Negoslavci
Negoslavci is a village and a municipality in Vukovar-Syrmia County in eastern Croatia. It is located south of the town of Vukovar, seat of the county. Landscape of the Negoslavci Municipality is marked by the Pannonian Basin plains and agricultural fields of maize, wheat, common sunflower and sugar beet.
The modern day municipality was established in 1997 by the UNTAES administration as one of new predominantly Serb municipalities in order to ensure access to local self-government to Serb community in the region.
Name
The name of the village in Croatian or Serbian is plural.Geography
Negoslavci municipality has a total area of and is the smallest member municipality of Joint Council of Municipalities. It is connected by D57 highway with the rest of the country.History
The village of Negoslavci finds its earliest historical mention in documents from the 15th century. The establishment of the village is most likely associated with the period of Ottoman rule in Hungary, as its presence is not recorded in earlier medieval documents. During the Ottoman era, Negoslavci was designated as "Nigoslavci," and its considerable land holdings extended up to the nearby village of Sotin. The departure of Roman Catholic ethnic Croats from Negoslavci following the Ottoman retreat from Syrmia remains under unspecified circumstances. Subsequently, the village experienced settlement by Eastern Orthodox communities, resulting in 51 households in 1736, all adhering to the Eastern Orthodox faith.According to local tradition, the settlement's origin traces back to the period of the Great Migrations of the Serbs after the Treaty of Karlowitz, when approximately 15-20 Serbian families seeking refuge from Ottoman territories settled in Negoslavci. During this period, the village was encompassed within the Vukovar Estate and was held by the Kufstein counts until 1736, at which point ownership transitioned to Count Philip of Eltz, the Archbishop-Elector of Mainz. The larger administrative unit, the Vukovar Estate, comprised 31 villages, including Negoslavci.
The village endured a protracted period of limited population growth due to challenging living conditions and disease outbreaks. Notably, it wasn't until the mid-19th century, with the influx of families from the Bačka region, that a noticeable demographic expansion occurred. By 1866, the village's population reached 890, residing in 170 households. Of these inhabitants, 866 were of the Eastern Orthodox faith, while the remainder included Roman Catholic Croats and Germans.
During the Austro-Hungarian administration, Negoslavci served as a municipal center. Throughout this period, significant developments took place, including the construction of a new town hall in 1901, followed by the establishment of a new school building in 1909. In 1912, the integration of the village into the narrow-gauge railway network occurred with the inauguration of the railway line between Vukovar and Ilača, with the railway station positioned approximately one kilometer away from the village.
During the World War II in Yugoslavia and the Genocide of Serbs in the Independent State of Croatia Johann Pfeiffer, a member of the local German community from Vukovar, served as the village's administrator. Pfeiffer's active involvement in aiding local Serbs to evade Wehrmacht and Ustashe incarcerations resulted in his family being exempt from the subsequent post-World War II expulsion of Germans from Yugoslavia. In the aftermath of the war, the village experienced resettlement by inhabitants from Bosnia and Herzegovina. The year 1955 was marked by the establishment of the local agricultural cooperative, which paralleled the self-sustained agriculture pursued by a notable segment of the population. Other residents found employment in Vukovar's industrial companies such as Vupik, Vuteks, as well as the Borovo industrial complex.
Demographics
Population
Negoslavci has 1,417 inhabitants, the majority of whom are Serbs, making up 96.86 percent of the population according to the 2011 population census. This makes Negoslavci the municipality with the second-highest percentage of Serbs in Croatia. It is also the municipality with the lowest percentage of Croats in the country.Languages
Due to the local minority population, the Negoslavci municipality prescribe the use of not only Croatian as the official language, but the Serbian language and Serbian Cyrillic alphabet as well. 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, as do street signs and seals, but not traffic signs. Cyrillic is not used on any official documents, nor are there public legal and administrative employees proficient in the script. Preserving traditional Serbian place names and assigning street names to Serbian historical figures is legally mandated and carried out.Religion
The majority of the population belongs to the Serbian Orthodox Church.Politics
Joint Council of Municipalities
The Municipality of Negoslavci is one of seven Serb majority member municipalities within the Joint Council of Municipalities, inter-municipal sui generis organization of ethnic Serb community in eastern Croatia established on the basis of Erdut Agreement. As Serb community constitute majority of the population of the municipality it is represented by 2 delegated Councillors at the Assembly of the Joint Council of Municipalities, double the number of Councilors to the number from Serb minority municipalities in Eastern Croatia.Municipal government
The municipality assembly is composed of 11 representatives. Assembly members come from electoral lists winning more than 5% of votes. Dominant party in Negoslavci since the reintegration of eastern Slavonia in 1998 is Independent Democratic Serb Party. 323 or 30,62 % out of 1,055 voters participated in 2017 Croatian local elections with 94,72 % valid votes. With 96,28% and 311 votes Dušan Jeckov from Independent Democratic Serb Party was elected as municipality major. As of 2017, the member parties/lists are:!colspan=2|Party
!Votes
!%
!Seats