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Sombor (Municipality, Serbia)

History of Sombor
Former flag of Sombor (Zombor)?

See also:

History of Sombor

Sombor (Hungarian, Zombor; German, Sombor) is a town and district in Vojvodina near to the Danube. The town has got 48,789 inhabitants (1990 census).

XIIIth century-1541: Part of Bodrog County of the Kingdom of Hungary as Coborszentmihaly.
1541-1687: District seat in the Ottoman Empire.
1699: Reallocated to Hungary by the treaty of Karlowitz.
1702-1745: Part of the Military Frontier Lands.
1745-1749: Part of the Bács-Bodrog County, then (1749) Free Royal City.
1848-1861: Part of the Serbian Vojvodina and Banat of Temesch.
1884-1918: Capital of Bács-Bodrog County.

The 1910 population census yielded 30,593 inhabitants, divided as follows:

Census by mother language:
- Serbian: 11,881 (38.8%)
- Hungarian: 10,078 (32.9%)
- Bunjevat*: 6,093 (19.9%)
- German: 2,181 (7.1%)
- Others: 360 (1.2%)
Census by religion:
- Roman Catholic: 16,796 (54.9%)
- Greek Orthodox: 11,880 (38.8%)
- Jewish: 1,017 (3.3%)
- Others: 900 (2.9%)

From 1918/1920 (Declaration of Novi Sad /Treaty of Trianon) to 1941, the city was incorporated to Yugoslavia. In 1941, the area was occupied and annexed by Hungary. The treaty of Paris reallocated it to Yugoslavia in 1947.

István Molnár, 8 October 2000

*Bunjevat is the name used by Croats living in Vojvodina for designating themselves (plural form is Bunjevtsi). In various times the separate name of this community was used by others to promote their difference from Croat nation, and probably there are some circles among them who would follow some similar way. As far as I am aware, the definition of the Bunjevtsi as Croats is widely accepted today.

Željko Heimer, 12 December 2000

Former flag of Sombor (Zombor)?

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

The former flag of Sombor has six red and white horizontal stripes.

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