Vukovar history

Vukovar is a small town in eastern Croatia lying on the river Danube. Its beginnings trace back to 3000 BC, when the first habitants lived in what is known as Vučedol among archeologists. Many different cultures, Celts, Indo-Europeans, Illyrians, Romans, passed through this area before its current inhabitants arrived in the 9th century.

The town’s name springs from the river Vuka. In the 10th century Croatia entered into a union which had significant incidence for the development of the town. In 1231, it was granted the status of a free royal borough.

Franciscan monks ran schools from the eighteenth century in Vukovar. There was also an Eastern-Greek denominational school, which was founded by the Serbian Orthodox church and a Jewish national school in which classes were carried out in German and Croatian language.

At the beginning of the twentieth century the communist movement started to grow and gained much support in the town of Vukovar. After World War II, the communist party nationalized all private property, as well as the property of Jan Bata, a Czech industrial factory for rubber and shoes, which Bata founded in the 1930s. The factory was the principle reason for the migration (both voluntary and forced) of peoples from Bosnia, Lika, and Eastern Serbia to Vukovar. This way the town became largely an immigrant town by the middle of the last century.

Up to that point the town was already ethnically mixed with the largest ethnic populations being the Croats, Serbs, Germans and Austrians (until 1945), with Russians, Hungarians, Slovakians, Ukrainians and others making up the rest of the population.

The war between 1991 and 1995 almost destroyed the town to its foundations. It also destroyed  most of the interpersonal and interethnic relationships.

1998 marked the beginning restoration of facilities, industries, and relationships between the people.

Cultural diversity

Throughout history, the area around Vukovar was an important crossroads, a place where different cultures intertwined in peace or clashed in numerous conflicts. Changes in the population of the Vukovar region can be continuously traced back five thousand years thanks to numerous archaeological finds.

The Vučedol dove

The Vukovar region is the home of numerous archaeological sites dating from the Copper Age, and early and late Iron Age, which tell of the lives of the Illyrian and Celtic tribes. Particularly important for this region is the Vučedol culture, which was named after the archaeological site at Vučedol, located five kilometers downstream on the banks of the Danube. The Vučedol culture has its origin in the Copper age and it lasted from 2150-1850 bc. The Vučedol Dove, discovered in 1938, became the symbol of Vukovar.

Romans and Slavs

In the Vukovar region, there are several important Roman sites, such as Cornacum (Sotin), Cuccium (Ilok) and Ulmo (Tovarnik). After the fall of the Roman Empire, the great tribal movements and Avar-Slavic expansion of the 6th century onwards resulted in great changes.

The area between the Danube and Sava rivers became a site of great conflict and an area of interest for the powerful states of the period. It was at this time that the first Croatian tribes established their settlements in the area. 

Turkish expansion and the Austro-Hungarian Empire

At that time, Croatia was united with Hungary, and Vukovar and the neighbouring town of Ilok served as fortifications preserving Croatian identity in the Danube-Sava region. Following the period of Turkish rule (1526-1687), almost the entire Vukovar region was purchased by the German counts of Eltz who influenced the economic and cultural growth of the region over the next two centuries. The area around Vukovar experienced frequent cultural changes, as over the long centuries two different mindsets often came in contact – Western, Central European culture and the Eastern influences of the Balkans. 

Yugoslavia

War in Vukovar