
Vukovar Fortress was firmly built on the high bank of the Danube.
The town was inhabited by craftsmen, merchants and peasants. As
early as 1231, Vukovar was among the first in the Croatian lands to
receive the status of a free royal city. The charter of Duke Koloman
confirmed the privileges that protected the inhabitants of Vukovar.
Vukovar was then the seat of the great Vukovar County, which
stretched between the Danube and the Sava. The Vukovar area was then
densely populated, with numerous forts and peasant villages. In
terms of the church, Vukovar County is under the Catholic
Archdiocese of Pécs. Several church orders have their monasteries
here, and the most influential is the Franciscan order.
In
the 14th and 15th centuries, the Vukovar area was ruled by numerous
noble families. Towards the end of this period, the most influential
were from Ilok, when Nikola was proclaimed the title king of Bosnia
and minted his own money. Ilok was a significant settlement and
fortress at that time, and since 1525 it has had its city statute
and coat of arms.
Turkish rule - 16th and 17th centuries
One hundred and fifty years of Turkish rule brought great changes to
the Vukovar area. During their campaign in 1526, under the
leadership of Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent, they captured all the
fortifications along the Danube, including Ilok and Vukovar, and
then won a great victory in the battle of the Mohács field. Vukovar
lost its strategic significance, but remained a significant trade
and craft place on an important traffic route. It had several city
districts, places of worship, baths, lodgings and schools. Towards
the end of Turkish rule, it had up to 3,000 inhabitants.
At
the same time, Ilok is a significant Turkish administrative and
military center. It is predominantly inhabited by Muslims.
At
that time, the indigenous Catholic Croatian and Hungarian
populations were badly damaged, retreated into the woods or were
killed. During the Turkish rule, the Franciscans worked here,
gathering the Catholic people. Orthodox Vlachs are coming to the
deserted area as auxiliary Turkish troops, but they will withdraw
together with the Turkish army. Vukovar was liberated in 1687, and
Ilok in 1688.
Resettlement - 18th and 19th centuries
About
fifty houses remained inhabited in Vukovar. The indigenous and newly
settled Croatian population, mostly from Herzegovina, is returning
to the devastated Vukovar area. Orthodox Serbs are settling in some
deserted places, which are accepted by the Viennese court out of the
need for labor. In the 18th and 19th centuries, a significant number
of Germans, Hungarians, Jews, Ruthenians, Slovaks and Ukrainians
also settled there. Thus, this Croatian area becomes a multinational
ethnic composition. Croatian lands are now part of the Habsburg
Empire. In 1745, Empress and Queen Maria Theresa restored the
Slavonian counties, which were under the administration of the
Croatian Parliament and the ban, but under pressure from the
Hungarians. Vukovar is the seat of the great Srijem County, which
stretched between the Danube and the Sava, in the east all the way
to Zemun, in the west to Osijek, except for the area of the
Military Border.
Large estates in Slavonia were acquired or
bought by feudal lords. The Counts of Eltz, who belong to the German
nobility, come into the possession of the Vukovar manor. In 1736,
Philip Karlo Eltz, Archbishop of Mainz and German prince-elector,
bought this huge estate with 35 settlements. Over the following
centuries, land areas were reduced by agrarian reforms. The entire
development of the Vukovar region until 1945 was closely connected
with the Vukovar manor of the Counts Eltz.
At the same time,
the Ilok manor was held by the Italian princes Odescalchi. In the
18th and 19th centuries, Vukovar had the characteristics of an
administrative, economic, traffic and cultural center.
Contemporaries consider it the "capital of Srijem".
Already
at the beginning of this period, half of the population of Vukovar
were craftsmen and merchants. The population is extremely
hardworking flourishing crafts, trade, silkworm, shipbuilding. Goods
are shipped to the Danube countries. Numerous guild organizations
were established early on to protect artisans. Vukovar is the center
of trade for the whole of western Srijem.
The Vukovar region
has excellent conditions for agricultural production. As early as
the end of the 19th century, almost 80% of the population lived from
agriculture. The estate of the Counts of Eltz improved production,
which also affected small farms. In addition to basic grain
production, viticulture is an important industry. Vukovar and Ilok
quality wines are recognized at world economic exhibitions. The best
dairy breeds are introduced into cattle breeding, and here are also
famous horse stables known on a world scale.
Since 1840, Vukovar has been involved in permanent steamship
traffic on the Danube. From 1878 it was connected to the railway.
The port of Vukovar is the largest transshipment port in the
Croatian region. As in other Croatian regions, especially in
Slavonia, industry in Vukovar developed slowly. More intensive use
of steam engines was in the second half of the 19th century, more in
agriculture than in industry. The slow development of the industry
is affected by a lack of capital. The Savings Bank in Vukovar was
founded in 1861. The first large industrial company Vukovarska
kudjeljara started operating only in 1905. Vukovar has been
receiving electricity from these plants since 1909.
The slow
development of the industry is affecting a small increase in the
city's population. According to the 1900 census, 1/4 of the
population of the Vukovar district lives in Vukovar. Vukovar then
had 10,400 inhabitants, of which by nationality: more than 4,000
Croats, 3,500 Germans, about 1,600 Serbs, 950 Hungarians, and
others.
Significant industrial facilities were the basis in
the period between the two world wars. The "Bata" factory in the
footwear and rubber industry was founded in 1931. At the same time,
significant plants of the textile industry began to operate in
Vukovar. Industrialization has affected the growth of the city's
population, so that Vukovar has more than 17,000 inhabitants
according to the 1948 census.
Development of science and
culture
In accordance with its position in economic and
administrative terms, Vukovar has developed into an educational,
cultural and health center. In the 18th and 19th centuries, people
in Vukovar lived in the European way.
In the 18th century,
ranchers were already active in Vukovar, and some Franciscans were
also involved in treatment. The first medical graduate has been
active since 1763, and the pharmacy was opened in 1791. At the end
of the 18th century, a great Srijem plague reigned here. The first
small hospital was opened only in 1857.
As early as 1730,
Vukovar had a developed public education. The elementary school in
Stari Vukovar developed from a Franciscan school. Novi Vukovar has
its own school. There were also confessional schools for children of
the Orthodox and Jewish faiths, as well as schools in German and
Hungarian. The apprentice school was founded in 1886, and the
grammar school in 1891.
A printing house was founded in
Vukovar in 1867 and published the first Vukovar newspaper in German,
Der Syrmier Bote. Later, several printing houses operated, and among
the numerous newspapers, Sriemski Hrvat and Sriemske novine stood
out, which were published for almost three decades at the turn of
the 20th century.
Due to the lack of space for social events
in the city, Vukovar landowner from one of the oldest and most
prominent Vukovar families, Aleksa Paunović gives to build "Hotel
Grand", this building is the most famous work of monumental
historicist architecture in the city. It was built on the site of
the so-called Swiss houses designed by Senj architect Vladimir
Nikolić, from 1894 to 1897. In addition to catering facilities, the
Grand Hotel also had a theater hall. The hotel was leased, and in
1918 it was sold to a new owner, Misha Gottfried. At that time, the
labor movement in Vukovar was rapidly strengthening and the workers
wanted to build a workers' home. As the Grand Hotel was offered for
sale again in 1919, the workers founded the Workers 'Home
Cooperative and, by selling cooperative shares, raised funds, bought
the Grand Hotel and turned it into the Workers' Home.
In
gratitude to its fellow citizen, on the occasion of the renovation
of the stagecoach post office building, the former Bauer Gallery,
the city of Vukovar placed a plaque with the name of Aleksa Paunović
written in golden letters in Cyrillic on the front of the building.
The oldest literary works in this area originate from the pens
of the Franciscans of Vukovar and Ilok. The most famous writers from
this area are Nikola Andrić, Julije Benešić, Antun Gustav Matoš,
Zaharije Orfelin, Pavao Pavličić and Zoran Bognar.
Numerous
artists worked in Vukovar. Among the older ones are Josip Franjo
Mücke, Franjo Ksaver Giffinger, and in the 20th century high school
teachers Dragan Melkus, Dragutin Renarić, Marijan Detoni, and Mato
Kovačević - Eskaviljo and others.
Vukovar has its Nobel
laureate, Lavoslav Ružička. He was born in Vukovar in 1887, and
received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1939.
Vukovar had a developed social life modeled on European
understandings. In the period until the First World War alone, there
were about 30 societies. Singing, reading, sports and supporting
societies had their own reading rooms, organized concerts and
parties. Societies were often organized on a national basis. The
first play in the Croatian language was held in 1821, it was a play
by the guardian of the Franciscan monastery Grga Čevapović. The most
influential Croatian society is the Danube Singing Society. In 1922,
the Croatian Home was opened in Vukovar, the meeting point of all
cultural events.
Vukovar in Yugoslavia
In the period
between the two world wars, within the Yugoslav state, the Vukovar
area, as well as other Croatian regions, was under pronounced
expansionist pressure from Belgrade. Territorial divisions into
areas and banovinas systematically divided the Croatian territory.
The interventions of the Belgrade authorities changed the
composition of the population. The areas obtained by the agrarian
reform are distributed to Thessaloniki volunteers and the general
population from the Serbian regions. But Serbs and partly Croats
from poor rural areas of Croatia: Lika, Kordun and Dalmatia also
immigrated. Employment in factories was skillfully used to change
the Croatian significance of the Vukovar area.
At the
beginning of this period, there was a very strong workers' movement
in Vukovar, which found its foothold in the unresolved social and
national issue in the then Yugoslav state. This is especially
emphasized by the holding of II. Congress of the Socialist Workers'
Party of Yugoslavia in 1920, which at that congress received a new
name - the Communist Party of Yugoslavia (although the state itself
took the Yugoslav name only in 1929). Despite all the pressures of
the expansionist policy of Belgrade at that time, there were almost
no interethnic tensions in Vukovar until the end of the 1930s, and
the Croatian national consciousness was preserved and the
establishment of the Banovina of Croatia in 1939 was welcomed with
relief.
Unfortunately, the tragic events of World War II
follow. Interethnic conflicts caused before the war are now
intensifying in Vukovar as well. The city did not suffer major
destruction. The composition of the population changed
significantly, especially with the persecution of Jews, Serbs and
anti-fascist Croats, and the persecution, killing and emigration of
Vukovar Germans ("Donauschwaben") towards the end and after the war.
After 1945, in the new Yugoslav state, the district of Šid was
separated from the Croatian lands. The rest of Srijem, which is not
part of today's Croatia, was separated even earlier on the occasion
of the founding of the Banovina of Croatia. Unlike the pre-war
"mutilation", in exchange for the Sid district, which had already
been mostly inhabited by Serbs, Croatia got Baranja, which had never
been in Croatia before. The Vukovar-Ilok region, which remained part
of Croatia, administratively made up the municipality of Vukovar.
In accordance with the Law on Agrarian Reform and Colonization
from 1945, the nationalization of goods was carried out and turned
into state property. The two richest Vukovar families, Eltz and
Paunović, are left without the entire property, which has been
partially returned to its owners by the Republic of Croatia in
recent times. After 1948, the split with the USSR and moving in a
new direction, state ownership became social (which is de facto
identical to workers' shareholding, without precise ownership in the
form of shares). In the Vukovar area there is a rapid
industrialization, above average compared to other parts of Croatia.
Unfortunately, the industry is narrowly specialized, unattractive
with mass employment of labor. At the same time, agricultural
production is autarchic. In 1990, out of the total number of
employees in the economy of the Vukovar region, about 60% worked in
industry, and only 12% in agriculture, in the social sector.
Some events from the time of Ranković's reign of terror in
Yugoslavia were indicative of Serbia's conquest 30 years later. An
architecturally inappropriate project removed a building of Croatian
attribute designed by the great Croatian architect Aleksandar
Freudenreich, the Croatian Home in Vukovar. At the place where the
historical architectural corpus of the Croatian Home complex was
defined, which lasted until the early 1960s, the old classicist
hotel "K lavu" was demolished, and not long after, the baroque
facade of the Croatian Home was demolished. As early as 1966, an
architecturally unsuitable building was built on the site, an annex
to the "Cultural Center", which was entered from the newly formed
"square", in other words, the historic part of the Croatian home was
removed and the Rococo-style theater hall remained on the Danube
side. which still exists today. The construction remains of the old
hotel "K Lavu" were stolen and it was then recorded that two people
were criminally responsible for the unpleasant event. While in the
back, next to the hall on the site of the old Hotel "K Lavu", an
inappropriate modernist building of the new Hotel "Lav" was built.
In the war of 1991, the hotel was damaged, but it was not rebuilt
but demolished and a new building was built in its place in
accordance with the needs of the city in modern times.
Vukovar in the Homeland War and today
With the independence of
Croatia in 1991, there was an open aggression of Serbia against
Vukovar and Croatia. After the majority of the Serb population (all
Serb children) fled the city, the Battle of Vukovar began, in which
Croatian forces defended the city against the JNA army, Serb Chetnik
and other paramilitary units, and the Serb army, which had enormous
human superiority and techniques. Serbian shelling razed the city to
the ground. After three months of bitter fighting, Vukovar fell into
Serb hands on November 18, 1991.
In the 1991 aggression on
Vukovar, the JNA and Serb paramilitaries killed at least 1,739
people.
After the liberation actions in other parts of
Croatia in 1995, negotiations began on the return of Vukovar to
Croatian rule. The local self-government in Vukovar began operating
in mid-1997.
On June 8, 1997, the Peace Train arrived from
Zagreb to Vukovar. It consisted of 21 wagons from all Croatian
counties, and included the highest political officials, church
dignitaries, members of the diplomatic corps, numerous dignitaries
from the public, cultural, scientific and economic life of Croatia,
and about 2,000 exiled Vukovar citizens who were preparing to
return. . He marked the return of Croatia to Vukovar, to the
Croatian Danube region, to its eastern borders. President Tudjman
called the Train of Peace a symbol of the return of refugees and the
offering of a hand to those who did not bleed their hands.
Addressing the gathered people, President Tudjman called for
forgiveness "because the winner who does not know how to forgive,
sows the seeds of new evils, and the Croatian people do not want it,
nor did they want it."
The Croatian Danube region was
peacefully reintegrated into the Republic of Croatia on January 15,
1998. Since then, a lot of work has been done on the reconstruction
of the city and the return of all residents and reconciliation, and
the revival of cultural and other aspects of city life.
At
the beginning of November 2020, new sculptures were placed at the
road entrances to Vukovar, which show all passengers that they are
entering Vukovar - a place of special patriotism. They were made
according to the conceptual design of Boris Ljubičić. Four
sculptures have been set up, and the rest will be set up in the
coming months. One is to be at the entrance to Bogdanovci from the
direction of the Marines. They are 587 cm high and consist of steel
cubes in red, white and blue and the capital letter V and the symbol
of the cross. The letter V was chosen because it is the initial
letter of the name Vukovar and the letter V, for which Croatian
defenders pointed out during the Homeland War with a closed fist,
forefinger and middle finger in the shape of the letter V as a sign
of victory. The cross symbolizes the Christian faith, and the
squares in the colors of the Croatian tricolor represent the
Croatian historical coat of arms. All together they are structurally
connected by an X-shaped supporting structure and illuminated by
floor reflectors.