Kikinda (Serbian Cyrillic: Кикинда, pronounced [kǐkiːnda]; Hungarian: Nagykikinda) is a city and the administrative center of the North Banat District in Serbia.

Other attractions of the city are the Suvača – a unique horse-powered dry mill, the annual Pumpkin Days[4] and the International Symposium of Sculpture "Terra".

[5] The winter roosts of long-eared owls, with a large number of individuals, are easily accessible as they are situated in town parks and attract birdwatchers both from this country and abroad.

The name of the town first appears on a map of 1718 as Gross Kikinda, indicating an uninhabited area or a wasteland and not a settlement.

The adjective Gross, Nagy or Velika (Great) in German, Hungarian and Serbian versions respectively, was in official use as the name of the town until the end of 1947.

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.

[citation needed] 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.

[15] 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.

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 (today Zrenjanin), which covered most of the territory of present-day Serbian Banat.

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.

However, the railway brought an economic boom to Kikinda, as in the next five years industry began to develop, including steam mills and brickyards.

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.

[21] A date around the end of the First World War (20 November 1918) denotes one of the most crucial moments in the modern history of Kikinda.

[citation needed] The entry of the Serbian army into the city represented the achievement of the Serbs of Kikinda in striving to unite with Serbia.

In 1921, the population of Kikinda numbered 25,774 people and included 15,000 (58%) Serbs and Croats, 5,500 (21%) Germans (Banat Swabians), 4,000 (16%) Hungarians, and 5% Romanians.

[15] 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.

[25] 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 neighbourhoods, various objects of general social interest, and paved streets definitely stressed and formed the urban dimension of Kikinda.

[citation needed] 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.

In 2007, the group was the first in the history of the ex-YU to perform at one of the biggest heavy metal festivals in the world - Wacken Open Air.

[4] 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.

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.

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.

In 2019, records in both categories were set - the largest pumpkin weighed 639.5 kilograms (1,410 lb), while the longest gourd was 366 centimetres (144 in) in length.

[38] Every year, since 1982, six to eight 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 "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.

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.

Until the early 2000s, the lake was arranged with numerous recreational activities and was visited by several thousand people daily.

Both, the late baroque iconostasis and the wall paintings show significant influence of western European art of the period.

[15][44] Among the birdwatchers Kikinda is known as the prime hotspot for observing winter roosts of long-eared owl with large number of individuals.

The BBC crews visited Kikinda in 2015 and 2018, filming documentaries about the wild animals in urban areas and focusing on the owls.