Stari Mikanovci (, ) is a

village A village is a human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town with a population typically ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand. Although villages are often located in rural areas, the term urban v ...

Croatia Croatia, officially the Republic of Croatia, is a country in Central Europe, Central and Southeast Europe, on the coast of the Adriatic Sea. It borders Slovenia to the northwest, Hungary to the northeast, Serbia to the east, Bosnia and Herze ...

, located in the eastern part of the large Croatian historic and geographic region of

Slavonia Slavonia (; ) is, with Dalmatia, Croatia proper, and Istria County, Istria, one of the four Regions of Croatia, historical regions of Croatia. Located in the Pannonian Plain and taking up the east of the country, it roughly corresponds with f ...

, situated in the westernmost part of the smaller Croatian historic and geographic region of

Srijem Syrmia (Ekavian sh-Latn-Cyrl, Srem, Срем, separator=" / " or Ijekavian sh-Latn-Cyrl, Srijem, Сријем, label=none, separator=" / ") is a region of the southern Pannonian Plain, which lies between the Danube and Sava rivers. It is div ...

Name

The name of the village in Croatian is plural.

Geography

Geographic coordinates of Stari Mikanovci: +45° 17' 8.43" (or 45.285674), +18° 33' 28.83" (or 18.558009). Stari Mikanovci is a middle-size Slavonian village with specific rur-urban physiognomy. Village physio-morphologic features are characteristic for the geo-historic region of Srijem (so called "ušorena sela") and other parts of lowland Croatia such as Turopolje, Posavina, Podravina and Međimurje. Village name Stari Mikanovci literally means ''Old'' Mikanovci, while Novi Mikanovci means ''New'' Mikanovci.

Administrative organisation

Stari Mikanovci is part of the Vukovarsko-srijemska županija (

Vukovar-Syrmia County Vukovar-Srijem County (), Vukovar-Sirmium County or Vukovar-Syrmia County, named after the eponymous town of Vukovar and the region of Syrmia, is the easternmost Croatian Counties of Croatia, county. It includes the eastern parts of the region of ...

) located on the western part of the county and borders with

Osječko-baranjska županija Osijek-Baranja County (, , ) is a county in Croatia, located in northeastern Slavonia and Baranja which is defined part of the Pannonian Plain. Its center is Osijek. Other towns include Đakovo, Našice, Valpovo, Belišće, and Beli Manastir. ...

. The Municipality of Stari Mikanovci consists of two settlements: Stari Mikanovci and Novi Mikanovci. The municipality centers are the municipal council office and the municipal mayor office which are located within Stari Mikanovci.

Population

History

One

Scordisci The Scordisci (; ) were an Iron Age cultural group who emerged after the Celtic settlement of Southeast Europe, and who were centered in the territory of present-day Serbia, at the confluence of the Savus (Sava), Dravus (Drava), Margus (Morav ...

archaeological site An archaeological site is a place (or group of physical sites) in which evidence of past activity is preserved (either prehistoric or recorded history, historic or contemporary), and which has been, or may be, investigated using the discipline ...

in Stari Mikanovci dating back to late

La Tène culture The La Tène culture (; ) was a Iron Age Europe, European Iron Age culture. It developed and flourished during the late Iron Age (from about 450 BC to the Roman Republic, Roman conquest in the 1st century BC), succeeding the early Iron Age ...

was excavated in the 1970s and 1980s as a part of rescue excavations in eastern Croatia. Archaeological site was a part of the settlement network of Scordisci in the area of

Vinkovci Vinkovci () is a city in Slavonia, in the Vukovar-Syrmia County in eastern Croatia. The city settlement's population was 28,111 in the 2021 census, while the total population was 30,842, making it the largest town of the county. It is a local tr ...

. The village was a fief of the

Order of St. John The Order of Knights of the Hospital of Saint John of Jerusalem, commonly known as the Knights Hospitaller (), is a Catholic military order. It was founded in the crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem in the 12th century and had headquarters there u ...

between the 13th and 15th century, and after that owned by the noble families Horvat and

Gorjanski The House of Garay or Garai () was a Hungarian-Croatian noble family, a branch of the Dorozsma (Durusma) clan, with notable members in the 14th and 15th centuries. They were lords of Csesznek. Origin The family was descended from the Dorozsma ...

during the

Ottoman wars A series of military conflicts between the Ottoman Empire and various European states took place from the Late Middle Ages up through the early 20th century. The earliest conflicts began during the Byzantine–Ottoman wars, waged in Anatolia in ...

in the region. After the Turks were pushed back, Mikanovci was owned by the

Diocese of Đakovo In church governance, a diocese or bishopric is the ecclesiastical district under the jurisdiction of a bishop. History In the later organization of the Roman Empire, the increasingly subdivided provinces were administratively associated ...

and the village of Novi Mikanovci was built by the administration of the

Military Frontier The Military Frontier (; sh-Cyrl-Latn, Војна крајина, Vojna krajina, sh-Cyrl-Latn, Војна граница, Vojna granica, label=none; ; ) was a borderland of the Habsburg monarchy and later the Austrian and Austro-Hungari ...

. The parish church of St. Claire in Stari Mikanovci is dated 1810 and the church of St. Bartholomew in Novi Mikanovci is from the early 13th century, it also was once at the cemetery of the old Mikanovci. In July 1943, during the

World War II in Yugoslavia World War II in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia began on 6 April 1941, when the country was Invasion of Yugoslavia, invaded and swiftly conquered by Axis powers, Axis forces and partitioned among Nazi Germany, Germany, Fascist Italy (1922–1943), It ...

, Nazi forces destroyed agricultural machinery, including threshers, across several villages, including Stari Mikanovci.

References