Vera ( sr-Cyrl, Вера
) 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 ...
in
Trpinja Municipality in eastern
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 ...
. The village is the northernmost settlement of the
Vukovar-Syrmia County.
Name
The villages of
Trpinja,
Bobota and Vera share a common legend about the origin of their names. According to the legend, the ancestors of today's inhabitants of villages, who settled at the time of the
Great Serb Migrations under
Arsenije III Čarnojević, were called Bobe. They were fleeing from the
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman Empire (), also called the Turkish Empire, was an empire, imperial realm that controlled much of Southeast Europe, West Asia, and North Africa from the 14th to early 20th centuries; it also controlled parts of southeastern Centr ...
conquests of Balkan as they wanted to preserve their
religious freedom.
This legendary religious commitment and orthodoxy was coined in the local phrase ''Bobe endured for the faith'' or originally in Serbian ''Bobe trpiše za veru''. The family name of 'Bobe' was used as the basis for the name of Bobota, the word 'endured' ( the name of Trpinja was created and from the word of faith (Serbian: ) the name of Vera was coined.
[http://www.trpinja.hr/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=13&Itemid=26&lang=hr]
Geography
Area of Vera and neighboring Trpinja and Bobota have the lowest elevation among the villages north of the Vuka River within their country.
[Marković, M. (2003). Istočna Slavonija: Stanovništvo i naselja. Naklada Jesenski i Turk. Zagreb.]
History
The first written mention of the village of "Were" comes from 1400 with subsequent references in 1443, 1460 and 1482. The settlement was conquered by the
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman Empire (), also called the Turkish Empire, was an empire, imperial realm that controlled much of Southeast Europe, West Asia, and North Africa from the 14th to early 20th centuries; it also controlled parts of southeastern Centr ...
in 1526 after the fall of
Vukovar and it was liberated in 1687 after more than 150 years of Ottoman rule.
After the
Treaty of Karlowitz the village became a part of Vukovar estate. The village was initially owned by the Kuffstein family, then from 1736 by the Eltz family who will build their
Eltz Manor in Vukovar as a center of the estate. The village appeared under the name of Vera in János Lipszky's ''Repertorium'' published in
Buda in 1808.
[ Lipszky János: Repertorium locorum obiectorumque: in XII. tabulis Mappae regnorum...730. o.](_blank)
/ref> Lajos Nagy's work published in 1829 states that there was 90 houses, with 22 Roman Catholic and 698 Eastern Orthodox inhabitants in the village.
Up until the mid-19th century area of Vera was a part of much larger Palača Swamplands. After the completion of Bobota Canal surrounding areas were transformed into agricultural lands. From 27 December 1920 (when they arrived in Vukovar) soldiers and families of the White Russian émigrés who were followers of Pyotr Wrangel settled in Bobota, Pačetin, Bršadin, Trpinja and Vera.
Languages
Serbian language
Serbian Language
Serbian (, ) is the standard language, standardized Variety (linguistics)#Standard varieties, variety of the Serbo-Croatian language mainly used by Serbs. It is the official and national language of Serbia, one of the three official languages of ...
and Serbian Cyrillic alphabet
The Serbian Cyrillic alphabet (, ), also known as the Serbian script, (, ), is a standardized variation of the Cyrillic script used to write the Serbian language. It originated in medieval Serbia and was significantly reformed in the 19th cen ...
is the second official language
An official language is defined by the Cambridge English Dictionary as, "the language or one of the languages that is accepted by a country's government, is taught in schools, used in the courts of law, etc." Depending on the decree, establishmen ...
in most of the villages of the Municipality of Trpinja (except Ćelije) alongside the Croatian language
Croatian (; ) is the standard language, standardised Variety (linguistics)#Standard varieties, variety of the Serbo-Croatian pluricentric language mainly used by Croats. It is the national official language and literary standard of Croatia, o ...
which is official at the national level. Both Serbian and Croatian language are standardized varieties of the pluricentric Serbo-Croatian
Serbo-Croatian ( / ), also known as Bosnian-Croatian-Montenegrin-Serbian (BCMS), is a South Slavic language and the primary language of Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Montenegro. It is a pluricentric language with four mutually i ...
language. According to the Municipal Statute, individuals who are members of the Serbian national minority are ensured the freedom of expression of national belonging and freedom to use their language and script in public and private use on the whole territory of the Municipality including the village of Vera. The statute guarantees that the Serbian Cyrillic alphabet
The Serbian Cyrillic alphabet (, ), also known as the Serbian script, (, ), is a standardized variation of the Cyrillic script used to write the Serbian language. It originated in medieval Serbia and was significantly reformed in the 19th cen ...
will be used in the same font size as the Latin alphabet in the text of the local seals and stamps, on official plates of public representatives, executive and administrative bodies, as well as on those of legal persons with public authorities.
According to the municipal Statute, bilingual signs of the same font are used for written traffic signs and other written traffic markings, street and squares names and names of settlement and geographical localities on the entire territory of the Municipality. Equal public use of Serbian language is required on the basis of the Constitutional Act on the Rights of National Minorities in the Republic of Croatia and relevant national laws and the country is a party to the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages
The European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages (ECRML) is a European treaty (CETS 148) adopted in 1992 under the auspices of the Council of Europe to protect and promote historical regional and minority languages in Europe. However, t ...
.
Education
Branch school of the Elementary School Bobota is located in Vera. Education at the local schools is carried out in Serbian similarly to many other schools in eastern Croatia since the days of peaceful reintegration of the region completed in 1998.[''Popis osnovnih i srednjih škola s nastavom na jeziku i pismu nacionalnih manjina po modelu A'', školska godina 2011./2012., Ministarstvo znanosti obrazovanja i sporta] The first school in Vera was opened in 1789.
Sports
* NK Hajduk Vera, football club
Gallery
Image:Вера-Vera 01.JPG
Image:Вера-Vera 13.JPG
Image:Вера-Vera 10.JPG
Image:Вера-Vera 02.JPG
See also
* Trpinja municipality
References
Sources
*
{{Authority control
Populated places in Vukovar-Srijem County
Populated places in Syrmia
Joint Council of Municipalities
Serb communities in Croatia