Stari Slankamen

Stari Slankamen (Стари Сланкамен), also known as Slankamen (Сланкамен), is a village located in the Inđija municipality, in the Srem District of Serbia. It is situated in the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina. The population of the village numbering 674 people, of whom 485 are ethnic Serbs (2002 census).

Name

Its name means "Old Slankamen", while the name of the neighbouring village, Novi Slankamen, means "New Slankamen". The name "Slankamen" itself means "the salty stone" in Serbian and Croatian. The Hungarian name for the village is "Szalánkemén" (historically: Zalánkemén).

History

In the Iron Age, the area was inhabited by Celtic Scordisci. In the first century BC, the region was conquered by Romans and Roman settlement known as Acumincum existed at this location.

Slavs settled in this area in the 6th century. Old Slavic graves dating from the 6th and 7th century are founded in Slankamen. During the Middle Ages, Slankamen was a fortified city and was first mentioned in 1072 as Castrum Zalankemen. Arsenije I Bogdanović from Srem, the second Serb archbishop (1233-1263), after Saint Sava was born in the village Dabar near Slankamen. In 1325, according to a letter by pope John XXII to the Roman Catholic archbishop of Kalocsa, a public hospital was built in the village. In the 15th century, the town was a possession of the Serbian despots Stefan Lazarević and Đurađ Branković. Since 1451, it was property of Hunyadis and since 1498 of John Corvin. In the 16th century it was a residence of Radoslav Čelnik, a duke of Srem.

In 1783, the village known as Novi Slankamen (New Slankamen) was founded near Stari Slankamen (Old Slankamen).

Historical population

*1961: 778
*1971: 756
*1981: 638
*1991: 575

Culture

The Orthodox Church dedicated to Saint Nikola was, according to the legend, founded in 1468 by Serbian despot Vuk Grgurević.

Famous people

* Radoslav Čelnik, a duke of Srem in the 16th century.
* János Kakas de Zalánkemén, a Hungarian traveller and writer in the 17th century, in 1602 published a book about his trip to Persia.
* János Szalánkeméni, a Hungarian monographist of the Catholic Church in 16th century.
* Baron Gyula Wlassics de Zalánkemén (1852-1937), a Hungarian jurist, minister and academic.

References

*Slobodan Ćurčić, Broj stanovnika Vojvodine, Novi Sad, 1996.

ee also

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

External links

* [http://www.fallingrain.com/world/YI/2/Stari_Slankamen.html Stari Slankamen]
* [http://www.multimap.com/map/browse.cgi?client=public&X=2255000&Y=5610000&width=700&height=400&gride=&gridn=&srec=0&coordsys=mercator&db=&addr1=&addr2=&addr3=&pc=&advanced=&local=&localinfosel=&kw=&in
]