Opovo

Opovo (Serbian Cyrillic: Опово) is a town and municipality in South Banat District, in the province of Vojvodina, Serbia. The town has a population of 4,546, while Opovo municipality has 10,475 inhabitants.

Name

In Serbian, the town is known as Opovo (Опово), in German as Opowa, in Hungarian as Ópáva, in Croatian as Opovo, in Romanian as Opovo, in Slovak as Opovo, and in Rusyn as Опово.

History

There are traces from Neolithic and Roman periods in this area. An older settlement named Želj existed at this locality during medieval Hungarian and later Ottoman administration. During Hungarian administration it was part of the Kovin county and during Ottoman administration part of the Temeşvar Eyalet. Southern part of modern Opovo is still called Želj by local inhabitants. According to historical sources, modern Opovo was mentioned first in 1672-1690 and it was populated by Serbs. They lived in the houses made from mud. During Ottoman administration, settlement had 27 houses and, after Habsburg conquest, in 1717, it had 64 houses.