Banatska Topola

Banatska Topola (Банатска Топола) is a village in the Kikinda municipality, in the North Banat District of the Republic of Serbia. It is situated in the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina. The village has a population of 1,066 of which 570 (53.47%) are ethnic Serbs and 434 (40.71%) are ethnic Hungarians. The location of the village is 18 kilometers south of the city of Kikinda. Administrativelly, the settlement named Vincaid is also classified as part of Banatska Topola.

Name

In Serbian, the village is known as Банатска Топола or "Banatska Topola", in Hungarian as "Töröktopolya", and in German as "Banat Topola".

History

The present-day village was founded more than 200 years ago. However, numerous archeological findings point to the existence of a human presence in the late Bronze Age, around 1200 B.C. Accidental findings of Bronze Age tools are kept in the Kikinda National Museum. Other findings provide evidence of the presence of Sarmatians in later periods.

During the Middle Ages there were many settlements in the area of the present-day village. However, up to the end of the 18th century, the land in this area was composed of wetlands and fens. In 1783, the land was bought by Count Bogdan Karácsony from neighbouring Novo Miloševo, who then started the process of drying up the wetlands. Around 1790, he founded the village in the middle of these wetlands, which he settled with German and Hungarian families. A Roman Catholic church was built in 1899.

Serbian families from Bosnia settled the village in 1946, after World War II.

Historical population

*1948: 1,255
*1953: 1,029
*1961: 1,101
*1971: 1,848
*1981: 1,463
*1991: 1,176
*2002: 1,066

ee also

*List of places in Serbia
*List of cities, towns and villages in Vojvodina

External links

* [http://www.banatskatopola.edu.yu Primary School "Bratstvo-Jedinstvo"]