Veternik

Veternik (Cyrillic: Ветерник) is a suburban settlement near Novi Sad, Serbia. It is located between Novi Sad and Futog. Its population numbers 17,454 (2011 census) and most of its inhabitants are ethnic Serbs. Over the years, especially in the 1990s, it grew with size and inhabitants thus merging with Futog to the west and Novi Sad to the east.

Name

The settlement was named in honour of the assault of the Serbian army in the Veternik mountain area during the breach of the Macedonian front in World War I. It was first called Novi Veternik ("New Veternik"), but was later changed into Veternik. The name Veternik itself means "windy" in Serbian.

In Serbian Cyrillic, the settlement is known as Ветерник, in Serbian Latin and Croatian as Veternik, and in Hungarian as Hadikliget.

History

The first settlement at this location was mentioned in 1848 and its name was Neu Ilof. It was a settlement for workers that worked in the nearby estate whose last owner was count Kotek.

The modern settlement was founded in 1918 as a settlement for Serb veterans from World War I. During World War II, the Hungarian occupational authorities relegated the population of the village across the Danube, and settled Hungarians from Bukovina into their houses. After the war, the population returned and settlement largely developed in the next period: from only 789 inhabitants that were recorded by the 1948 census, the population of Veternik rose to 18,626 in 2002.