Last modified: 2019-11-02 by ivan sache
Keywords: zrenjanin |
Links: FOTW homepage |
search |
disclaimer and copyright |
write us |
mirrors
![[Flag]](../images/r/rs-zrenj.gif)
Flag of Zrenjanin - Image by Ivan Sarajčić, 10 July 2008
See also:
The municipality of Zrenjanin (132,051 inhabitants in 2002; 1,324 sq.
km: municipal website) is the largest town in Banat, the third largest town in Vojvodina and the sixth largest town in Serbia.
The municipality of Zrenjanin is made of the town of Zrenjanin proper (79,773 inhabitants in 2002) and of the villages of Aradac (3,461 inh.), Banatski Despotovac (1,823 inh.), Belo Blato (1,477 inh.), Botoš (2,436 inh.), Elemir (4,734 inh.), Ečka (5,172 inh.), Jankov Most (752 inh.), Klek (2,959 inh.), Knićanin (2,034 inh.), Lazarevo (3,308 inh.), Lukino Selo (598 inh.), Lukićevo (2,077 inh.), Melenic (6,737 inh.), Mihajlovo (1,004 inh.), Orlovat (1,789 inh.), Perlez (3,818 inh.), Stajićevo (1,999 inh.), Taraš (1,140 inhabitants), Tomaševac (1,765 inh.), Farkaždin (1,386 inh.) and Šenta (3,119 inh.).
The first name of the town, known in written documents since the early
XIVth century, was Bečkerek (or Veliki Bečkerek). Ágoston Bárány
(Torontál vármegye hajdana, 1845) claims that the settlement was
named by the Pechenegs, a semi-nomadic Turkish people. Jene Sentklarai
(1843-1925) believes that the settlement was named after the Bese and
Gregor tribes that founded it in the early XIVth century. The
Turkish traveler Evlija Celebija (XVIIth century) named the town Bes
Telek, lit. "five melons", alluding to five boroughs set up in the
meanders of river Begej. Felix Milleker (1858-1942), in his
Geschichte der Stadt Veliki Bečkerek (1933), reads the early name of
the town as Bece and Kereke, lit. "The Bece's Wood", alluding to the
Hungarian lord Imre Bečej, founder of the town of Bečej in 1311 and
owner of hunting domains nearby. Yet another, uncredited, etymology
reads Bečkerek as Peč - Kereks, in Slovene "The Rocky Church".
On 29 November 1934, Municipal Counciller Toša Rajić proposed to
rename the town Petrovgrad, as a tribute to King of Yugoslavia Peter I
Karađorđević. The new name was officialized on 18 February 1935.
During the Second World War, the Germans unofficially reestablished
the former name of the town, in German Gross Becskerek. On 2 October
1946, for the second anniversary of the liberation of the town,
Petrovgrad was renamed Zrenjanin, as a tribute to the revolutionary
Žarko Zrenjanin Uča (1902-1942). Leader of the Communists in
Vojvodina, Zrenjanin was jailed several times before and during the Second
World War. He was killed in 1942 on his way to the AVNOJ meeting,
where he should have represented the Partisans of Vojvodina.
Already settled in the early Neolithic (5000 BC), the area of
Zrenjanin was successively colonized by several local and migrant
tribes. Of particular significance, the Sarmat tribe of Roksolans
seems to have developed a main settlement in the area in the IIIrd-VIIth
centuries, as proved by a big necropolis excavated in 1952.
In the early XIVth century, King of Hungary Charles I (1301-1342)
visited several times Banat with his feudal vassals, including the
aforementioned Imre Bečej. The Budim Capitulum, a tithe account,
mentions Bečkerek in 1326, 1331, 1332. The village was founded by
Hungarian farmers and Serbs, whose number increased during the reign
of King of Hungary Louis I the Great (1343-1382). In 1396, the
Ottomans won the battle of Nikopolis and threatened the Kingdom of
Hungary. King Sigismund (1387-1437) visited Bečkerek on 30 September
1398, which was transferred to Despot Stefan Lazarević., appointed
Count of Torontál.
On 15 September 1551, a 80,000-men Ottoman army besieged the town of
Bečej and seized it four days later; on 24 September 1551, the
fortress of Bečkerek was besieged and surrendered the next day.
Bečkerek became the capital of a district of the vilayet of Banat.
During the Ottoman rule, the town remained divided into a Turkish and
a Serb borough. The Ottoman administration eventually left the town
following the Treaty of Požarevac, signed on 27 July 1718. The Turkish garrison had already been expelled from the town in 1717 by Prince
Alexander von Württenberg.
As a crown province, Banat was divided into 13 districts by Imperial
Decree of 12 September 1718. Resettling of the district started
immediatly; Bečkerek was resettled by Germans, Serbs, French,
Italians, Romanians and Spaniards. However, life was harsh because of
diseases and permanent Turkish raids. In 1738, Count Mersy ordered the
draining of the marshes and regulation of river Begej with a canal,
which allowed traffic to Temišvar, the capital of Banat. On 6 June
1769, Empress Maria-Theresia granted the status of trading town to
Gross Becskerek, boosting the economic, social and cultural
development of the town. The Serbs from Bečkerek approved the uprising
against the Hungarian authorities and took the control of Bečkerek from
26 January to 28 April 1849.
Ivan Sache, 10 July 2008
The flag and arms of Zrenjanin were adopted by the Civic Assembly on 8 July 2008.
The flag is white with the municipal coat of arms; the flag proportions are not known.
The coat of arms from 1769 was readopted; the shield shows the Assomption of the Virgin Mary and is surmounted by a golden mural crown with five visible merlons.
Ivan Sarajčić, 10 July 2008
![[Flag]](../images/r/rs-zre41.gif)
Former flag of Zrenjanin - Image by István Molnár, 24 September 2002
According to Széll (Városaink neve, címere és lobogója [szs41]), the former flag of Zrenjanin is made of 15 squares alternate red and white.
Széll's book shows the flags of several towns 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 Széll'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