Banovci (, , ); also known as Šidski Banovci, is a village in eastern Croatia, 7 kilometers away from the Serbian border. The village is connected with the rest of the country by the D46 state road connecting it with the town of Vinkovci and continuing into Serbia as the State Road 120 to the nearest town of Šid and by the Zagreb–Belgrade railway.
Name
The village of Banovci has undergone several name alterations over the years. Prior to 1900, it was known as "Novi Banovci" (New Banovci), and from 1910 to 1991, it was called "Šidski Banovci". In 1991, at the early stages of the Croatian War of Independence, the first word was formally removed from the name, but due to village's association with the self-proclaimed SAO Eastern Slavonia, Baranja and Western Syrmia, the old name continued to be officially used in administration until 1998, marking the end of the UNTAES transitional administration over the region. Many local residents still use the old name to this day.
A notable error occurred in the National Law on 1997 Croatian local elections when the name "Šidski Banovci" was mistakenly retained instead of using "Banovci". The term "Šidski" is a possessive adjective derived from the nearby town of Šid, situated 12 kilometers away in neighboring Serbia.
Adjacent to Banovci is another village with a similar name, known as Vinkovački Banovci by the town of Vinkovci. Interestingly, the Croatian Railways, the national railway company, still refers to the local railway station as "Šidski Banovci railway station." This old name was also used in a 2005 investigative report by The New York Times. Furthermore, the 2017 Report on County Roads, published by Vukovar-Syrmia County in March 2018, still included the previous name "Šidski Banovci" on the map and in the textual analysis.
The name of the village, whether referred to in Croatian or Serbian, is plural in form.
History
Habsburg Monarchy
The present-day village of Banovci was established in the 1730s under the name "New Banovci," situated adjacent to the older village known as modern-day Vinkovački Banovci, which was already mentioned in historical records as far back as the 15th century. In 1473, the village was referred to as "Zavrakinci," and it was located on a small uplift of the Vukovar Plateau just northwest of the current village, where local vineyards are found up until today. The initial influx of Serb settlers to Banovci occurred during the reign of Charles VI, Holy Roman Emperor in what is known as the Great Migrations of the Serbs. These settlers originated from what is now known as Montenegro and the region around Peć in Kosovo.
The year 1745 saw the establishment of the Slavonian Military Frontier in the region, marking an important historical development in the area's governance and defense in the Habsburg monarchy.
Austria-Hungary
In 1859, the first Danube Swabians settled in Banovci. These Protestant German settlers sought the assistance of the local Serbian Orthodox priest named Uroš during their initial years in the new region. Priest Uroš believed that the arrival of the German settlers could help bring about reforms, particularly in agricultural practices. However, due to predetermined areas for German Catholic colonists in the northern part of the historical region of Syrmia, and the difficulty of settlement in most of the Slavonian Military Frontier, the German Protestants had to establish themselves in the bordering region between these two jurisdictions, with Banovci being one of the few places where this was possible.
At the time of the German settlers' arrival, the local Serbian population exercised its local autonomy through the election of a mayor who held the honorary title of the village prince. Nevertheless, the true spiritual and secular power was in the hands of the Orthodox priest. An interesting incident occurred when the first German colonist family, the Grumbachs, offered sausages made from a German recipe to their neighbors. The local young men, impressed by the quality of the sausages, started coming to the Grumbachs''' household, demanding to be given the sausages. However, this led to some disruptive behavior. Upon learning of the situation, the German colonists sought the assistance of priest Uroš, who confronted the young men and prohibited them from repeating such actions. As compensation, he asked each of the young men to provide one pig to the Grumbachs' household.