Baja, Hungary

The city's Hungarian name is derived from a Turkic language. The name means "bull". The Latin name of the town is Francillo. Baja used to have also a German name: Frankenstadt.

The South Slavs, Bunjevci and Serbs, who live in the city call Baja by the same name as Magyars do, but with a slightly different pronunciation ([baja] instead of [bɒjɒ]). Its spelling in Serbian Cyrillic writing is Баја.

The city was first mentioned in 1308. The Bajai family was the first known owner of the town. In 1474 the settlement was given to the Czobor family by Matthias Corvinus.

During the Turkish Conquest in the 16th and 17th centuries it was the official center for the region and it possessed a fortification. This era saw the immigration of Bunjevci and Serbs into the town. There was also an active Franciscan mission with monks from Bosnia.

Kálmán Tóth Square, Baja

In the 18th century, Hungary with its regained territories was a part of the Habsburg Empire. Germans, Hungarians and Jews migrated into the town. Due to its location on the Danube, it became a transportation and commercial hub for the region. This was the place where grain and wine were loaded onto boats to be transported upriver to Austria and Germany. In 1727 the Czobor family regained its ownership. Until 1765, the inhabitants belonged to three nations; Bunjevac (under name of Dalmatians), the Germans and the Serbs. Following this, according to a government decree the Natio Dalmatica was changed into the Natio Hungarica, but even in 1768, the elected mayor swore the oath in the Bunjevac language in the Franciscan Church.

In 1699, Baja was Bács-Bodrog county's most "industrialized" city.

In the 19th century Baja became a minor railway hub, but its importance declined as the railway to Fiume (Rijeka) was built in order to get Hungarian grain seaborne. The city was still a commercial and service center for the region.

In 1918, after World War I, the ceasefire line placed the city under administration of the newly formed Kingdom of Yugoslavia. By the Treaty of Trianon from 1920, the city was assigned to Hungary, and became the capital of the reduced county of Bács-Bodrog.

After World War II the city became known for its textile mill and because of its important bridge crossing the Danube. Its importance is still evident as people from the Bácska region (Serbian: Bačka) of Hungary come for higher education, government and business services.

Historical population

Population growth in Baja, 1870–2005

[3]The city's population was growing rapidly in the 20th century (especially in the interwar period and during the socialist era), but in the last decade its population declined significantly.

The demographic evolution of Baja is the following:

Year	Population
1870	21,248
1910	24,588
1920	22,522
1941	32,084
1949	27,936
1960	30,263
1970	35,575
1980	38,523
1990	38,686
2001	38,360
2008	37,573
2019	34 495

The city has 34,495 residents as of 1 January 2019. In the 2001 Census, the 11% larger population of 38,360 reported its ethnicity thus:

• 93.5% Hungarians;
• 2.7% Germans;
• 1.3% Croats;
• 0.4% Serbs;
• 0.1% Slovaks;
• 0.5% Romani people;
• 6.1% unknown or did not say.[4]

As of 1 January 2019, there are 17 149 houses.

The city plays an important role in Hungary's water transport, with the international harbour. Baja gives home to two extensive corporations: to AXIÁL Co. and DÉLHÚS Co. Axiál sells agricultural machines all over eastern Europe, while Délhús produces meat products. Gemenc Forest and Game Co. Ltd. is managing the nearby nature reserve, Gemenc. There are numerous commercial structures in the city, which prove important to the people living in and around Baja. A few years ago, a TESCO supermarket opened.

The city has some museums and art galleries, most of them with permanent exhibitions. These include the István Türr Museum (exhibits objects of former local life), the István Nagy Gallery (a collection of István Nagy's paintings), and the Bunjevci House (about Bunjevci traditions). The annual Fisherman's Soup Boiling Festival is a famous event in Europe, which includes a great fish soup boiling contest, and other cultural occurrences.

There are 15 churches in the city, representing the religion of each ethnicity. These religions include (with the number of believers) Roman Catholic (25 203), Protestant (1 623), Evangelist (268), Unitarian, Orthodox (90), Lutheran and Judaism (27).

Located relatively close to the Great Hungarian Plain, to Gemenc and Transdanubia, the city is also feasible as a base for regional tourists.

There are three notable educational institutes in the city: Béla III High school, famous for high teaching skills; Eötvös József College, the only top-level educational institution of Northern Bácska, and the German center. A smaller observatory also exists.

• Lázár Mészáros, Hungary's first Defence minister
• Karl Isidor Beck, Austrian poet, writer of poem The Blue Danube
• Kálmán Tóth, 19th-century poet
• Radovan Jelašić, Governor of the National Bank of Serbia
• István Türr, a general under Giuseppe Garibaldi
• József Bayer, member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences
• Jenő Ernst, doctor, biologist, member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences
• Dénes Jánossy, corresponding member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences
• András Jelky, a man who travelled around the world in a strange way (1730 – 1783)
• Dezső Miskolczy, researcher of Mental disorders, a member of Hungarian Academy of Sciences
• Emma Sándor, composer, wife of Zoltán Kodály
• Ede Telcs, sculptor.
• Ibolya Dávid, present-day democrat politician of the Hungarian Democratic Forum
• Joakim Vujić, known as the "Father of Serbian Theatre", writer and playwright who lived and worked in the late eighteenth- and early nineteenth- century.
• Bogoboj Atanacković (1826–1858), a well-known Serbian novelist and a friend of poet Branko Radičević.
• Zsuzsanna Ikotity, a famous poet.
• Pavel Đurković, famous Serbian icon painter and muralist who lived and worked in the Habsburg Empire, from 1772 until 1830.
• Jovan Pačić (1771–1849), Serbian writer, poet, translator, illustrator and watercolor painter, the first to translate Goethe in Serbian.
• Mita Popović, Serbian poet
• Lukijan Bogdanović, Serbian Patriarch (1908-1913)

Baja is twinned with:

• Argentan, France
• Sombor, Serbia
• Waiblingen, Germany
• Devizes, UK
• Hódmezővásárhely, Hungary
• Târgu Mureş, Romania
• Sângeorgiu de Pădure, Romania
• Thisted, Denmark
• Labin, Croatia

• Pörböly
• Dunafalva
• Érsekcsanád
• Gara
• Vaskút
• Csávoly
• Szeremle
• Bátmonostor
• Hercegszántó