Vršac

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Вршац
Vršac
Location in Serbia

General Information
District	South Banat
Land area	1324 km²
Population (2002 census)	36,623 (town) 54,369 (municipality)
Settlements	24
Coordinates	45°13′N, 21°30′E
Area code	+381 13
Car plates	VŠ
Time zone	CET (UTC+1) CEST (UTC+2)
Website	http://www.vrsac.org.yu

Politics
Mayor	Jovica Zarkula

Vršac

The Chapel Hill with the new Orthodox church and the old Ascension of the Holy Cross Catholic Church.

The St. Gerhard Bishop and Martyr Catholic Church

The Ascension of the Holy Cross Catholic church by night.

Vršac (Вршац) is a city located in Serbia at 45.13°N, 21.30°E. In 2002 the city's total population was 36,001, while Vršac municipality had 53,751 inhabitants. Vršac is located in Banat region, in the Vojvodina province. It is part of the South Banat District.

1 Name
2 History
3 Historical population of the town
4 Inhabited places
5 Demographics (2002 census)
6 Tourist destinations
7 Famous residents
8 Sister cities
9 References
10 External links

[edit] Name

Name Vršac is of Slavic origin. It derived from the Slavic word "vrh" ("summit" in English). [1]

In Serbian, the town is known as Вршац or Vršac, in Romanian as Vârşeţ, in Hungarian as Versec, in German as Werschetz, and in Turkish as Virşac.

[edit] History

The Dacians are the first people known to live in this region. It belonged to the kingdoms of Burebista and Decebalus, than to the Roman Empire from 102 to 271. In Vršac archeologists found traces of ancient Dacian and Roman settlements.

The Slavs settled in this region in the 6th century, and the Slavic tribe known as Abodrites (Bodriči) was recorded to live in the area. The Slavs from the region were Christianized during the rule of the Bulgarian duke Ahtum in the 11th century. The original name of the town is unknown. There are several theories that its first name was Vers, Verbeč, Veršet or Vegenje. The name of the town appears for the first time in 1427 in the form Podvršan. [2]

In the 15th century, the town was in the possession of the Serbian despot Đurađ Branković. [3] Ottomans destroyed the town in the 16th century, but it was soon rebuilt. In 1590/91, the Ottoman garrison in Vršac fortress was composed of one aga, 2 Ottoman officers and 20 Serb mercenaries. The town was seat of the local Ottoman authorities and of the Serbian bishop. In this time, its population was composed of Muslims and Serbs.

In 1594, the Serbs in the Banat started large uprising against Ottoman rule, and Vršac region was centre of this uprising. The leader of the uprising was Teodor Nestorović, the bishop of Vršac. The size of this uprising is illustrated by the verse from one Serbian national song: "Sva se butum zemlja pobunila, Šest stotina podiglo se sela, Svak na cara pušku podigao!" ("The whole land has rebelled, a six hundred villages arose, everybody pointed his gun against the emperor").

The Serb rebels beared a flags with the image of Saint Sava, thus the rebellion had a character of a holy war. The Sinan-paša that lead the Ottoman army ordered that green flag of Muhammad should be brought from Damascus to confront this flag to the Serbian flag with Saint Sava image. Furthermore, the Sinan-paša also burned the mortal remains of Saint Sava in Belgrade, as a revenge to the Serbs. Eventually, the Serb uprising was crushed and most of the Serbs from the region escaped to Transylvania fearing the Ottoman retaliation. However, since Banat region became deserted after this, which did not conformed to the Ottoman authorities who needed population in this fertile land, the authorities promised mercy to everybody who come back. The Serb population came back, but the mercy did not applied to the leader of the rebellion, bishop Teodor Nestorović, whose skin was striped as a punishment. The Banat uprising was one of the three largest uprisings in the Serbian history and the largest one before First Serbian Uprising lead by Karađorđe.

In 1716, Vršac passed from Ottoman to Habsburg control, and the Muslim population fled from the town. In this time, Vršac was mostly populated by Serbs, and in the beginning of the Habsburg rule, its population numbered 75 houses. Soon, the German colonists started to settle here. They founded new settlement known as German Vršac, which was located near old (Serbian) Vršac. Serbian Vršac was governed by knez, and German Vršac was governed by schulheis. Name of the first Serbian knez in Vršac in 1717 was Jovan Crni. In 1795, two towns, Serbian Vršac and German Vršac, were officially joined into one single settlement, in which the authority was shared between Serbs and Germans.

The 1848/1849 revolution disrupted the good relations between Serbs and Germans, since Serbs fought on the side of the Austrian authorities and Germans fought on the side of the Hungarian rebels.

