SEHER MITROVICA -
Mitrovica under the Turkish rule
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The Turkish traveler Evliya Celebi recorded
in his writings that Mitrovica had been conquered by the Bosnian sandjak bey
Husrev-bey. After a few short wars in which the last Serbian titular despot
Pavle Bakic had lost his life, Srem and the conquered regions of According to the census from 1578,
Mitrovica had 14 Moslem mahales (town districts) and was registered as a
Turkish seher. In the same year, Stephan Gerlach noted that there were 17
mosques in Mitrovica. According to him, most of its inhabitants were Turkish
soldiers, but there were also some Serbians who had no church. The
development of Mitrovica depended on political circumstances prevailing in
the Dr Branisalav ĐURĐE |
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SEAT OF THE HEADQUARTERS OF THE REGIMENT OF CONFINES
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After the final expulsion of Turks from
Srem. Mitrovica came, under the provisions of the Peace Treaty of Pozarevac
in 1718. under the Austrian rule. Until the year 1745, it formed a part of
estates of the counts Coloredo and Pejačevic and afterwards it belonged
to the Military Confines of Srem as the seat of the headquarters of the
regiment of Petrovaradin and of the brigade of Srem and for some time also as
a free commune of the Military Confines or community. Its Serbian population
was formed for the most part of immigrants from When it had been proclaimed community of
Confines, in 1765, it opened the doors still wider for immigrants,
particularly artisans and tradespeople (Aromuns!); therefore its population
was constantly increasing and its economy, chiefly the trade, in permanent
progress. As a matter of fact, a part of Mitrovica remained even at that time
under the direct military jurisdiction of the headquarters of the company of
the regiment and did not differ, as regards its rights and duties, from the
rural settlements in the Confines. The economic development of the town and
the forming of the middle class were slackened after 1787, owing to the
suppression of the community and the civil municipal administration, which
the citizens did not succeed in restoring in spite of many petitions
addressed to the Court and material sacrifices they were prepared to make;
the military administration was maintained, though its relation to the
holders of »civil rights« (for the most part members of the trading and craft
classes) has become later more tolerant, for such an attitude was
indispensable for the development of the economy of the town and of the
Military Confines. On account of its geographical situation, Mitrovica played
an important role in the trade between |
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Seat of the Brigade - XVII-XIX century |
Mitrovica entered the period of the
revolution in 1848 – 49 as one of the largest agglomerations in Srem (over
5,000 inhabitants) and it played a particularly important part in it. The
first claims of citizens and of the inhabitants of Military Confines were
rather moderate and aiming at an alliance with Croatia, but they gradually
become more radical and turned more and more towards the center of the
Serbian movement in Vojvodina, at Karlovci. After the Assembly of May and the attack of imperial and Hungarian armies directed at Karlovci, the movement of Serbians from Mitrovica reached its climax: the citizens and inhabitants of the Military Confines created their district committee and the national guard refused to obey the former military bureaucratic authorities and after that, towards the middle of July, in an open fight, with the use of guns, expelled the headquarters of the regiment of Petrovaradin and dispersed its officers devoted to the emperor and to the Hungarian government, who exerted a powerful influence upon the Catholic population of the town and the environments. After that, the Regiment was reorganized on a national basis, and the committees became holders of authority which had to solve many difficult problems imposed by the war, accompanied by the desertions, banditism and lawless conditions which were more marked in Srem than elsewhere in the Serbo-Croatian territory in 1848 – 49. The popular authority was maintained until summer and autumn 1849, when it was abolished and replaced by the ancient military-bureaucratic order, which was a consequence of the general victory the reaction had gained over the revolution in the Middle Danubian area. Dr Slavko GAVRILOVIĆ |
