Negoslavci

Negoslavci (Негославци, Negoszlovce) is a village and a municipality in Vukovar-Syrmia County in eastern Croatia. It is located south of the town of Vukovar, seat of the county. Landscape of the Negoslavci Municipality is marked by the Pannonian Basin plains and agricultural fields of maize, wheat, common sunflower and sugar beet. The modern day municipality was established in 1997 by the UNTAES administration as one of new predominantly Serb municipalities in order to ensure access to local self-government to Serb community in the region. The name of the village in Croatian or Serbian is plural. Negoslavci municipality has a total area of and is the smallest member municipality of Joint Council of Municipalities. It is connected by D57 highway with the rest of the country. The village of Negoslavci finds its earliest historical mention in documents from the 15th century. The establishment of the village is most likely associated with the period of Ottoman rule in Hungary, as its presence is not recorded in earlier medieval documents. During the Ottoman era, Negoslavci was designated as "Nigoslavci," and its considerable land holdings extended up to the nearby village of Sotin. The departure of Roman Catholic ethnic Croats from Negoslavci following the Ottoman retreat from Syrmia remains under unspecified circumstances. Subsequently, the village experienced settlement by Eastern Orthodox communities, resulting in 51 households in 1736, all adhering to the Eastern Orthodox faith. According to local tradition, the settlement's origin traces back to the period of the Great Migrations of the Serbs after the Treaty of Karlowitz, when approximately 15-20 Serbian families seeking refuge from Ottoman territories settled in Negoslavci. During this period, the village was encompassed within the Vukovar Estate and was held by the Kufstein counts until 1736, at which point ownership transitioned to Count Philip of Eltz, the Archbishop-Elector of Mainz. The larger administrative unit, the Vukovar Estate, comprised 31 villages, including Negoslavci.