Vojvodina
Vojvodina [v ɔ jvo di ː na, v ɔ j vo ː dina, Serbian], Vojvodina [ “Duchy”], province of Serbia borders Hungary to the north, the east with Romania, to the west by Croatia, in the southwest (along the Sava) to Bosnia and Herzegovina, 21 506 km 2, (2011) 1.92 million residents, of which 66.8% Serbs, 13.0% Hungarians, 2.6% Slovaks, 2.4% Croats, as well as Montenegrins, Romanians, Ruthenians and others. Minorities; the proportion of Roma is estimated at around 2.2%. The number of Germans in Vojvodina was around 3,300 according to the 2011 census. The capital is Novi Sad. The Fruška gora rises up to 539 m above sea level like an island from the wide plains on the Tisza, Danube and Sava. The Vojvodina is divided into the Batschka in the west, the western Banat in the east and Sirmia in the south. The fertile and productive agricultural landscape is considered to be the breadbasket of Serbia; be cultivated v. a. Corn, wheat, sunflowers, sugar beets. In the eastern part of the country crude oil (processed in the Pančevo refinery) and natural gas are produced. Important industrial sectors are mechanical engineering, the chemical, textile and food industries. Pančevo and Novi Sad on the Danube have important inland ports.
Story: Settled by Slavs since the 6th century, the area has belonged to the Hungarian Empire since the 10th century. The advance of the Ottomans led in the 14./15. Century for the settlement of Serbian refugees. During the Turkish occupation from 1551 to 1699 and the subsequent Turkish wars, the southern Hungarian area largely turned into depopulated pastureland; From 1690 onwards, the resettlement carried out by the Habsburgs and the nobility brought not only Serbs (from Kosovo and southern Serbia) but also numerous Germans, Romanians, Magyars and other ethnic groups to the landscape known as the »Serbian Vojvodina«. The Austrian constitution of 1849 gave the Vojwodina, which was elevated to the status of the Austrian crown land “Serbian Voivodship” with the Banat of Temesvár; however, when it was reintegrated into Hungary in 1860, it was abolished again. The enlightened, liberal-national Serbs of the Austrian Vojvodina conveyed strong cultural stimuli to the Serbs south of the Danube in the 18th and 19th centuries (Matica srpska, in Novi Sad since 1864); but – in contrast to Šumadija Serbism – from the end of the 19th century in Serbia or after 1918 in what was later to become Yugoslavia, it could not gain any formative influence. After the First World War, divided between Yugoslavia (Serbia) and Romania by the 1919/20 Paris suburban treaties, Serbs from the south and east of Serbia were settled in the Yugoslav-Serbian area of Vojvodina and the Hungarian and Eastern regions were Serbized (partly expropriated) German real estate. During the Second World War, Vojvodina was annexed by Hungarian (Baranja, Batschka) and German troops (West Banat) in 1941–44. The roughly 500,000 Germans (“Danube Swabians”) were almost without exception deported to the USSR for forced labor from 1944 or expelled under inhumane, in some cases not fully understood, circumstances from 1945-48; the Montenegrin and (old) Serbian population increased again through new settlements. From 1946 Vojvodina was incorporated into the Yugoslav republic of Serbia as the “Autonomous Province of Vojvodina”; the new Serbian constitution of September 28, 1990 revoked its autonomous status. – After the integration of Serbian refugees from Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia (former Krajina Serbs), the ethnic composition changed again from 1995 onwards. The significant minority of Hungarians has its own political representation and strives to restore autonomy with the other minorities. In 2002 Vojvodina was granted autonomy rights again by the Serbian parliament.
Novi Sad
Novi Sad [ n ɔ vi ː sa ː d], German Novi Sad, capital of the province of Vojvodina, in the Republic of Serbia, in Backa, on the Danube, 80 meters above sea level, 231 800 residents, of which 4% Hungary; orthodox bishopric; cultural and economic center of Vojvodina; University (founded in 1960), museums, national theater; Commercial center, finance, information technology, petroleum refinery, chemical industry.
Cityscape
The town hall with a high tower is located on the main square, and the Episcopal Palace is nearby, both built in the 19th century in the Byzantine style; baroque the orthodox Almaš cathedral. The fortress of Petrovaradin (built 1692–1780) is also famous for its system of underground passages.
History
Founded after 1690 by Serbian refugees from the Ottoman Empire, Novi Sad was made a royal free city by Maria Theresa in 1748; Almost completely destroyed in the fighting of 1848/49, it developed into an economic center in the 19th century and – thanks to Matica Srpska - the spiritual rallying point of the Serbs in Austria-Hungary. In 1919 Novi Sad came to Yugoslavia (occupied by Hungarians 1941–44). – In 1945 the suburb of Petrovaradin was incorporated.
