Gvozd


Gvozd is a municipality in central Croatia, Sisak-Moslavina County. Its seat is located in Vrginmost, which was renamed to Gvozd from 1996–2012. It is an underdeveloped municipality which is statistically classified as the First Category Area of Special State Concern by the Government of Croatia.
WWW Official Site

Languages and names

Croatian is the official first language. Serbian language with its Cyrillic alphabet is the officially recognised second language. As of 2023, most of the legal requirements for the fulfillment of bilingual standards have not been carried out. Official buildings do have Cyrillic signage, but not street signs, traffic signs or seals. Cyrillic is not used on any official documents, nor are there public legal and administrative employees proficient in the script.
In Cyrillic, Vrginmost is known as Вргинмост and Gvozd as Гвозд.

History

In 1097, the last native Croatian King Petar Snačić was killed here during the Battle of Gvozd Mountain, which led to the mountain being renamed Petrova Gora. It was ruled by Ottoman Empire between 1536 and 1691 as part of Bosnia Eyalet.
The village of Vrginmost has existed since 1688, when it was part of the Military Region. According to the census of 1850, Gvozd had 30 houses and 341 inhabitants, and according to the census of 1921, 622 households.
In the summer of 1941, the villages of then District of Vrginmost suffered heavy loss of civilian life with several hundred ethnic Serb men and boys perishing in the Glina massacre on 3 August 1941. Majority of the victims of the August massacre in Glina were from the villages of Blatuša, Podgorje, Crevarska Strana, Slavsko Polje, Brnjavac, Pješčanica, Gornja Čemernica, Donja Čemernica, Bukovica and Batinova Kosa.
The Ostrožin Rulebook was adopted on 14 December 1941 in the village of Ostrožin. Predating the Foča Regulations by more than a month, the Ostrožin Rulebook was the first legal act which regulated the new national authority in the liberated territories during the National Liberation War of Yugoslavia.
In 1942, Andrija Artuković ordered the killing of the entire population of Vrginmost and its surrounding villages in 1942, according to the charges laid against him in his deportation hearings in the United States.
The town was officially known as Gvozd between 1996 and 23 October 2012. In 2012, its original name of Vrginmost was restored amid political controversy.
During the Croatian War of Independence, Vrginmost was a part of the unrecognized breakaway Republic of Serbian Krajina. It was retaken by the Croatian army during Operation Storm.

Demographics

Settlements

The municipality consists of 19 settlements:
Population of Gvozd municipality by ethnicity
Year of censustotalSerbsCroatsYugoslavsothers
20112,9701,976 951 -43
20013,7792,193 1,500 -86
199116,59911,729 4,043 278 549
198118,84113,450 4,130 871 390
197121,53616,337 4,866 184 149

Population of Vrginmost settlement by ethnicity
Year of censustotalSerbsCroatsYugoslavsothers
20111,095322 755 -18
20011,303n/an/a-n/a
19911,5701,403 47 42 78
19811,4031,185 44 125 49
19711,068929 65 34 40

History

The municipality had big population changes in various censuses, possibly because of war and because of frequent border changes of municipalities in Croatia:
  • In the 2001 census there were 3,779 people in the municipality, 58% of whom were ethnic Serbs and 40% Croats. 3,575 declared their mother tongue as Croatian, 155 as Serbian, and 49 as other languages.

Politics

Minority councils and representatives

Directly elected minority councils and representatives are tasked with consulting tasks for the local or regional authorities in which they are advocating for minority rights and interests, integration into public life and participation in the management of local affairs. At the Croatian national minorities councils and representatives elections">Croatian language">Croatian national minorities councils and representatives elections Serbs of Croatia fulfilled legal requirements to elect 10 members minority council of the Municipality of Gvozd.

Sights and events

  • Monument to the uprising of [the people of Kordun and Banija|Monument to the Uprising of the People of Kordun and Banija]
  • Monument to the Antifascist Uprising and Victims of Fascism - a bronze partisan sculpture by sculptor Zvonko Car erected in 1956. According to the witness' statements, the monument was destroyed and its remains removed from the site in Vrginmost around 26 November 1995. Fragments of the monument's decorative mosaic featuring partisans had been recovered from garbage disposal site.
  • Abez Forest - site of the historical meeting, held on 19 July 1941, at which the leadership of the Croatian branch of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia decided that the people of the Kordun and Banija region raise against the nazi-fascist occupation
  • Site of formation of the partisan 8th Kordun Division on 22 November 1942 in Crevarska Strana8. кордунашка дивизија НОВЈĐedova kosidba - cultural and historical, tourist manifestation held in Vrginmost, nurturing the folk customs and traditions of Kordun and traditional ways of life. The one-day event, which was first held in 2010, takes place between May and late June and brings together amateur groups nurturing traditional folk dancing and singing from different regions of Croatia and north-west of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Notable natives and residents