Bački Gračac


Bački Gračac is a village located in the Odžaci municipality, in the West Bačka District of Serbia. It is situated in the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina. The population of the village is 2,913 people, of whom 2,810 are ethnic Serbs.

Name

Old Serbian name of the village was Filipovo. The modified versions of this Serbian name were also used by Svabos/Shwoveh. Name was first recorded in the form Filipova in a document written in the time of the Hungarian King Béla III. Other names used for the village were: Filipovo Selo, Kindlingen, Sankt Philipp, Szentfülöp, Szent-Fülöp and Filipovo.

History

During the Ottoman rule, the village of Filipovo was mainly populated by ethnic Serbs. In 1652, there were 7 houses, and a monastery. Following the fall of the Ottoman Empire, the region became part of the Austrian-Hungarian empire. The area having been depopulated by the lengthy Turkish wars, Germans citizens from Württemberg migrated to the area at the invitation of Empress Maria Theresa of Austria-Hungary, beginning in 1763. By 1764, 20 houses were built and soon a total of 60 houses were built with a population of 75 German families; by 1801, there were 272 houses. In the beginning of the 1900s there were 535 houses in the village. In 1944 there were 5,280 Germans among 5,306 inhabitants.

Historical population