Mirkovci, Croatia

Mirkovci (Serbian Cyrillic: Мирковци, Hungarian: Szegfalu, German: Sankt Emrich) is a village and suburb of the town of Vinkovci in eastern Croatia.

The village is located immediately southeast of Vinkovci separated from the rest of the town by Vinkovci-Gunja railway.

Mirkovci was established in 18th century within the Slavonian Military Frontier, which acted as the cordon sanitaire against incursions from the Ottoman Empire in which Serb colonists were defending the Monarchy in return for land-grants and internal self-administration granted in Statuta Valachorum.

During the Second World War, 107 ethnic Serbs were transferred and killed in the Jasenovac concentration camp operated by the Croatian fascist Ustashe regime.

There are today 5 memorial plaques in Serbian Cyrillic alphabet commemorating Yugoslav Partisans and victims of Fascism which were set on the local community hall in 1958 during the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia time.

[5] In his book Warrior's Honour: Ethnic War and the Modern Conscience, Canadian author Michael Ignatieff writes; During the war, Mirkovci was the seat of the Municipality of Mirkovci which covered areas of pre-war Vinkovci Municipality within the Republic of Serbian Krajina.

[7] In Mirkovci and Tenja a suburb of Osijek, the economic and cultural centre of Slavonia, were declared so called transitional municipalities with Serb ethnic majority which were to become part of Vinkovci and Osijek respectively after an additional transitional period of one year.

The period after the reintegration is marked by population increase, uncommon for the rest of the region, and the changing demographic composition of the village.

[9] Special 4 members commission was formed with 2 ethnic Croats and 2 Serbs tasked with creation of proposal for 42 new street names acceptable to both communities.

Fragment of Italian fresco showing soldiers of Austria-Hungary
Main Street in Mirkovci – up to 2010 Vuk Stefanović Karadžić Street, subsequently Vukovar Street
Vinkovci
Vinkovci