Srbobran

Srbobran (Serbian Cyrillic: Србобран, IPA: [sr̩̂bɔbraːn], Hungarian: Szenttamás) is a town and municipality in South Bačka District of Vojvodina, Serbia. The town is located on the north bank of the Danube-Tisa-Danube canal. The town has a population of 12,009, and the municipality of 16,317.

Name

In Serbian, the town is known as Srbobran (Србобран); in Hungarian as Szenttamás (pronounced [ˈsɛntɒmaːʃ]) or Szrbobran (formerly also Bács-Szenttamás); in Rusyn (a Cyrillic-only language) as /Србобран/; in Croatian as Sveti Tomo, Senttomaš or Srbobran; in Slovak as Srbobran; and in German as Thomasberg or Sankt Thomas. The name Srbobran means "Serbs' defender" in Serbian. Older Serbian name used for the town was Sentomaš (Сентомаш).

History

According to archaeology, there was human settlement in the territory of present-day Srbobran in the prehistoric times. The first written record about the settlement is from 1338, in which the Srbobran is mentioned under name Sentomas, which means Saint Thomas, i.e. the apostle Thomas, who was the patron saint of a monastery and of the village around it in the Middle Ages. During this time, the area was under administration of the medieval Kingdom of Hungary and was part of the Bacsensis County. This village, together with the monastery, became destroyed during the Ottoman conquest in the 16th century. Its former population left the region and fled towards North to Habsburg Royal Hungary. During the Ottoman administration, the settlement of Sentomaš was rebuilt and was populated by ethnic Serbs. It was part of the Ottoman Sanjak of Segedin.