Ilok

Ilok (ilok) is the easternmost town in Croatia forming a geographic salient surrounded by Vojvodina. Located in the Syrmia region, it lies on the Fruška Gora hill overlooking the Danube river, which forms the border with the Bačka region of Serbia. The town is home to a Franciscan monastery and Ilok Castle, which is a popular day trip for domestic and cross-border tourists. In Croatian, the town is known as Ilok, in German as Illok, in Hungarian as Újlak, in Serbian Cyrillic as Илок and in Turkish as Uyluk. In Hungarian language "Újlak" means "new dwelling or lodge". Ottoman monuments of Ilok The area of present-day Ilok was populated since the neolithic and Bronze Ages. One Scordisci archaeological site dating back to late La Tène culture was excavated in the 1970s and 1980s as a part of rescue excavations in eastern Croatia. The Romans settled there in the 1st or 2nd century and built Cuccium, the first border fortification on the Danube. The Slavs settled here in the 6th century. The area was later ruled by the Bulgarian Empire, with a period of Frankish and Croat rule under Ljudevit Posavski, but after that the Bulgarians return, and stayed there until it was included into the medieval Kingdom of Hungary. In 12th and 13th centuries the market-town of Ilok was mentioned in documents under various names (Iwnlak, Vilak, Vylok, Wyhok, Wylak). At the end of the 13th century, Hungarian kings gave the Vylak castrum to the powerful Csák noble family. In the 13th and 14th centuries, Ilok was a capital of the semi-independent medieval state of Upper Syrmia ruled by Ugrin Csák. After 1354, the town of Ilok belonged to Nicholas and Paul Garay (in Croatian references Gorjanski), and then to Nicholas Kont of Orahovica and his descendants, among which was his grandson Ladislaus, great-grandson Nicholas and the last member of the Újlaki (Iločki) family - Lawrence. Nicholas was the Ban of All Slavonia from 1457 to 1463, and his son, Lawrence was a duke of Syrmia from 1477 to 1524. In 1526, the town came under Ottoman rule.