Vojlovica, Pančevo

Vojlovica (Serbian: "Vojlovica" or "Војловица", Hungarian: "Hertelendyfalva", German: "Wojlowitz") is a former village, today part of the city of Pančevo, Serbia. Vojlovica’s downtown is located 3,32 km away from the Pančevo's downtown. The geographical latitude of the settlement is N 44° 45' 42.9", while the longitude is E 20° 54' 20.72". Its population is about 8,500 people and include Serbs, Hungarians, and Slovaks.

Name

Vojlovica was founded on July 21, 1883 under the Hungarian name "Hertelendyfalva", after Hertelendy József. Today’s name exists from 1922 and village got it after nearby Orthodox monastery of Vojlovica (which was founded in year 1404). In the time of the village foundation there was only the forest which belonged to the monastery.

History

In period between years 1856 and 1869, Austro-Hungarian Empire started project of colonization of uninhabited area of convert|154790|acre|km2 of land near Danube River. That area reaches across the three municipalities, municipality of Titel, municipality of Pančevo and municipality of Kovin. The area was known under the name of Máriaföld (Marianfeld).

Seven villages were founded in the area. In Titel and Pančevo, four villages were founded: Königsdorf, Gisellaheim, Eisemhaim and Rudolfsgnad. In Pančevo and Kovin, three villages were founded: Marienfeld (Vojlovica), Ivanovo and Đurđevo. The total number of settlers for this project was 8,638. The settlers were of German, Hungarian, Slovak, and Bulgarian origin.

A problem started after large flood of the river Danube in year 1869, and continued floods in years 1870, 1871 and 1876, when flood reached its peak and destroyed all the villages. Villages population abandoned their habitats for good and moved to safer places. In year 1883, population of Marienfeld, jointly with 200 Székely families from Andrásfalva (Székelys of Bukovina), moved to location, on that time known under the name Vojlovica Forest, between Pančevo and Starčevo and founded new village under name Hertelendyfalva.

New founded village accommodate population which contained three different nationalities: Hungarians, Slovaks and Germans. Village had three streets, each nationality got one. A Street has being long, straight and planted with Mulberry tree. In the beginning population survived by working on river dam on the summer time and in forest on the winter time. During the following years when they got more agricultural land, the population started to sell their farm products in town and that become one of the main income factors.

On September 21, 1902 Reformated church was erected, where Tomka Károly become the first priest. In this newly founded church are kept and treasured all documents and data’s which had been brought from Andrasfalva in 1883.

Family names of the settlers

List of the family names of the first Székely settlers in Vojlovica: Balog, Bálint, Biró, Biszák, Buta, Cseke, Erős, Farkas, Fehér, Gecző, Györfi, Katona, Kántor, Kelemen, Kemény, Király, Kiss, Kovács, Kuruc, Löcsei, Márton, Máté, Nagy, Német, Ömböli, Pap, Puskás, Rác, Szakács, Székely, Tomka and Varga.

Culture

*Two of the cultural associations in Vojlovica, Slovak and Hungarian, have annual festivals dedicated to harvest and products originating from wheat.
*The village population is annually celebrating archangel Michael day, which occurred on September 29, and it's held on nearest Sunday.

ee also

*Vojlovica monastery
*Pančevo