The memorial complex of the Battle of Batin dominates the Danube at the place where it took place in November 1944. From Novi Sad to it, the road leads through sad-looking villages with many abandoned houses: Srpski Miletić, Doroslovo, Bezdan, as well as the town of Sombor, which lost 20 percent of its population in 20 years. We cross the Danube bridge near Batina and enter the Croatian part of Baranja, where the situation is only slightly better. The village of Batina itself resembles places in western Bačka (dilapidated and abandoned houses), the Memorial complex itself seems to be solidly maintained, but even though it is Friday afternoon, a logical time when a tourist might come across the Memorial Home with two exhibition rooms and a permanent museum exhibition about the Battle of Bata, a souvenir shop and a restaurant were locked with no information about opening hours.
Monument Pobeda, the work of the academic sculptor Antun Augustinčić, was discovered in 1976 at the place of the fiercest fighting, at the so-called "bloody elevation 169". Next to it is the Memorial Park and a common grave with the remains of 1.297 Red Army soldiers. We continue through the Croatian part of Baranja and quickly reach the border with Hungary, which actually doesn't exist. As both countries are in the Schengen Agreement, and the pressure of migrants on this part of the border has decreased drastically over the past year and has been redirected towards Bosnia - there was no control at the crossing. We arrived in Mohac in just 15 minutes.
VISIT OF BUSHAR
"Šokadija is happy when the tambourine is playing with a chorus", then "Šokac and Šokica are coming, their raincoats are shaking...", the songs change on the loudspeaker in the center of Mohács and we are no longer sure which country we are in. The occasion is the festival "Busójárás" (Busójárás), which takes place every year at the time of the carnival at the beginning of February. It got its name from the stunning costumes worn by its participants, who wear large wooden masks and woolen cloaks made of sheep fur, similar to the castava "bell ringers" that I had the opportunity to watch four years ago at the Carnival in Rijeka.
The custom was brought to Mohác by Croats from Šokak from the regions from which they moved here at the beginning of the 17th century. In 2009, the bushwalk was inscribed on the UNESCO List of Intangible World Heritage. The festival lasts three days; we came on Friday when it is just the warm-up, and it will experience its crescendo with the March of the Bushmen on Sunday afternoon and the lighting of a large wicker bonfire in the center of Mohács.
We refreshed ourselves with local specialties and beer and headed towards the second stage, attracted by familiar tunes. Some kind of Roma orchestra was performing there, singing In the beautiful old town of Visegrad. We laughed to tears because the singer literally didn't get a single word right, everything was irresistibly reminiscent of that performance of the song Without you Mariah Carey in the Bulgarian "Idol" also known as "Ken Lee". Buskers are already cruising the streets making a deafening noise with their rattles.
photo: Robert ChobanBEAUTIFUL PLACES BARANJE: Center of Pecs;…
PEUGEOT
A sunny Saturday morning in Pecs, where we stayed, was ideal for sightseeing in this city of 150.000 inhabitants, which in 2010 held the title of European Capital of Culture. The impressive city center seems to be five times larger than that of Novi Sad, which has twice the population of Pecs. All the buildings have been preserved and perfectly maintained - from the 17th century mosque, which, of course, was converted into a church, but preserved all the architectural and stylistic features of the Ottoman era.
After the First World War, the area of Baranja was under Serbian rule, but in 1921 it was returned to the newly founded Republic of Hungary by the Treaty of Trianon. On November 14, 1918, the Serbian army entered Baranja and occupied Pecs. Commander Lt. Col. Miloš Cvetić allowed the Hungarian soldiers to carry sabres, they prepared a joint feast for their Serbian colleagues the same evening, and Cvetić visited the Catholic Bishop Count Ziči the next day.
When the Serbian army had to evacuate according to the decision of the Peace Conference, in 1921 the Republic of Baranja was created in Pecs. Its existence was "symbolic" and lasted only five days, from Sunday to Friday. It was the last resistance of the betrayed and disillusioned people. The famous painter Petar Dobrović was elected as the president. Dobrović was born in Pečujac, but he had been painting in Belgrade for a long time. Dobrović came from Belgrade, as if invited to his birthplace, and allegedly entered this political adventure by accident. The officials of that fictitious republic immediately requested the help of the Kingdom of SHS, and the Hungarians turned to the Conference of Ambassadors. The ambassadors unanimously and urgently demanded that the Hungarian army enter Pécs and restore "order". Dobrović and his collaborators moved to Yugoslavia even before the collapse of the "creation".
In Pécs, there is also the Vasarely Museum dedicated to the founder of optical art, who was born in this city in 1906 as Victor Vasarely, but his surname was read by the French as Vasarely, and which is one of the city's brands.
photo: Robert Choban...Zholnai Cultural District;...
The brand for which Pécs is certainly globally known is Žolnai. The famous factory was founded in 1853 by the merchant Miklos Žolnai for his son Ignjac. This then modest manufactory was involved in the production of ceramics and art objects made of clay. Vilmos Zolnai, the second son of Miklos, made the factory famous throughout the world by exhibiting at international exhibitions, and won the Grand Prix at the World Exhibition in Paris. Vilmoš began the production of porcelain objects, and soon the weather-resistant Žolnai ceramics were used to decorate buildings, especially during the Art Nouveau period. By 1914, the Žolnai factory had become the largest in Austro-Hungary. After the Second World War under communist rule, the factory was nationalized, and the name Žolnai was renamed to Pécs Porcelain Factory. With the return of the market economy, in 1982 the company was reorganized and became Žolnai again. It is now owned by the Swiss-Syrian businessman Bashar Nayari. While visiting the "Zolnai Cultural District", which was the central place of marking the European Capital of Culture 2010, we see a large number of preserved factory plants, chimneys, administrative buildings decorated with famous ceramics.
VILANJ, SHIKLOSH AND HARKANJ
In addition to Pécs and Mohács, the Hungarian part of Baranja is also famous for its wine villages such as Vilaj, the Harkanj spa and the castle in the village of Šiklos. On the way to Vilanje, we stop by the Church of St. Elizabeth in the once predominantly German village of Palkinja. It is actually a mosque that was converted into a Roman Catholic church at the end of the 18th and the beginning of the 19th century, but, like the one in Pecs, has retained its original distinctive features - an oriental dome and a minaret converted into a bell tower.
We arrive in Vilanj and settle in front of one of the hundreds of houses that are also wineries and small restaurants. A bottle of domestic red wine costs 9 euros, the food is delicious, the toothy February sun warms us, and soon a musician with a tambourine will arrive who puts the "icing on the cake" with a masterful performance of the song My dear has no flaws in Serbian and Hungarian (My rose is beautiful., no error) version. It's time to relax in the thermal waters of the Harkanj spa, very popular with the people of Vojvodina (especially those from Bačka) from the 10.000s until today. Before Harkanje, we visited the small town of Šikloš with about 16 inhabitants, which was created in the Middle Ages around the fortress of the same name. In Šikloš was the land of Nikola of Gar, the son-in-law of the Serbian prince Lazar, and the city was the seat of the Serbian despot Stefan Štiljanović at the beginning of the 1526th century. From XNUMX, after the victory in the Battle of Mohács, it was the seat of the Turkish Pasha.
In Šiklos there are temples of as many as four different religions and confessions - Catholic, Reformed, Orthodox and Islamic. In addition to the Croatian (which is somewhat natural given the geographical proximity), there is also a Serbian community in Šikloš, which is proud of its Church of the Holy Great Martyr Dimitri from 1806. In the courtyard of the church, there is a monument to Stefan Štiljanović, today's saint and former ruler and fighter against the Turks from the 15th century. Malkoč Bey's mosque, which is located right behind the Town Hall, also bears witness to the past. It was built in the 20th century, and with the departure of the Turks, its deterioration began. The Hungarians renovated it in the early XNUMXs, and for that they received the Europa Nostra European Award for the preservation of cultural heritage.
photo: Robert Choban…Siklos Fortress
The medieval fortress built on the hill above the town dominates the entire landscape and is visible from a long distance. The first records of the fortress date from 1294, and over the centuries numerous owners changed, while its most famous "resident" was Sigismund of Luxembourg, a ruler with a considerable number of titles - king of Hungary, emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, king of the Romans, king of the Czech Republic... To the fortress is entered via the drawbridge, and the overall impression was significantly better than some initial expectations, and for the umpteenth time, I thought with sadness of the complete lack of use and the disarray of Novi Sad's Petrovaradin fortress and its substructure.
Near Šikloš is our final destination for the day – the spa town of Harkanj, where healing thermal waters were discovered back in 1823. It seems that nothing has changed here since the early eighties, when I was last here with my parents. Pools and other facilities are located in a park of 13,5 hectares, which also has trees several hundred years old. At the entrance, I meet a group of guys from Bač who recognize me and greet me. It seems that the attraction of Harkanj for tourists from this part of Vojvodina is still very great. The next morning we visited the Memorial Park of the Battle of Mojave. In 1526, Suleiman the Magnificent defeated the Hungarian army of Lajos II at this place, which was followed by a century and a half of Ottoman rule over Pannonia. This is supposed to be some Hungarian version of the Kosovo Color. However, the place itself does not leave an impressive impression, it is somehow muddy, dirty and poorly maintained. The Hungarians don't seem to like celebrating defeat like we did on the Kosovo field.
Before returning home, we are back in Mohács for the final "March of the Bushmen", in which hundreds of locals dressed in sheep furs and faces hidden behind imposing wooden masks parade through the central streets of this town. Some of them are walking, others are on tractor or horse trailers decorated with corn. The crowd is huge, Hungarian, Croatian and Serbian are mixed both from the throats of the visitors and from the stages where numerous musicians perform.
How much the Hungarian part of Baranja is ahead of the neighboring regions - Croatian Baranja and Sombor in Serbia, for example, is also evidenced by the numbers. In the Hungarian Baranja in 2022, there were as many as 763.660 overnight stays. Neighboring Croatian Baranja (with 40.000 inhabitants) had only 2023 overnight stays in 36.000, while Sombor (with around 70.000 inhabitants) had only 2023 overnight stays in 47.028. Connoisseurs of the situation predict that this year their number will drop drastically, because behind those figures is hidden a large number of "migrant overnight stays". As the "Balkan route" was redirected a few months ago in the direction of Bosnia, we will see how much this will affect the number of overnight stays in Sombor and its neighboring villages.
