Negoslavci is a village and a municipality in Vukovar-Syrmia County in eastern Croatia. It is located south of the town of Vukovar, seat of the county. The municipality was established in 1997 by the UNTAES administration as one of new predominantly Serb municipalities in order to ensure access to local self-government to Serb community in the region.
Name
The name of the village in Croatian or Serbian is in the plural, and therefore it is grammatically correct to refer to it as "Negoslavci are" instead of "Negoslavci is". A hypothetical singular version of the name would be Negoslavac.
Geography
Negoslavci municipality has a total area of 21.21 km2 and is the smallest member municipality of Joint Council of Municipalities. It is connected by D57 highway with the rest of the country.
History
Negoslavci village is mentioned in historical documents from the 15th century. The village was most probably established during the Ottoman rule in Hungary as it was not identified in earlier medieval documents. During the Ottoman period village was named Nigoslavci and its extensive land properties were reaching all up to the village of Sotin. After the Ottoman retreat from SyrmiaRoman Catholic ethnic Croats also left Negoslavci under unexplained conditions. Subsequently, Eastern Orthodox settlers colonized the village and in 1736 there was 51 households all of which were Eastern Orthodox. XIX century represented period of demographic growth with village reaching 170 households and 890 inhabitants in 1866. 866 of them were Eastern Orthodox while other included Roman Catholic Croats and Germans. During Austro-Hungarian administration, settlement of Negoslavci was the seat of the municipality, as was evidenced by the records from 1894. After World War II, the village was settled by the people from Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Demographics
Population
Negoslavci has 1,417 inhabitants, the majority of whom are Serbs, making up 96.86 percent of the population according to the 2011 population census. This makes Negoslavci the municipality with the second-highest percentage of Serbs in Croatia. It is also the municipality with the lowest percentage of Croats in the country.
The Municipality of Negoslavci is one of seven Serb majority member municipalities within the Joint Council of Municipalities, inter-municipal sui generis organization of ethnic Serb community in eastern Croatia established on the basis of Erdut Agreement. As Serb community constitute majority of the population of the municipality it is represented by 2 delegated Councillors at the Assembly of the Joint Council of Municipalities, double the number of Councilors to the number from Serb minority municipalities in Eastern Croatia.
Municipality government
The municipality assembly is composed of 11 representatives. Assembly memberscome from electoral lists winning more than 5% of votes. Dominant party in Negoslavci since the reintegration of eastern Slavonia in 1998 is Independent Democratic Serb Party. 323 or 30,62 % out of 1,055 voters participated in 2017 Croatian local elections with 94,72 % valid votes. With 96,28% and 311 votes Dušan Jeckov from Independent Democratic Serb Party was elected as municipality major. As of 2017, the member parties/lists are: '''Summary of 2017 Croatian local elections !colspan=2|Party !Votes !% !Seats
Elementary School in Negoslavci is established in 1761. In 1981 was built new school building. Since 1992 school operates as an eight grade school, and due to increased number of students come to upgrade two classrooms with USAID funds. Each year the school celebrates traditional feast slava dedicated to Saint Sava. In 2011, during celebration of 250 anniversary, school issued Chronicle of elementary school in Negoslavci which was jointly funded by Vukovar-Srijem County, Joint Council of Municipalities, Negoslavci municipality, Prosvjeta, Serb National Council and other donors.
Culture
Points of Interest
is a Serbian Orthodox church completed in 1757. There are two ossuaries from the period of World War II with the bones of Yugoslav Partisan fighters from the time of Syrmian Front. First of the ossuaries state in Serbian Cyrillic script"In the glorious name of 40 fighters of the 1st Proletarian and 8th Montenegrin Brigade, the 1st Proletarian Division, who fell in 1944-1945 on the Syrmian Front for the freedom and the better future of their people." On the second one with the unknown number of fighters there is Cyrillic inscription "You who have shed your blood, you who have given your young lives, You who have fall for the sake of freedom, We honor you with the greatest glory and thankfulness. Negoslavci Women's Section."
The football team PZ Negoslavci is situated in this village. Football is the main sport played and possibly the only organized sport in the municipality.
