Ilok

Ilok is located in the historic region of Srem , on the right bank of the Danube , which is the border with Serbia . The Serbian border also runs from the east and south in close proximity to the city. On the other side of the Danube opposite Ilok is the city of Backa Palanka . At 33 kilometers to the northwest is the city of Vukovar . Highways lead from the city in four directions, to Vukovar and to the Serbian cities of Novi Sad , Petrovardin and Shid . There is no railway communication with Ilok.

Ilok - the center of the agricultural, especially the wine region. In the city there is a port on the Danube.

Ilok is the center of the Slovak diaspora in Croatia. According to the 2001 census, the population of Ilok was distributed according to ethnicity as follows: 76.94% - Croats , 12.50% - Slovaks , 6.78% - Serbs , 1.17% - Hungarians .

The area around modern Ilok has been inhabited since the Neolithic period . In the 1st or 2nd centuries of our era, a Roman settlement was founded here, named Cucium, which served as a fortified guard point on the Danube . After the collapse of the Avar Kaganate, these lands were settled by the Slavs . Subsequently, the western Srem belonged to Bulgaria , the Croatian kingdom, after the fall of the latter - Hungary . In the 12th and 13th centuries, Ilok was mentioned in documents under various names - Vilak, Vilok, Viok, etc. At the end of the 13th century, Hungarian kings transferred the city of Ilok and the fortress to the powerful feudal Chakov family. At the end of the 13th — 14th centuries, Ilok was the capital of the semi-independent principality of Upper Srem, which was ruled by Ugrin Chak.

After 1354, Ilok came under the authority of Miklos and Pala Garay, then Miklos Conte began to rule them, and finally, the Ulyaki family (in the Slavic transcription of Ilochka) became the rulers. Miklos Ulyaki was a ban of Slavonia from 1457 to 1463, and his son Lorints was the prince of Srem from 1477 to 1524.

Since 1526, Ilok under the rule of the Ottoman Empire . In a century and a half of Turkish rule, the city grew strongly, mainly due to the growth of the Muslim population. In 1572 there were 386 Muslim and 18 Christian houses in Ilok, in 1669 there were 1160 houses, almost all of them Muslim. In addition, two mosques were built in Ilok.

In 1697, the Habsburg army took Ilok by storm, the Muslim population left the city. Under Austrian rule, Ilok was part of the Kingdom of Slavonia , a Habsburg province. From 1849 to 1868 Slavonia was a separate province, since 1868 it was united with Croatia. In 1918, Ilok joined the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, later the Kingdom of Yugoslavia . In 1939, Ilok was part of the newly formed Croat banovina as a part of Yugoslavia, from 1941 to 1944 part of the Ustashe Independent State of Croatia , after the war was part of the SFRY .

October 17, 1991 with the beginning of the civil war , the city was occupied by units of the Yugoslav People's Army and Serb paramilitary formations. Ilok, unlike many cities in Croatian Slavonia, escaped destruction, since the Serbs hardly met with resistance in the city. From 1991 to 1995, he was part of the self-proclaimed Serbian Krajina , almost the entire Croatian population (about 5,000 people) fled the city. In 1998, Ilok was reintegrated into independent Croatia as a result of the peace accords.

• Fortress of Ilok
• Franciscan Monastery, founded in 1346
• Remains of the medieval city walls
• The ruins of the Turkish mausoleum

• Official site (inaccessible link - history )