Novi Sad and Petrovaradin

[...] When the Military Frontier was abolished along the Danube, the Tisa and the Moriš, the frontiersmen's families moved to the Srem, the Banat and even to Russia, joined by a number of officers from the Petrovaradin garrison, like, for instance, Simeon Piščević. This man accomplished high rank in the service to Empress Catherine the Great, and also endowed the Serbian literature with the best memoirs of the 18th century. Speaking of Petrovaradin, the military settlement was given a coat-of-arms in 1751, one dominated by St. Peter, although it had not been after the saint that the Fortress was named, but after the medieval Hungarian nobleman Peter Varadi, vassal to King Béla IV. Although holding keys in his hand, the apostle was not even the patron-saint of the fortress; the patron-saints are the said Christian martyrs and some holy women – that is, St. Barbara protecting the artillerymen and St. Catherine patronizing all uniformed classes. In Novi Sad, St. George was 'joined' by St. John Nepomuk, Czech saint who was patron of the bridge, the boatmen and the dockers who erected a little church to him by the Danube which endured until the Bridgehead was pulled down. [...]
 [...] A rise in national consciousness of the Serbs took place especially subsequent to the First Serbian Uprising [in Serbia, 1804-13] and the 1807 Tican's Rebellion in the Srem. The townsfolk of Novi Sad provided supplies to Karadjordje, and the most outstanding in helping was Bishop Jovan Jovanović, who contributed two smuggled cannons from the Fortress he paid for in gold to bribery-inclined Austrian officers. He also wrote two anti-Turkish manifestoes to the Balkan peoples and therefore fell into disgrace with both the authorities and the church; he even wrote a book about these events, but it was destroyed. Following Serbia's defeat in 1813, refugees poured into Novi Sad and its vicinity, and the Vozhd ('Leader', i.e. Karadjordje) himself was interned in the fortress with his family and a couple of generals. Before that, a number of distinguished people had been imprisoned there for various reasons: for instance, these included Matija Zmajević, admiral with the Russian emperor Peter the Great, and even a Scottish prince from the Stuart dynasty who was saved from this place by the Metropolitan of Karlovci Stefan Stratimirović through freemasonsć connections. Apart from the regular military prison, the Fortress had a penitentiary with extremely austere living conditions – scarce food, hard labour in the swamp, and humid cells – which was why many a convict died before serving full sentence. At times, soldiers would be thrown into the casemates, too – usually because they would mention the Empress using swear words while paying some fine, or because they offended the Emperor (the Serbs especially hated Francis I who, while visiting the Fortress with the Empress in 1819, worked hard to persuade the Metropolitan of Karlovci to accept the Union*. [...]
 [...] It is notewothy that the imperial valuables were safeguarded here when Napoleon attacked Russia in 1812. This was the safeset place for the Empire's insignia to keep: the scepter, apple, sword, crown and cloak. In the many wars waged by the Habsburg Monarchy, the units from Petrovaradin took part as well; as an unwritten rule, like all frontiersmen, they were deplored in the most dangerous operations but were ignored when it came to rewards. As is said in a folk poem, they were fortunate enough to be 'granted' imperial mercy while their estates consisted of barren rock, low huts were their manors, a little timber church sufficed as a holy place, scattered straw made patron-saint's day celebration, and green-overgrown graves became eternal home. [...]
 [...] In the year 1750, Petrovaradin Frontier Regiment was established (which in 1873 grew into the Seventieth Regiment). Namely, when in 1861 the Military Frontier merged with Hungary and Croatia, dissolution of this regiment began, and in 1873 the Conscription Act abolished the last remnants of the onetime glorious military institution. Between 1750 and 1880, Petrovaradin Frontier Regiment took part in thirty wars and more than a-hundred-and-forty battles. From 1763 on, Petrovaradin was one of the fortified war ports for the Šajka (Gunboat) Danubian Fleet. From 1746 to 1773, Petrovaradin was also the see of the Syrmian Catholic Bishopric. [...]

 [...] The anticipation that the town [Novi Sad] was to be attacked came true one year later, when the Ban of Croatia, who had been born in Petrovaradin, arrived in Novi Sad with the Serbian troops of the Austrian Army and attacked the Fortress on June 12, 1849. However, on the same day, the Hungarians therein bombarded the city with 200 cannons. The town was almost completely destroyed thereby, for 800 houses out of 2,812 were torn down, and the population was reduced from 20,000 to 6,000 within three days. Culturally, the damage was far greater in terms of culture than materially, for a great number of works by Novi Sad's artists were destroyed, numerous private libraries were lost in fire, and what was not devoured in fire or covered by ruins was lost in plunder. Life was silenced, many citizens had been killed or had taken to flight, and the economy was devastated almost entirely due to the chaos. [...]
 [...] Anyhow, when the Hungarians were defeated by the Russians at Vilagos, in September, 1849, the Fortress fell to the imperial hands; it was seized by General Lazar Mamula, whose name was given to one of the casernes. That the Fortress was a major military structure of the time yet failed to play its role can be seen from the fact it was written about in a report on the situation in Hungary submitted to the President of the U.S.A. Zachary Taylor by the American diplomat in Vienna Ambrose Mann Dudley. Later, the members of the said 70th Regiment, mostly inhabitants of Syrmia and Slavonia, the so-called Siebziger, enjoyed quite some popularity. Of the distinguished Fortress Commanders, Serbs and Croats, we shall mention but three: Teja Radosavljević, Svetozar Borojević and Martin Dedović. The latter became Vice-Marshal and fought against Napoleon and the Turks; his remains rest on Petrovaradin's Military Graveyard, and the gravestone has a decorative coat-of-arms chiselled in. [...]

[...] Crown Prince Aleksandar visited Novi Sad and the Fortress in 1919, but few are aware of the fact that at approximately that time, Novi Sad was also visited by the glorious military leader of France Franchet d'Esperey, Honorary Voivoda of the Serbian Army. [...]

 [...] In terms of administrative jurisdiction, Novi Sad – as a municipality and a district – was part of the Bačka County (županija) with Sombor as its center; in 1929, when the country [Yugoslavia] was divided into provinces (banovine), the town became the seat of the Danubian Banovina which comprised Srem, Banat, Bačka, Baranja and a part of Šumadija; the first ban (governor) was Daka Popović, a native of Novi Sad. That is when Petrovaradin merged with Novi Sad which in further expansion got eight settlements with low houses on its outskirts. Several factories sprang up, including one producing airplanes – it was started in 1923. The airport of Novi Sad was the biggest and best equipped one in the country, and it was named "Jugovićevo" after Jovan Jugović, the first commander of the Novi Sad Aircraft Regiment. The regiment had existed there ever since 1918, with its headquarters and an air-base, and in 1936 it was moved to Zemun. The town also boasted a civil Aero-Club, and the Flight School was based at the Fortress – in 1932, its Class Seven was attended by Franjo Kluz, the legendary pilot of the [WWII] Partisan Aircraft. [...]

Živko Marković: