Bela Crkva (Municipality, Serbia)

Last modified: 2006-07-22 by ivan sache
Keywords: bela crkva | fehertemplom | weisskirchen | cross (white) |
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• History of Bela Crkva
• Former flag of Bela Crkva (Fehertemplom)?

See also:

• Serbia
• Vojvodina

History of Bela Crkva

Bela Crkva (Hungarian, Fehertemplom ; German, Weisskirchen : Romanian, Biserica Alba ) is a town and district in Vojvodina, close to the Romanian border and Danube river. The town has got 11,429 inhabitants (1990 census).

• 1717: Foundation by German settlers. Inhabited until 1739.
• 1750: Refounded by Serbian and Romanian settlers.
• 1764-1873: Free Military Town and district seat, part of the Military Borderlands.
• 1873-1876: City.
• 1876: Town in Temes County of the Kingdom of Hungary.

The 1910 population census yielded 11.524 inhabitants, divided as follows:

• Census by mother language:
  • German: 6,062 (52.6%)
  • Serbian: 1,994 (17.3%)
  • Romanian: 1,806 (15.7%)
  • Hungarian: 1,213 (10.5%)
  • Czech: 312 (2.7%)
  • Others: 137 (1.2%)
• Census by religion:
  • Roman Catholic: 6,916 (60.0%)
  • Greek Orthodox: 3,847 (33.4%)
  • Lutheran: 293 (2.5%)
  • Jewish: 254 (2.2%)
  • Others: 214 (1.9%)

In 1919, the city was under French occupation. From 1920 (treaty of Trianon) to 1941, the city was incorporated to Yugoslavia. In 1941-1944, the area was occupied and annexed by Germany. The treaty of Paris reallocated it to Yugoslavia in 1947. The German population was then deported.

István Molnár, 10 December 2000

Former flag of Bela Crkva (Fehertemplom)

Former flag of Bela Crkva - Image by István Molnár, 24 September 2002

The former flag of Bela Crkva is blue with a white cross throughout.

Source: Sándor Széll. Városaink neve, címere és lobogója [szs41].

István Molnár, 24 September 2002

Széll's book shows the flags of several cities formerly held by Hungary. The book is our only source of these flags, but it is not clear as to what period these flags were used as claimed by the book. I doubt very much that they were used during the time of Austria-Hungary. It seems very much more like they were designed in 1941 - but it is not even clear weather the designs shown in the Szell's book are just proposals or if they were ever prescribed in any formal way and after all whether they were used. At least for the moment, I believe that the former flag was in use at most in years 1941-1944.

Željko Heimer, 9 October 2005