Markušica ( sr-Cyrl, Маркушица, hu, Márkusfalva, german: Sankt Markus) is a

village A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town (although the word is often used to describe both hamlets and smaller towns), with a population typically ranging from a few hundred ...

and a municipality in

Vukovar-Syrmia County Vukovar-Srijem County ( hr, Vukovarsko-srijemska županija), Vukovar-Sirmium County or Vukovar-Syrmia County, named after the eponymous town of Vukovar and the region of Syrmia, is the easternmost Croatian county. It includes the eastern parts ...

in eastern

Croatia , image_flag = Flag of Croatia.svg , image_coat = Coat of arms of Croatia.svg , anthem = "Lijepa naša domovino"("Our Beautiful Homeland") , image_map = , map_caption = , capit ...

. Markušica is located south of the river Vuka and northwest of the town of

Vinkovci Vinkovci () is a city in Slavonia, in the Vukovar-Syrmia County in eastern Croatia. The city's registered population was 28,247 in the 2021 census, the total population of the city was 31,057, making it the largest town of the county. Surround ...

. Landscape of the Markušica Municipality is marked by the

Pannonian Basin The Pannonian Basin, or Carpathian Basin, is a large basin situated in south-east Central Europe. The geomorphological term Pannonian Plain is more widely used for roughly the same region though with a somewhat different sense, with only th ...

plains and agricultural fields of corn,

wheat Wheat is a grass widely cultivated for its seed, a cereal grain that is a worldwide staple food. The many species of wheat together make up the genus ''Triticum'' ; the most widely grown is common wheat (''T. aestivum''). The archaeologi ...

common sunflower The common sunflower (''Helianthus annuus'') is a large annual forb of the genus ''Helianthus'' grown as a crop for its edible oily seeds. Apart from cooking oil production, it is also used as livestock forage (as a meal or a silage plant), as ...

and sugar beet. The modern day municipality was established in 1997 by the

UNTAES The United Nations Transitional Administration for Eastern Slavonia, Baranja and Western Sirmium (UNTAES) was a UN peacebuilding transitional administration in the Eastern Slavonia, Baranja and Western Syrmia in the eastern parts of Croatia ...

administration as one of new predominantly Serb municipalities in order to ensure access to local self-government to Serb community in the region. Alongside Markušica it includes villages of Gaboš,

Karadžićevo Karadžićevo ( sr-Cyrl, Караџићево) is a village in Croatia, municipality Markušica, Vukovar-Syrmia County. History Until 1920, the village was called Križevci. The settlement was originally a pustara, a Pannonian type of hamlet. ...

, Ostrovo and

Podrinje Podrinje ( Serbian Cyrillic: Подриње) is the Slavic name of the Drina river basin, known in English as the Drina Valley. The Drina basin is shared between Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia, with majority of its territory being located in ...

. Before the United Nations administrator implemented anty-

gerrymandering In representative democracies, gerrymandering (, originally ) is the political manipulation of electoral district boundaries with the intent to create undue advantage for a party, group, or socioeconomic class within the constituency. The m ...

reorganization, Markušica and Podrinje were a part of the

Tordinci Tordinci ( hu, Valkótard) is a village and a municipality in the Vukovar-Syrmia County in Croatia. Tordinci is underdeveloped municipality which is statistically classified as the First Category Area of Special State Concern by the Government ...

Municipality, while Karadžićevo, Ostrvo and Gaboš were linked to Jarmina Municipality making Serb community minority in both of them. Markušica Municipality is connected with the surrounding area via D518 road and L209 Vinkovci–Gaboš–Osijek railway with local stations in Gaboš and Ostrovo.

Geography

The municipality has a total area of . River Vuka flows through the municipality and territory of the municipality is completely flat very fertile black soil. It is connected by D518 highway with rest of country.

History

One

Scordisci The Scordisci ( el, Σκορδίσκοι) were a Celtic Iron Age cultural group centered in the territory of present-day Serbia, at the confluence of the Savus (Sava), Dravus (Drava), Margus (Morava) and Danube rivers. They were historically n ...

archaeological site An archaeological site is a place (or group of physical sites) in which evidence of past activity is preserved (either prehistoric or historic or contemporary), and which has been, or may be, investigated using the discipline of archaeology a ...

in Markušica dating back to late

La Tène culture The La Tène culture (; ) was a European Iron Age culture. It developed and flourished during the late Iron Age (from about 450 BC to the Roman conquest in the 1st century BC), succeeding the early Iron Age Hallstatt culture without any defi ...

was excavated in the 1970s and 1980s as a part of rescue excavations in eastern Croatia. Archaeological site was a part of the settlement network of Scordisci in the area of

. Markušica was one of the feudal villages that existed in the region before the Ottoman rule in Hungary.Marković, M. (2003). Istočna Slavonija: Stanovništvo i naselja. Naklada Jesenski i Turk. Zagreb. After the end of Great Turkish War village was settled by

Eastern Orthodox Eastern Orthodoxy, also known as Eastern Orthodox Christianity, is one of the three main branches of Chalcedonian Christianity, alongside Catholicism and Protestantism. Like the Pentarchy of the first millennium, the mainstream (or " canonical ...

