Banovina on a map of Croatia colored in red. Banovina is located in the southern part of Sisak-Moslavina County (City of Sisak and Municipality of Martinska Ves shown in dashed because they are sometimes referred to as parts of Banovina.)
a Banovina is not designated as an official region, it is a geographic region only.
b The figure is an approximation based on the territorial span of Sisak-Moslavina County.
c The figure is an approximation based on the population of Sisak-Moslavina County.
Banovina or Banija is a geographical region in central Croatia, between the Sava, Una, Kupa and Glina[1] rivers. The main towns in the region include Petrinja, Glina, Kostajnica, and Dvor. There is no clear geographical border of the region towards the west and the neighboring region of Kordun.[1] The area of Banovina is today administratively almost entirely located within the Sisak-Moslavina County.
In Serbian Cyrillic, the name is spelled Банија or Бановина. The word banovina is Croatian for banate.
The term Banovina was more frequent as the name of the region in the 19th and early 20th centuries. The term Banija became more common in the second half of the 20th century, until the 1990s. Since then, both terms are equally in use.[4]
History
Prehistory
During the era of ChalcolithicVučedol culture centered in Syrmia and eastern Slavonia spread to the area of modern day Banovina with known archaeological sites being those in Osječenica near the village of Gorička, Budim near the village of Mali Gradac and the Iron Age site next to the Una river in the village of Unčani.[5] During the Iron Age region was inhabited by a Celtic-Illyrians tribe of Segestani.[5]
Classical antiquity
During the Roman time the region was important transitional area between the provinces of Pannonia and Illyricum with nearby Siscia already serving as a regional center.[6] Until today archaeological excavation of Roman sites in the region remain limited.[7]
Middle Ages and Ottoman Conquest
The area surrounding Petrinja and Hrastovica belonged to the Kaptol while the area west of the Glina River belonged to the Topusko Abbey.[8] The Order of Cistercians received the abbey's possessions in 1205 from the Andrew II of Hungary.[8]
Habsburg Monarchy and Austro-Hungarian Empire
After the reconquest of Banija the region became a part of Glina Regiment of Zagreb General Command within the Croatian Military Frontier between 1553 and 1881. In November 1630, Holy Roman EmperorFerdinand II proclaimed the so-called Statuta Valachorum ("Vlach Statute"), which regulated the status of so-called Vlach settlers (in Banovina mostly ancestors of modern-day Serbs of Croatia) with regard to their military obligations and rights to internal self-administration. Croatian Military Frontier existed until 15 July 1881, when it was abolished and incorporated into the Kingdom of Croatia-Slavonia.
During the Croatian War of Independence in the 1990s the entire region of Banovina became a part of internationally unrecognized self-proclaimed Republic of Serbian Krajina and known for infamous mass killings of Croats. Croatian government retook control over the region in 1995 via Croatian forces Operation Storm leading to mass fleeing of nearly the entire Serb population of Banovina and resulting serious depopulation of the region. Subsequent return was only partial and slow.
The 2020 Petrinja earthquake was a catastrophe that significantly affected this region. On 29 December 2020, the region was struck by a magnitude 6.4Mw earthquake, which killed seven people, including a seven-year-old girl.[9] Most of the buildings in both towns and villages were significantly damaged or completely destroyed.[10] The destruction combined with the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic presented challenges for emergency workers to distribute aid and healthcare to the affected population.[11] Aftershocks continued to jolt the area in the subsequent days and weeks, including a magnitude 4.1 over two weeks later.[12][13]
Croatia