Since 1918, the town was part of the newly formed Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (later renamed to Yugoslavia). During the Axis occupation (1941-1944), many citizens were sent to concentration camps or killed. Since 1944, the town was part of the new Socialist Yugoslavia, and since dissolution of this country in 1991-1992, the town was part of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (1992-2003), Serbia and Montenegro (2003-2006), and since 2006 it is part of an independent Serbia.

[edit] Historical population of the town

1838: 28,481
1857: 19,087
1869: 21,095
1880: 22,329
1890: 21,859
1900: 24,770
1910: 26,941
1921: 27,011
1931: 29,411
1948: 23,038
1953: 26,110
1961: 31,620
1971: 34,256
1981: 37,513
1991: 36,885

[edit] Inhabited places

Vršac municipality includes the city of Vršac and the following villages:

[edit] Demographics (2002 census)

[edit] Ethnic groups in the municipality

The population of the Vršac municipality is composed of:

Serbs = 39,418 (72.5%)
Romanians = 5,913 (10.87%)
Hungarians = 2,619 (4.81%)
Roma = 1,186 (2.18%)
Yugoslavs = 1,019 (1.87%)
Others.

[edit] Settlements by ethnic majority

Settlements with a Serb ethnic majority are: Vršac, Vatin, Veliko Središte, Vlajkovac, Vršački Ritovi, Gudurica, Zagajica, Izbište, Pavliš, Parta, Potporanj, and Uljma. Settlements with a Romanian ethnic majority are: Vojvodinci, Jablanka, Kuštilj, Mali Žam, Malo Središte, Markovac, Mesić, Ritiševo, Sočica, and Straža. Šušara is a settlement with a Hungarian ethnic majority. Orešac is an ethnically mixed settlement with a plurality of the population being Romanian.

[edit] Ethnic groups in the town

The population of the Vršac town is composed of:

Serbs = 28,372 (77.47%)
Hungarians = 1,800 (4.92%)
Romanians = 1,734 (4.74%)
Others.

[edit] Tourist destinations

Vinik winery in Vršac

The Millennium sport center, built in 2002, is located in Vršac. The region around Vršac is famed for its vineyards.

[edit] Vršac Tower

The symbol of the town is the Vršac Tower (Vršačka kula), which dates back to the mid 15th century. It stands at the top of the hill (399m) overlooking Vršac.

The tower is a remain of the medieval Vršac fortress. There are two theories about origin of this fortress. According to the Turkish traveler, Evliya Çelebi, the fortress was built by the Serbian despot Đurađ Branković. The historians consider that Branković built the fortress after the fall of Smederevo in 1439. [4] The fortress in its construction had some architectural elements similar to those in the fortress of Smederevo or in the fortress around monastery Manasija.

The other theory claim that Vršac Tower is a remain of the medieval fortress known as Erdesumulu (Hungarian: Érdsomlyó or Érsomlyó, Serbian: Erd-Šomljo / Ерд-Шомљо or Šomljo / Шомљо). However, the other sources do not identify Erdesumulu with Vršac, but claim that these two were separate settlements and that location of town and fortress of Erdesumulu was further to the east, on the river Karaš, in present-day Romanian Banat.

[edit] Monasteries

There are two Serbian Orthodox monasteries in the Vršac municipality: Mesić monastery from the 15th century and Središte monastery, which is currently under construction.

[edit] Winery

Considering that Vršac is also famous wine region, one of interesting places to visit in Vršac is private winery, Vinik, which is located in the very center of the city. It is the place where you can enjoy in the taste of one of the finest red and white wines in Serbia - Vrżole Noir and Vrżole Blanc.

[edit] Famous residents

Teodor Nestorović, the bishop of Vršac and leader of the Serb uprising in Banat in 1594.
Paja Jovanović (1859-1957), famous Serbian painter.
Jovan Sterija Popović (1806-1856), Serbian playwright, dramatist, comediographer, and pedagogue.
Nikola Nešković (1739-1775), Serbian painter.
Vasko Popa, poet.
Nedeljko Popović Serba, painter.
Milan Jovanović, photographer.
Sultana Cijuk, an opera singer.
Bora Kostić, chess player and World traveller.
Female basketball sensation Zorana Todorović was born in Vršac in 1989, well known for standing over two metres tall and still growing as at the summer of 2006.
Herczeg Ferenc (1863-1954), ethnic Hungarian writer.

[edit] Sister cities

Banská Bystrica, Slovakia

[edit] References

Dušan Belča, Mala istorija Vršca, Vršac, 1997.
Dr. Dušan J. Popović, Srbi u Vojvodini, knjige 1-3, Novi Sad, 1990.
Slobodan Ćurčić, Broj stanovnika Vojvodine, Novi Sad, 1996.
Györffy György, Az Árpád-kori Magyarország történeti földrajza, 1987 (third edition). (Geographia historica Hungariae tempore stripis Arpadianae.)