Pakrac


Pakrac is a town in western Slavonia, Croatia, population 4,842, total municipality population 8,460. Pakrac is located on the road and railroad connecting the regions of Posavina and Podravina.

Name

In Croatian the town is known as Pakrac, in German as Pakratz, in Hungarian as Pakrác.

History

The town was first mentioned in 1237. It was captured by the Ottoman Empire in 1543. It was initially a kaza centre in the Sanjak of Pojega between 1543 and 1552, then in the Sanjak of Pakrac in the Rumelia Eyalet between 1552 and 1559. Later it was the centre of the Sanjak of Pakrac between 1559 and 1601, when the sanjak seat was moved to Cernik. The Ottoman rule in Pakrac lasted until the Austrians captured it in 1691. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Pakrac was part of the Požega County of the Kingdom of Croatia-Slavonia. Major ethnic cleansing events were carried out in the Yugoslav wars of the 1990s - the Serbian Krajina occupied the town and imprisoned and murdered a number of Croats in a concentration camp, but when it was retaken the majority of the Serbian population was sent away.

Demographics

In the census of 1991, the municipality of Pakrac encompassed a different, larger area and its population was as follows:
totalSerbsCroatsYugoslavsothers
27,58912,813 9,896 1,346 3,534

In the census of 2011, the municipality of Pakrac comprised:
totalCroatsSerbsothers
8,4606,168 1,340 952

Settlements

The municipality consists of 42 settlements: