Subotica lies amid an ancient watershed system that joins two great
rivers, the Danube and the Tisza. Located on what originally was an
island-like elevation surrounded by water and marshes, it began developing
in the 13th century as a fortified place of refuge after the Tatar
invasion in 1241-1242 destroyed other villages in the area.
 |
Subotica's name was first mentioned
in a 14-century document (1391) issued by the governor of Macso
and the lord-lieutenant of Bodrog-county written as 'Zabadka'
or 'Zobodka'. Since then this town has been called by over two
hundred different names in various documents. The form 'Szabadka'
(still in use today in H ungarian) appeared for the first time
only in 1679 but a 'Szabatka' variant (spellt with a 't') has
been known since 1533. The name 'Subotica' used in Serbian-Croatian
first appeared in 1653.
In 1542 Subotica was occupied by the Turks, and Ottoman Turkish
garrison troops moved into the fortified castle forcing the
majority of the original Hungarian settlers to flee to the upper
northern parts of Hungary. During the 150-year-long occupation
the wealthiest returned occasionally to their estates to collect
tax.
|
The Turks settled Orthodox Serbs and other Balkan colonists (sometimes
under force) in this region trying to replace the population that
had fled and have this extremely fertile land cultivated. There were
also some Serb families arriving whose members were serving as mercenaries
in the Turkish army. Quite surprisingly the Franciscan monks in Szeged
were not bothered by the Turks, so around the end of the 1600s, they
organized the coming of Catholic dalmatas (called Bunjevci today)
to this region.
When the Turks withdrew after their defeat by the Hapsburgs in 1686,
Subotica was little more than a village. The castle was partly demolished
and partly rebuilt into a Franciscan church and monastery. In 1702
there were only 1969 inhabitants. Most local people still lived in
earth-cabins scattered around the settlement. Most of the houses were
small, ground-floor units, with two or three rooms. The center of
the town was swampy, with a creek running through it, and it was still
partly surrounded by lakes and marshland.
Peaceful conditions in the early 18th century sparked development
and brought local prosperity. Many Hungarians returned to their ancestral
homes, hoping to regain their right of possession. At the same time
numerous Hungarian, Jewish, and German craftsmen and farmers arrived.
| Subotica acquired the status of free royal town
in 1779 and its name was changed to Maria Theresiopolis, to
honor the Empress. Despite the grand name, there were few imposing
buildings in Subotica, just the baroque towers of three churches,
the baroque city hall, and only a very few private two-story
houses. All the other structures were still small village houses
with two or three rooms. Most of the streets were narrow, curved,
dirty and muddy (or in the summer dusty). This, though, is when
the village began to change into a town. A major step was a
big hydroengineering project to drain the area, implemented
at the beginning of the 19th century.
Subotica's citizens took part in the 1848/1849 rising against
the Hapsburgs and the town was penalized after the Empire crushed
the rebellion. But a golden age for Subotica began after the
creation of the Austro-Hungarian Dual Monarchy in 1867.
|
|
The town developed rapidly, thanks mainly to the arrival of the railways.
In 1869 Subotica was linked to the main Szeged-Fiume (Rijeka) line
and in 1882 to the main Pest-Zemun line. These important connections
made Subotica southern Hungary's most important railway junction,
and the town, once nicknamed "Europe's biggest village’"
quickly turned into one of Central Europe's main industrial-, trade-,
sport-, tourist- and health-centers.
Hartman and Conen's meat packing company, opened at the end of the
19th century, became one of the most significant export companies
of the Monarchy. And Titusz Macskovivics's brick-making factory, opened
in 1878 as one of the pioneers of large-scale industrial factories
in the area, provided the construction material for most of the buildings
still standing in Subotica's center - most of which were built in
just thirty years, around turn of the 19th-20th centuries.
|
Subotica in 1873 |
Cultural life kept pace with the town's
industrial development, but the best example of Subotica's development
at the end of the 19th century was its activity in the field of
city planning and civil engineering. Traces of this can still
be seen all over Subotica -- churches, army barracks, and public
buildings, including the Synagogue and, above all, the magnificent
Town Hall.
In the spring of 1906 a design competition for the new Town Hall
was announced. Marcell Komor and Dezso Jakab's prize-winning design
arrived from Budapest one day before the deadline. The design
they submitted for the competition, however, was not the plan
of the Town Hall as actually built. |
They had suggested a monumental Baroque-style building. In December
1907, when the building permit had already been issued, Jakab submitted
a new and cheaper design, in the distinctive Art Nouveau (Secessionist)
style, similar to that of the Synagogue, which had been built in 1902.
Work on the Town Hall began in 1908. It soon became evident that
the monumental building was going to be built partly on sandy soil
and - more dangerously -- on a mostly swampy area. The designers managed
to solve this technical problem by placing pinewood trunks as reinforcements
in the ground. The building with its tall tower was completed in 1910
and dedicated with a solemn ceremony on August 20, 1910. The size
of the new building terrified some of the locals, many of whom were
still living in hovels.
The Town Hall is a unique architectural masterpiece, incorporating
more than five hundred windows and doors, a labyrinth of corridors,
more than 100 offices, plus waiting rooms, council halls and stairways.
Hundreds of local craftsmen worked to install the elaborate decoration
that covers almost all surfaces in the public areas of the building,
as well as outer surfaces.
Most of the outside decorations (and a good part of the interior decorations
as well) were made in the famous Zsolnay ceramics factor in Pecs,
Hungary. For the decoration of the council halls and a few offices
(the mayor's office, the town clerk's office) the designers used wooden
panels with Hungarian motives. Elsewhere are vividly colored wall
paintings incorporating Transylvanian motives. The lead-framed stained-glass
windows made in the shops of Sandor Nagy and Miksa Roth are especially
valuable.
The Great Council Hall deserves special attention because of its stained-glass
windows. These enormous masterpieces managed to survive the turbulent
periods of the 20th century with only minor damage. The windows depict
the Emperor and King Franz Joseph and the Empress and Queen, Maria
Theresa. Beside them there are pages standing with the empire's and
town's coat of arms. To the right and left are depicted most famous
rulers and politicians from varying historical epochs: Janos Hunyadi,
Istvan Verboczy, Ferenc Rakoczy II, Arpad-leader, St. Stephen (Szent
Istvan), St. Laszlo, Mathias Corvin, Lajos Nagy, Kalman Konyves, Istvan
Szechenyi, Ferenc Deak, and Lajos Kossuth.
Today the Town Hall serves many functions. It houses various offices
and various institutions and it is home to the local government. In
addition, just as Komor and Jakab imagined, its ground floor houses
numerous trading companies and shops.
Subotica's development was undisturbed till 1910. Despite the euphoric
atmosphere in the town at the time of the outbreak of World War I
the consequences of the coming war could be felt in the economic field.
The same was true for politics. The four-year long World War I followed
by the Soviet civil war and finally the Peace Treaty of Trianon (1920),
which awarded large parts of Hungary to its neighbor states, put a
stop to Subotica's development. Subotica became a Yugoslav border
town. World War II (1941-44), the so-called Horthy-era, the executions,
the Holocaust, the bombings and the repeated executions in 1944, only
made things worse. The economy was totally destroyed, the majority
of the remaining factories were transferred to the central parts of
Yugoslavia - all this contributing to a deep impoverishment of the
population. This was exacerbated by the fallout from the bloody break-up
of Yugoslavia in the 1990s.
|
