Bukovica, Dalmatia

For other uses, see Bukovica, Dalmatia (disambiguation).

Bukovica is a geographical region in Croatia. It is situated in northern Dalmatia, between Lika in the north, Kninska Krajina in the east, and Ravni Kotari in the south-west. Prior to the war, it encompassed the western half of the Knin municipality, the eastern half of the Benkovac municipality and almost the entire Obrovac municipality. Today, region is divided between municipalities of Jasenice, Obrovac, Ervenik, Kistanje, Benkovac and Lišane Ostrovičke.

Towns and villages

Main towns in the region are Kistanje and Obrovac. Larger villages in the area are Žegar, Biovičino Selo, Ervenik, Mokro Polje, Đevrske, Ivoševci, Kruševo and Zelengrad.

History

Bukovica has been inhabited by an ancient people known as the Liburnians since before the Roman times. A ruin of an old Roman town called Burnum (colloquially known as Šupljaja) can be found near the village of Ivoševci. According to oral tradition in the area, St. Paul preached the gospel at the location of the present day Monastery Krka. What is known, however, is that the Christian teaching was introduced to Bukovica, and the rest of Dalmatia, by a pupil of St. Paul, St. Titus. From the 10th to early 12th century, Bukovica, like most of northern Dalmatia, was a part of the medieval Croatian kingdom. After the Croats were subdued by king Coloman of Hungary, Bukovica became part of the Hungarian kingdom, to be ruled by local Croatian nobles from the Šubić family, whose seat was in the nearby town of Bribir.

Giovanni Lucio and Jovan Cvijić both mention that at the end of the 13th century, under the reign of Mladen Šubić, Serbs began migrating to northern Dalmatia, including Bukovica, from western Bosnia. Accordin to Serbian authors the first large migration of Serbs took place in 1305, and was followed by many more, although other authors put first migration of orthodox population in the time of Turkish conquest and Christian reconquista of Dalmatia,that means from 15th century... According to legend, in 1317. Serbian monks from Bosnia founded the Krupa monastery in northern Bukovica, with the financial help of the Serbian kings from the Nemanjić dynasty, which can not be true since Krupa on river Una Bosnia wasn't neither part of medieval Bosnia or Serbia, and at 14th century monastery in [Bosanska Krupa] was [catholic]. The second Orthodox monastery in the region, the Krka monastery, was built in 1350 by Jelena, the widow of Mladen Šubić and sister of Serbian king Stefan Dušan. Monastery itself was abandoned but reestablished again 16th century after great influx of orthodox believers. At the time Serbian king send some troops to aid his sister and son-in-law and perhaps religious service for them was held there. After Subic family lost its influence and lands under Hungarian king's pressure Serbian troops withdrew.

After the Ottoman invasion of the western Balkans in the 15th and 16th centuries, most of Bukovica was captured by the Turks from the Croats, who established a volatile border with the Republic of Venice, which had in its control the Dalmatian coast with most of the fortified towns. Population retreated toward coast or was taken into slavery. This resulted in a further continuous influx of orthodox and catholic shepherds from inland which were looking to leave the Turkish-occupied territories in the east, especially between 1523 and 1537. Serbian Orthodox churches were built in many Bukovica villages by this time but also many older catholic ones were given to [orthodox] newcomers as older [catholic] population was reduced to poor remnants. The earliest was built in 1418 in the hamlet of Kalanjeva Draga. These newcomers served as professional soldiers and frontier guardsmen for the Venetians in their struggles against the impending Turkish empire, and were given various concessions and annual subsidies by the Venetians in return for their services. They are historically recognised as Uskoks, meaning "those who jump in". Some of the most prominent uskok leaders for the Bukovica area included Janko Mitrović from Žegar, his son Stojan Janković, who operated mainly from the neighbouring Ravni Kotari area, and Vuk Mandušić, perhaps from Rupe where that surname is still preserved as well as ruins of allegedly his house, who fought numerous battles against the Turks all over Dalmatia and western Bosnia. These and other Uskok leaders are prominent protagonists in Serbian epic poetry.

The Bukovica locals, used to a harsh lifestyle and an atmosphere of brutality, also had problems with Venetian authority, which changed its policies towards Uskoks from time and again, depending on the relations that Venice had with the Turkish empire. As a result of oppressive taxation policies the people of Bukovica and neighbouring Ravni Kotari waged a violent uprising against Venice in 1704, under the leadership of Petar Jagodić Kuridžathe Orthodox village priest from St. Peter's Church in Biovičino Selo, Ilija Nanic from Žegar, Matija Žabetić from Biograd, Cvjetan Cvjetinjanin from Veljane, Radovan Korda from Đevrske, Novak Vujanic from Ervenik, Matija Miljanic from Kruševo and Toma Korolija from Ivoševci. After initial military success, the uprising was stopped in December that same year, after the Venetians cunningly arrested Kuridža and several other rebel leaders during negotiations. He was imprisoned for 40 years, and the oppressive measures against Bukovica's inhabitants were continued until Venice's fall to Napoleon in 1797. This brought some relief to Bukovica's population, as the French had shown to be more tolerant that their predecessors. However, this period was short lived, and in 1813, Bukovica fell under the rule of the Habsburg empire.

Population

Before the Yugoslav Wars of the 1990s, the region had a population with an overwhelming Serbian majority; the Croats were a distant minority there. Croats comprised an absolute majority in 6 villages: Bruška, Lisičić, Rodaljice, Kruševo, Medviđa and Popovići. Contrary to the popular belief, the ethnically-mixed village of Nunić had a Serbian majority. The remaining 28 settlements, including all the towns and the larger villages, had an absolute Serb majority.

The demographic picture has changed greatly. In the beginning Croatian villages were destroyed and Croatian population expelled. Kruševo was one of the first villages that was destroyed in Croatian War of Independence, those who stayed at home were killed in Bruška, Ervenik. Ervenik had substantial Croatian population before WW2 which was partly expelled and partly killed falling from 600 to 40-50 in 1991. Another ethnic cleansing, but this time of the Serbian population came during and after Operation Storm in 1995, as well as the systematic state-sponsored migration of Catholic Janjevci from Kosovo to the area around Kistanje. Some villages of Bukovica were a scene of heinous war crimes perpetrated by the Croatian Army during Operation Storm; in Varivode and Gošić dozens of elderly and disabled civilians were slaughtered and their homes burned. Serbian leader Milan Martić was sentenced by the ICTY in The Hague on 35 years for war crimes one of which was Bruška massacre. The Croatian wartime general Ante Gotovina has been indicted by the ICTY in The Hague for these crimes, as well as for others. Such incidents reinforced the desire of Bukovica Serbs to flee their homes, fearing the atmosphere of violence, revenge and lawlesness left behind by the Croatian Army.

Today, the demographic picture is much more complicated, but Serbs still have a majority, and are concentrated mostly in the municipalities of Kistanje and Ervenik. The total population of the region is a fraction of the pre-war number, and is constituted mainly of Serbian returnees, most of them elderly, some Croatian returnees, also mostly elderly as well as of the colonized Janjevci in the Kistanje area. Many Bukovica Serbs have settled in Serbia (Belgrade, Batajnica, Indjija, Subotica, Nova Pazova and several other Vojvodina towns have a significant number of exiled Bukovica Serbs) and Bosnia and Herzegovina (primarily in the city of Banja Luka). Large numbers have also emigrated abroad, especially to Australia, United States and Italy. Younger members of Croat community remained in the coastal cities and never returned to their villages after war. A number of both Croats and Serbs originating from Bukovica also lives in the Croatian cities of Zagreb, Rijeka and Zadar.

See also

• Geography of Croatia
• Dalmatia

Sources

• Živko Bjelanović, Antroponimija Bukovice, Split, 1988.
• Dr Jovan Plavša, Stanovništvo Kninske Krajine, Novi Sad, 1997.
• Marinko Marinović i Marijan Mitrović, Bukovicom i Ravnim kotarom, Varaždin 2004.

External links

• Bukovica - Narodni život i običaji
• Grad Benkovac Online.