Kikinda


Kikinda is a city and the administrative center of the North Banat District in the autonomous province of Vojvodina, Serbia. The city urban area has 38,065 inhabitants, while the city administrative area has 59,453 inhabitants.
The city was founded in the 18th century. From 1774 to 1874 Kikinda was the seat of the District of Velika Kikinda, an autonomous administrative unit of Habsburg Monarchy. In 1893 Kikinda was granted the status of a city. The city became part of the Kingdom of Serbia in 1918, and it lost the city status. The status was re-granted in 2016.
In 1996, the well preserved archaeological remnants of a half a million-year-old mammoth were excavated on the outer edge of the town area. The mammoth called "Kika" has become one of the symbols of the town. Today it is exhibited in the National Museum of Kikinda. Other attractions of the city are the Suvača – a unique horse-powered dry mill, the annual Pumpkin Days and the International Symposium of Sculpture "Terra". The winter roosts of long-eared owl, with a large number of individuals, are easily accessible as they are situated in town parks and therefore they attract birdwatchers both from this country and abroad.

Name

In Serbian, the city is known as Kikinda, while in other languages it is called Great Kikinda: in Hungarian as Nagykikinda, in German as Gross Kikinda or Großkikinda, in Latin as Magna Kikinda, in Romanian as Chichinda Mare, in Slovak as Kikinda, in Rusyn as Кикинда, and in Croatian as Kikinda. Until 1947 it was also known in Serbian as Great Kikinda — Velika Kikinda.
The name of Kikinda is first found recorded at the beginning of the 15th century as Kokenyd, and most probably denoted, together with the name Ecehida, a number of small settlements, i.e. estates, firstly belonging to Hungarian and later to Serb local rulers. The name of the town first appears on a map of 1718 as Gross Kikinda, indicating an uninhabited area or a :wikt:wasteland|wasteland and not a settlement. The adjective Gross, Nagy or Velika in German, Hungarian and Serbian versions respectively, was in official use as the name of the town until the end of 1947.

Coat of arms

The official coat of arms of the city dates back to the Austrian rule and the 18th century. It is derived from the coat of arms of the District of Velika Kikinda which was issued by Maria Theresa of Austria on 12 November 1774. The Coat of Arms represents a hand holding a sabre on which an Ottoman Turkish head is impaled. It symbolizes the fight of Serbs and the majority ethnic Hungarians at that time, against the Turks during the Military Frontier period and the military contributions of the population of Kikinda during the Austro-Ottoman Wars.
In 2007, Branislav Blažić, then president of the municipality of Kikinda, asked for the change of the coat of arms, criticizing it for being "morbid". The idea proved very controversial, and ultimately the coat was not changed. Most critics of Blažić stated that the coat of arms is a part of the history and tradition of Kikinda and so an important factor of the city identity.
The severed head of a Turk is also one of the common symbols in Austrian and Hungarian heraldry. It symbolizes the struggle of Serb soldiers of the Habsburg Empire against the Ottoman Empire during the Austro-Ottoman Wars.

History

The city of Kikinda is located on a territory rich in remains of old and bygone cultures. Numerous archeological findings are the testimony of people who lived here more than seven thousand years ago. However, the continuity of that duration was often broken. People arrived and departed, lived and disappeared, depending on various historical circumstances.

Medieval history

Two important medieval settlements existed near the location of modern Kikinda. The names of these settlements were Galad and Hološ. Galad was one of the oldest Slavic settlements in northern Banat and was built by Slavic duke Glad in the 9th century. In 1337, Galad was recorded as settlement populated almost exclusively by Serbs. This settlement was destroyed during the Austro-Ottoman wars at the end of 17th and beginning of the 18th century.
Another settlement, Hološ, was a local administrative centre in the 17th century, during the Ottoman administration. This settlement was also destroyed at the end of the 17th century.
According to some sources, an older settlement named Kekenj existed at this location. The name of Kokenyd is first found recorded in 1423 as a property of the Hungarian king Sigismund. In 1558, this settlement was populated by Serbs. It was deserted after the Banat Uprising in 1594.

Modern history

The history of modern Kikinda can be traced back for 250 years; by 1751–1752, when the area where the city is presently located began to be repopulated. The first settlers were Serbs who served in the Habsburg military in border patrols. They were tasked with protecting the borders against the Ottomans along the rivers of Moriš and Tisa. After the Požarevac peace treaty, where an agreement between the Habsburg Monarchy and the Ottoman Empire was reached, the Ottomans lost the territory of Banat which led to huge job losses among the Serb population. As a result, they founded a new settlement in an effort to make a living from agriculture. Some decades later, along with the Serbs, Germans, Hungarians, and Jews also settled the area.
About twenty years after the establishment of the settlement, on 12 November 1774, the Austrian Empress Maria Theresa, by way of a special charter, formed the Velikokikindski privileged district – Regio-privilegiatus Districtus Magnokikindiensis, as a distinct feudal governmental administrative unit with headquarters in Kikinda. Besides Kikinda, the district included another nine settlements of the Serb border military establishments in North and Central Banat: Srpski Krstur, Jozefovo, Mokrin, Karlovo, Bašaid, Vranjevo, Melenci, Kumane and Taraš. During that period, the inhabitants of these places had substantial economic, and even political privileges within the Habsburg Monarchy. The District functioned, with some interruptions, until 1876 when it was abolished, and Kikinda was allocated both organizationally and administratively to the direct authority of the Torontal County with its headquarters in Veliki Bečkerek, which covered most of the territory of present-day Serbian Banat.
In 1848/1849, the famous uprising of the Serbs in Vojvodina took place. Initially, Kikinda's citizens expressed, almost unanimously, social revolt, while later the uprising turned into a national one, and Kikinda became part of the Serbian Voivodship, a Serb autonomous region within the Austrian Empire. During the war, control over the city changed hands between the Serbian and Hungarian governments at the expense of great conflicts, which resulted in suffering and destruction. It was one of the most difficult and most complex periods in the history of Kikinda. Between 1849 and 1860 Kikinda was part of the Voivodeship of Serbia and Temes Banat, a separate Austrian crown land. In 1860, this crown land was abolished, and Kikinda was incorporated into Torontal county, in the Kingdom of Hungary after the compromise of 1867.
A railway connecting Szeged, Kikinda and Timișoara was built in 1857 and is the oldest railway on the territory of present-day Serbia and the entire southeast Europe, predating Belgrade by 27 years. Kikinda had 15,000 inhabitants at the time. The first train arrived on 15 November at 15:00 at the, still unfinished, railway station. The railway itself was part of a long railway Vienna-Bratislava-Budapest-Timișoara-Baziaș, a spa and port on the Danube. Days before the first train arrived, public drummers were announcing the event and huge crowds gathered at the arrival ceremony. But, some complained. Farmers whose land was appropriated by the state for the route of the railway were not satisfied with the compensation they received. Others spread stories that the fumes from the locomotive are toxic, that sparks from the wheels will set grain fields on fire or that the sound of locomotive will scare the cattle. However, the railway brought an economic boom to Kikinda, as in the next five years industry began to develop, including steam mills and brickyards. When at the end of 19th century Veliki Bečkerek was linked directly to Szeged, bypassing Kikinda, the economy slowed down. In 1953 the connection with Szeged was cut as the bridge over the river Tisza was demolished. The connection to Timișoara was operational via railbuses until 2015. The Austrian emperor Franz Joseph I visited Kikinda in 1872 arriving by this railway and it was also used for the original Orient Express route. As of 2017, trains operate only as far as Subotica and Zrenjanin.
At the end of the 19th century Kikinda was the most densely inhabited place in Torontál County, with 22,000 inhabitants. The period from the end of the 19th century to the beginning of the First World War was a peaceful and fruitful one in the history of Kikinda and was marked by a strong economic and urban development of the city. Moreover, the core of the city was formed, and the city received a defined local government in 1895. According to the 1910 census, the population of Kikinda numbered 26,795 inhabitants, of whom 14,214 spoke Serbian, 5,968 Hungarian, and 5,855 German.
A date around the end of the First World War denotes one of the most crucial moments in the modern history of Kikinda. The entry of the Serbian army into the city represented the achievement of the Serbs of Kikinda in striving to unite with Serbia. From 1 December 1918, the city was part of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes. However, the city suffered greatly in the economic realm, as it was located in the hinterland, between two borders, with lines of communication disconnected. The period between the two world wars was not a period of economic prosperity. In 1921, the population of Kikinda numbered 25,774 people and included 15,000 Serbs and Croats, 5,500 Germans, 4,000 Hungarians, and 5% Romanians. Between 1918 and 1922, Kikinda was part of Banat county, Between 1922 and 1929 it was part of Belgrade oblast, and between 1929 and 1941 it was part of Danube Banovina.
After only twenty years of peace, in 1941 Kikinda entered the stormy period of World War II, during which it was occupied by German troops. The Banat region, which Kikinda belonged to, was made an autonomous region within Serbia and was placed under the control of the region's German minority. The city was liberated on 6 October 1944, and since 1945, it has been part of the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina within the new Socialist Yugoslavia.
During and after the war, the city's economic and political organizational structure significantly changed. In addition there were major changes in the ethnic structure of the city. The German and Jewish populations vanished. In 1940, there were about 500 Jews in the town. In August, 1941, they were deported to the Sajmište death camp near Belgrade and murdered. In 1944, one part of the German population fled the region, together with the defeated German army. Between 1944–1948, those who remained were detained in work camps. After the abolition of the camps, most of the remaining German population left for Austria and Germany in search of better living conditions. In 1948, shortly after the end of World War II, Kikinda had a population of 28,070. From the mid-1960s to the mid-1980s, the city saw continuous economic and cultural development: new factories and production plants, new blocks of flats and residential settlements, various objects of general social interest, and paved streets definitely stressed and formed the urban dimension of Kikinda. In 1971 the city had a population of 37,487.
In March 2016, Kikinda was again granted city status.

The Greater Kikinda area

The City of Kikinda comprises the town of Kikinda, nine villages and two hamlets. The nine villages are:
The two hamlets are:
Note: for settlements with a Hungarian majority, the name is also given in Hungarian.
The city belongs to the group of so-called planned organized settlements. Plans of streets and crossroads were completed in the second half of the 18th century according to the standard city plans of the time used for the construction of new settlements in Banat. Those plans defined settlements with regularly lined and wide streets intersecting at right angles, with a central town square, market place, church, city hall, school, inn, etc.

Demographics

According to the last official census done in 2011, the city of Kikinda has 59,453 inhabitants.

Ethnic groups

Most of the settlements in the city have an ethnic Serb majority, while one settlement has a Hungarian ethnic majority: Sajan. Two others have over 20% of ethnic Hungarian population: Banatska Topola and Rusko Selo.
The ethnic composition of city administrative area:
Ethnic groupPopulation
Serbs44,846
Hungarians7,270
Roma1,981
Yugoslavs331
Croats204
Macedonians126
Montenegrins99
Romanians95
Germans87
Albanians75
Muslims74
Others4,265
Total59,453

Economy

The principal branch of the city's economy is agriculture, with its of arable land. The annual production of wheat is about 60,000 tons, 114,670 tons of sunflower seeds. Soy, sugar beet and other fruits and vegetables are also produced.
Industrial production includes the production of oil derivatives by the "Naftagas" branch in Kikinda, metal processing, machine tools, special tools, car parts and flexible technologies by the former "Livnica Kikinda" and IDA-Opel, roof tile and brick production by "Toza Marković", the production of chemicals by "MSK" and "Hemik" and the processing of agricultural products by a number of factories.
The following table gives a preview of total number of registered people employed in legal entities per their core activity :
ActivityTotal
Agriculture, forestry and fishing565
Mining and quarrying102
Manufacturing4,669
Electricity, gas, steam and air conditioning supply139
Water supply; sewerage, waste management and remediation activities221
Construction532
Wholesale and retail trade, repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles1,880
Transportation and storage603
Accommodation and food services428
Information and communication149
Financial and insurance activities175
Real estate activities34
Professional, scientific and technical activities329
Administrative and support service activities428
Public administration and defense; compulsory social security714
Education908
Human health and social work activities1,367
Arts, entertainment and recreation212
Other service activities257
Individual agricultural workers487
Total14,200

Transport

Rail line Banatsko Aranđelovo – Kikinda – Romanian border at Jimbolia, part of the former Szeged – Timișoara railway is the second oldest railway in present-day Serbia. The city is also connected by railway to Subotica and to Belgrade via Zrenjanin.
Regional roads connect Kikinda with all the neighbouring cities and villages. Buses operate regularly to the surrounding villages and major domestic and some European cities.
The only transport waterway in the city is the Danube-Tisa-Danube Canal. There is a dock which is used for industrial transport.
There is also the Kikinda Airport, a sports plane airstrip close to the city. The local flying club organizes lessons in parachuting, aviation and space-modeling. Planes are also flown from this airstrip to dust agricultural fields.

Tourism

Before the break-up of former Yugoslavia, hunting tourism was widespread in Kikinda. There are a number of hunting grounds in the city covering an area of, mostly around the banks of the Danube-Tisa-Danube Canal, where rabbits, pheasants and deer are hunted.
On the location of the former clay pit of the "Toza Marković" company, an artificial lake was created. Located at the southern entrance into the town, it was named Plava banja. Though it is not officially classified as a spa, the water is highly mineralized, microbiologically suitable for swimming and chemically has an elevated levels of sulfates and chlorides, so as higher electroconductivity and pH values. That means the water may be beneficial for the skin and some skin diseases, like the eczema. Until the early 2000s, the lake was arranged with numerous recreational activities and was visited by several thousand people daily. It was busy in the evenings as the lake was place for many concerts and other artistic and entertaining happenings. As the lake is on the lot of "Toza Marković", new owners stopped all that and by 2017 the lake was neglected and without even the basic infrastructure. However, the locals still visit the lake, though on a much smaller scale. In the summer of 2017, the lake shores were cleaned from garbage and vegetation. There is another lake, Staro jezero, in the town itself.
In the vicinity of Kikinda is the Copper Age kurgan of Kinđa, which possibly gave name to the city.

Education

;Primary schools
There are eight primary schools in the city:
;Secondary schools
All secondary schools in Kikinda use Serbian as the language of instruction:
The Suvača is a horse-powered dry mill. Kikinda has one of the three remaining such mills in Europe. There were many mills like this in the city, the largest recorded number being 51 in 1847. The only remaining mill was built in 1899 and was operational until 1945.
Located in the center of the square, the Serbian Orthodox church was built in 1769. The icons of the iconostasis were done by Jakov Orfelin in 1773. Teodor Ilić Češljar is the author of the two large wall paintings "The Last Supper" and "Ascension of Jesus Christ". Both, the late baroque iconostasis and the wall paintings show significant influence of western European art of the period. New church bells were installed in 1899.
Serbian Orthodox Holy Trinity monastery is located in the south outskirts of the city. It was built between 1885 and 1887 as a foundation of Melanija Nikolić-Gajčić. The construction of the Roman Catholic Church in Kikinda was started in 1808 and completed in 1811.
According to a popular belief, the treasure of Attila the Hun is buried somewhere on the territory of the city of Kikinda.
Fossil remains of a mammoth, named Kika, were discovered in 1996. Kika was a female, tall, long with an estimated weight of 15 tons. That makes Kika one of the largest mammoth specimen ever discovered. It is still not determined to which mammoth species it belongs.
Among the birdwatchers Kikinda is known as the prime hotspot for observing winter roosts of long-eared owl with large number of individuals. The roosts are situated in city parks so they are easily accessible. In November 2017, 238 owls were numbered while the record was set in 2009 when 743 birds were counted in the town. The BBC crews visited Kikinda in 2015 and 2018, filming documentaries about the wild animals in urban areas and focusing on the owls.

Culture

Cultural institutions

Situated in the city square, the building of the National Museum of Kikinda was built in 1839. In the beginning, the building served as the city curia and the seat of the District of Velika Kikinda until its abolishment in 1876. In 1946, the National Museum of Kikinda and the City Archive were founded and housed in the building. The Museum boasts numerous artifacts which are displayed in its four sections: archeological, historical, ethnological and naturalist. As of recently, it also possesses a mammoth skeleton which was excavated on the grounds of the "Toza Marković" brick factory in 1996.
The Jovan Popović National Library was founded in 1845 as Čitaonica Srbska. It was renamed in 1952 to Jovan Popović in honor of a prominent poet from Kikinda. Besides serving its primary function of loaning books, the library also organizes literary meetings, book promotions, seminars, lectures, exhibitions, and has published several works.
Although the National Theater in Kikinda was founded only 50 years ago, Kikinda has a long theatrical tradition. Kikinda witnessed its first theatrical play in 1796 in German. The first play in Serbian was performed in 1834. The theater has a continuous program all year round, including the summer when the stage is set up outside, in the yard of the theater.

Manifestations

The Pumpkin Days are an annual manifestation that takes place in mid-October. Every year people from all over the region gather in Kikinda to take part in a competition of who has the largest pumpkin and longest gourd. The term ludaja is specific to the Kikinda region, while the common Serbian word for pumpkin is bundeva. Kikinda has a special relationship with this plant because throughout its history, the locals used to say that one had to stand on a pumpkin while working in the fields in order to get a clear view of the whole city. This exaggeration is supposed to depict the flatness of the city's territory and symbolize the joy of finding way back home. A local man standing on a pumpkin, dressed in a traditional attire, and with his hand blocking the sun so that he can see into the distance, thus became the symbol of the region. A group of local enthusiasts started the Pumpkin Days celebration in 1986 and it quickly started attracting pumpkin and gourd lovers from all over the country. The three-day event also includes lectures and seminars on the advancement of pumpkin and gourd cultivation, a culinary competition in preparing meals from pumpkins and gourds, children's competitions in creating masks and sculptures, and various concerts and exhibitions. Over the past few years this event has gained prominence and has drawn visitors from Hungary, Romania and the former Yugoslav republics. The largest pumpkin measured at the event to date weighed, while the longest gourd was 213 centimeters in length. In 2006 the event celebrated its 20th anniversary and had the largest number of visitors so far, as well as a richer program. A tamburitza festival was included in the event, contributing to the authentic Banat experience.
Every year, since 1982, 6 to 8 world-renowned sculptors are invited to Kikinda, to the premises of an old production plant of the Toza Marković brick factory, to take part at the international symposium of sculpture "Terra". The symposium takes place throughout the month of July. Over the years, "Terra" has hosted sculptors from all corners of the world who are drawn by the unique and peaceful ambience of the studio. All sculptures are done in terracotta and some have appeared at the Venice Biennale. Over 300 sculptors have so far participated at the symposium and together have produced more than 500 sculptures. The "Terra" museum was opened on 5 December 2017. A building of the old riding hall, built in 1871, was converted into a museum by sculptor Slobodan Kojić. When built, manjež served for the horse training of the Austro-Hungarian army and was the second largest such facility in the empire, after the one in Vienna. The exhibits, works of over 300 artists from all over the world since 1982, belong both to large and gallery format sculptures. The "Terra" exhibition is the largest collection of large size terracotta sculptures in the world and the first new museum of the contemporary art in Serbia since 1967. Previously proposed locations were within the brickyard complex, old brickyard II and old drier, but the adaptation of manjež began in 2012. There are over 1,000 sculptures in the exhibition space of. Previously, the collection was shown in Venice, Paris, Ljubljana and Belgrade. Several sculptures are permanently exhibited in the parks of Kikinda and Belgrade, while 5 monumental ones were donated to Venice after the 1999 Venice Biennale.

Media

;Newspapers
;TV stations
;Radio stations
Kikinda is twinned with:

  • Jimbolia, Romania
  • Medgidia, Romania
  • Kiskunfélegyháza, Hungary
  • Kondoros, Hungary
  • Nagydobos, Hungary
  • Szolnok, Hungary
  • Žilina, Slovakia
  • Silistra, Bulgaria

    • Awards

    In 2003, the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe Mission to Serbia awarded the Municipality of Kikinda the Municipal Award for Tolerance.

    Climate

    Climate in this area has mild differences between highs and lows, and there is adequate rainfall year-round. The Köppen Climate Classification subtype for this climate is "".

    General references