Bačka Palanka


Bačka Palanka is a town and municipality located in the South Bačka District of the autonomous province of Vojvodina, Serbia. It is situated on the left bank of the Danube. In 2011 the town had a total population of 28,239, while Bačka Palanka municipality had 55,528 inhabitants.

Name

In Serbian, the town is known as Бачка Паланка or Bačka Palanka, in Slovak as Báčska Palanka, in Croatian as Bačka Palanka, in Hungarian as Bácspalánka, in German as Plankenburg and in Turkish as Küçük Hisar.
Its name means "a town in Bačka" in Serbian. The word "palanka" itself originates from Turkish language and means "town". This word was also adopted by Serbs and it is used in the Serbian language with the same meaning. Older Serbian names for this town were Palanka, Stara Palanka, Nova Palanka and Nemačka Palanka.

History

Archeologists have proved that people have lived in the area for centuries. There are many archaeological objects from the Stone Age, Bronze Age, Iron Age and Roman period.
In the 11th century, this area was populated by Hungarians and Serbs. Bačka Palanka is first mentioned as a settlement in 1486, as a suburb of Ilok called Iločka. Until the 16th century, this area was administered by the Kingdom of Hungary.
At the beginning of the 16th century, the village was the property of landowner Laurence of Ilok, a duke of Syrmia. It was destroyed by the Ottomans after The Battle of Mohács in 1526, but was then rebuilt as small Ottoman fortress named Palanka. During the Ottoman administration, Palanka was mostly populated by ethnic Serbs.
In 1687 Palanka was included into the Habsburg Monarchy and more Orthodox Serbs settled here. Palanka was then mentioned as a small town with 167 houses, all of them Serb. Later, Germans, Slovaks and Hungarians settled here as well.
It was part of the Habsburg Military Frontier from 1702 to 1744. Nova Palanka was founded between 1765 and 1770, 2 kilometers away from the original Palanka and Nemačka Palanka was founded by Danube Germans in 1783. Those three towns became one city, Bačka Palanka, in the 20th century.
Palanka's industrial development started in 1765, when a brick plant was built. It got its first post office in 1828. In 1875, one of the first libraries in Vojvodina was opened. In 1884 the Sintelon company was founded. In 1886, the first public school started working. By the year of 1894, a railroad was built from Bačka Palanka to Feketić and a first phone call was made with Novi Sad.
In the second half of the 19th century, the German population became more numerous than the Serbian. According to the 1910 census, the population of Stara Palanka was mostly Serb, while populations of Nova Palanka and Nemačka Palanka were mostly German.
The city was under Habsburg administration until 1918, when it became part of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes. During the World War II, it was under Axis occupation. In 1944, one part of Bačka Palanka citizens of German ethnicity left from the city, together with the defeated German army. As a consequence of the war, the site of a post-World War II work camp for the remaining ethnic Germans was formed here under new communist administration. After work camps were dissolved, the remaining German population was expelled from Yugoslavia. To replace the Germans, 3,609 colonists settled in the town after World War II. Most of them originated from Bosnia and Herzegovina.
During the 1990s, about 5,000 refugees from Croatia and Bosnia moved to Bačka Palanka because of the Yugoslav wars. During the NATO bombing in 1999, Bačka Palanka was bombed by NATO twice, on 2 and 27 April. Both times the target was the Ilok–Bačka Palanka Bridge. It was only damaged, but not destroyed.
In 2002, 4 tons of fish stew were cooked at Kaloš Čarda at the Bager Lake in Bačka Palanka and it entered Guinness Book of Records.

Inhabited places

Bačka Palanka municipality includes the city of Bačka Palanka and several villages.
Villages on the northern bank of the river Danube, in the region of Bačka:
Villages on the southern bank of the river Danube, in the region of Syrmia:
According to the last official census done in 2011, the municipality of Bačka Palanka has 55,528 inhabitants.
Ethnic composition of the town and municipality:
Ethnic groupPopulation
Population
Serbs23,15543,843
Slovaks1,0555,047
Hungarians1,0031,356
Roma2621,064
Croats520819
Yugoslavs117160
Montenegrins73133
Germans74105
Others1,9803,001
Total28,23955,528

Tourism

Tourism is developed in Bačka Palanka. The city is famous for Tikvara, a Natural Monument. Tikvara is a Danube lake. Tikvara covers an area of. The Tikvara Resort complex is built along the lake for practicing various sports, recreational and entertaining activities. There are 33 archeological sites in the municipality. It is also known for Karađorđevo, which has a hunting ground and horse farm. People enjoy racing derbies in Karađorđevo. At the time of Serbia's emancipation, engraver Marko Vujatović worked on the intricate iconostasis of the Serbian Orthodox Church of St. John the Baptist. Bačka Palanka's Serbian church is one of the oldest churches in Vojvodina some built on foundations of temples of even earlier times. The north of the town is the Bagremara forest.

Economy and industry

Industry in Bačka Palanka started developing in the 18th century. The first companies were built in the second half of the 18th century. A brick plant was opened in 1765, and a tobacco storehouse was opened a year later. In 1974 the Bridge of Youth was built to connect Bačka Palanka and Ilok in Croatia. Today, Bačka Palanka falls among the ten most developed municipalities in Vojvodina. Bačka Palanka municipality is an agricultural and industrial center. The main industries are food, metallurgy, textiles, electronic and machine industry. The most famous factories are Enia, Sintelon, Tarkett, Nectar, Dunavprevoz, AD Bačka, Carlsberg, Marina, Majevica, Plattner, Žitoprodukt, Budućnost and others.
The following table gives a preview of total number of registered people employed in legal entities per their core activity :
ActivityTotal
Agriculture, forestry and fishing677
Mining and quarrying-
Manufacturing5,341
Electricity, gas, steam and air conditioning supply40
Water supply; sewerage, waste management and remediation activities504
Construction334
Wholesale and retail trade, repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles1,881
Transportation and storage1,047
Accommodation and food services380
Information and communication69
Financial and insurance activities190
Real estate activities19
Professional, scientific and technical activities297
Administrative and support service activities444
Public administration and defense; compulsory social security639
Education762
Human health and social work activities610
Arts, entertainment and recreation172
Other service activities176
Individual agricultural workers822
Total14,405

Sports

Sport is very popular in Bačka Palanka. People enjoy swimming in Lake Tikvara and cycling down the banks of The Danube. Sports include handball, football, basketball and karate. There is a chess tournament every year, Bačka Palanka Open.
The most famous sport clubs in Bačka Palanka are:

List of town mayors

Seats in the municipality parliament won in the 2004 local elections:
Seats in the municipality parliament after 2008 elections:

Twin towns – sister cities

Bačka Palanka is twinned with: