Omoljica

Omoljica (Serbian Cyrillic: Омољица) is a village located in the municipality of Pančevo, South Banat District, Vojvodina, Serbia.

There are numerous tree species in the park, including linden, white fir, oriental thuja, American sycamore, birch, maple and cherry plum.

It also included today non-existing small amphitheatre built from bricks, where brass bands performed every week.

Heart-shaped park was built on the orders of the Austro-Hungarian authorities, as part of the much wider project of forestation of the Pannonian plain.

A generally rare cultivar in modern Serbia, it is a mountain species which grows in shadows and cold weather, unaccustomed to the lowlands of the Banat.

In 2016, it was declared a natural monument and placed under protection, as one of the best-preserved trees of this species in Vojvodina and was embellished with decorative lights.

Municipality of Pančevo commissioned experts to conduct a study on the possible effects of the water and it turned out that it is mineral and medicinal, probably good for the gastrointestinal and rheumatic diseases and for the rehabilitation of orthopaedic injuries.

However, detailed surveys showed that the water is actually cooler and has no needed chemical and bacteriological composition to be considered a healing one.

[3] After Omoljica was included in the Banat Military Frontier in 1764, Serbs began to settle the village, especially as the regular ferry line across the Danube to central Serbia, then under the Ottoman rule, was established.

There were 22 crossing points over the Danube in the Banat area, including one at Omoljica, named Homolitz in Austrian documents.

In this camp, Serbian linguist and language reformer Vuk Karadžić found shelter, with his father and brother, before moving further to Vienna.

There is a memorial table in the village, made of marble, commemorating his stay in Omoljica, which he called Halmalica in his writings.

Many died due to the harsh conditions and the marshy environment, and were left unburied as they had no money for the proper burial (3 shillings).

[15] There is an impression of the old village which is recorded on the map of the Franciscan land survey from the early 19th century in the National Archives of Austria.

[14] After World War II, with the relocation of German population to Germany, the settlement became mostly inhabited by the Serbs and the Romanians, becoming mostly Orthodox.

After the war, settling of the Serbs from central Serbia grew, mostly from the western regions of Azbukovica, Rađevina, Pocerina, Jadar, Mačva, and Posavina-Tamnava.

After World War I was that area a part of provisional Torontal-Timiș County (Treaty of Trianon), in 1922 of Belgrade oblast and since 1929 of the Danube Banovina in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia.

The central hamlet is called Omoljica, and the other two are Slatina ("Salt Marsh") and Ivanovački Izlaz ("Ivanovo Exit").

[3] The suburbs of Ivanovo along the Nadela's left bank, in the Detelište and (partially) Staro Selo localities, are actually administratively parts of Omoljica, so as the field localities of Trešnjara, Velike Livade, Stara Kapija, Salašine and Velika Kutina, directly to the south of Omoljica.

The name is coined from ži(vot) sel(a), Serbian for "life of the village" as it is dedicated to the subject.

In time, the festival gained regional and international recognition, attracting even authors from Australia and the United States.

As of 2017 it is the longest running village film festival in Serbia and the only one dealing with the subject of the country life.

Ponjavica river
National Archives of Austria, Map of the Josephinian Land Survey (1769-1772)