Vlachs "Vlach" ( or ), also "Wallachian" (and many other variants), is a historical term and exonym used from the Middle Ages until the Modern Era to designate mainly Romanians but also Aromanians, Megleno-Romanians, Istro-Romanians and other E ...

from surrounding areas and the eastern Bosnia. In 1736 there was 40 inhabited houses in Markušica. In 1866 this number increased at 192 houses and 1003 inhabitants out of which 902 were Eastern Orthodox. The modern day Municipality of Markušica was established by the decision of the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

diplomat and at the time Transitional Administrator for Eastern Slavonia, Baranja and Western Sirmium

Jacques Paul Klein Jacques Paul Klein is a retired United States diplomat, who served as head of three United Nations peacekeeping missions: the United Nations Transitional Administration for Eastern Slavonia (UNTAES) from January 17, 1996, to August 1, 1997, the ...

. As the

region In geography, regions, otherwise referred to as zones, lands or territories, are areas that are broadly divided by physical characteristics ( physical geography), human impact characteristics ( human geography), and the interaction of humanity an ...

was directly governed as an

UN protectorate This is a list of territories which are directly administered, or once were, by the United Nations (UN). These are not to be confused with UN trust territories, which were run by a single country under a UN mandate. List Current Former Se ...

Transitional Administrator was the highest authority responsible for administrative affairs. Markušica Municipality was established as one of new predominantly Serb municipalities in order to ensure access to local self-government to Serb community in the region. Prior to the decision international community expressed concerns over the perceived gerrymandering, disenfranchisement of refugees and minority representation.

Demographics

Population

There are 2 555 inhabitants, the majority of the population which are

Serbs The Serbs ( sr-Cyr, Срби, Srbi, ) are the most numerous South Slavic ethnic group native to the Balkans in Southeastern Europe, who share a common Serbian ancestry, culture, history and language. The majority of Serbs live in their na ...

, who make up 90.10% of the population according to the 2011 population census.

Languages

Due to the local minority population, the Markušica municipality prescribe the use of not only Croatian as the official language, but the

Serbian language Serbian (, ) is the standardized 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 Bosnia and Herzegovina and co-official in Montenegro and K ...

and

Serbian Cyrillic The Serbian Cyrillic alphabet ( sr, / , ) is a variation of the Cyrillic script used to write the Serbian language, updated in 1818 by Serbian linguist Vuk Karadžić. It is one of the two alphabets used to write standard modern Serbian, t ...

alphabet as well.

Religion

Most of the population are Serbian Orthodox that are practicing their religion in the church that was built in 1810 and re-built in 1989.

Politics

Joint Council of Municipalities

The Municipality of Markušica is one of seven Serb majority member municipalities within the

Joint Council of Municipalities sr, Заједничко веће општина , logo = Joint Council of Municipalities Logo.png , size = 150px , alt = , caption = Flag of The Joint Council of Municipalities , ...

, inter-municipal sui generis organization of ethnic Serb community in eastern Croatia established on the basis of

Erdut Agreement The Erdut Agreement ( sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Erdutski sporazum, Ердутски споразум), officially the Basic Agreement on the Region of Eastern Slavonia, Baranja and Western Sirmium, was an agreement reached on 12 November 1 ...

. 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 13 representatives plus additional seats for municipality minority groups if they don't get proportional number of seats. Assembly members come from electoral lists winning more than 5% of votes. Dominant party in the municipality since the reintegration of eastern Slavonia in 1998 is Independent Democratic Serb Party. 681 or 33,32 % out of 2.044 voters participated in

2017 Croatian local elections The first round of the 2017 Croatian local elections was held on 21 May and the second round, where necessary, on 4 June. All seats of the county prefects, city and municipal mayors and members of county, municipal and city councils were up for el ...

with 93,69 % valid votes. With 92,80% and 632 votes Budimir Brača from Independent Democratic Serb Party was elected as municipality major. As of 2017, the member parties/lists are: , - style="background-color:#E9E9E9" align=center !colspan=2, Party !Votes !% !Seats , - , bgcolor=#C50200, , align=left valign=top,

Independent Democratic Serb Party The Independent Democratic Serb Party ( sh-Cyrl-Latn, Самостална демократска српска странка, Samostalna demokratska srpska stranka, SDSS) is a social-democratic political party in Croatia representing the intere ...

, , 638, , 100,00, , 13 , - , align=left colspan=2, Invalid/blank votes, , 43, , 6,31, , — , - , align=left colspan=2, Total, , 681, , 100, , — , - , align=left colspan=2, Registered voters/turnout, , 2.044, , 33,32, , — , - , align=left colspan=8, Markušica Local Elections 2017

, - , align=left colspan=8, Source ''page 57-58''

Economy

Markušica is underdeveloped municipality which is statistically classified as the First Category Area of Special State Concern by the Government of Croatia.

Education

Culture

Points of Interest

Markušica Municipality is famous for a monument dedicated to a soldier killed in

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

. The village has a unique monument to a female Soviet pilot from the

Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army ( Russian: Рабо́че-крестья́нская Кра́сная армия),) often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic and, afte ...

, who fought against the

Nazis Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in N ...

and whose plane was shot down here. The village also has an

Eastern Orthodox Church The Eastern Orthodox Church, also called the Orthodox Church, is the second-largest Christian church, with approximately 220 million baptized members. It operates as a communion of autocephalous churches, each governed by its bishops vi ...

from 1810, which was damaged in

Associations and Institutions

The village has a volunteer fire department.

Settlements

The municipality consists of the following settlements: * Gaboš, population 516 *

, population 194 * Markušica, population 1,009 * Ostrovo, population 612 *

, population 224

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Markusica Municipalities of Croatia Populated places in Vukovar-Syrmia County Populated places in Syrmia Joint Council of Municipalities Serb communities in Croatia Archaeological sites in Croatia La Tène culture