Exploring cultures and communities – the slow way

Take one village, a seemingly pleasant and unassuming place not far from the Danube. Look more closely, and there is more to life in Lovas than first meets the eye.

article summary —

Lovas is a village in the easternmost county of Croatia. That county, called a zupanija in Croatian, takes its name both from the principal city, Vukovar, and from the ancient region of Syrmia on the south side of the Danube. And so the county name: Vukovarsko-srijemska zupanija. It is a place with a complicated history that can be reduced to a single phrase: a contested borderland.

Walk into the middle of Lovas on an autumn afternoon and the only contest in the offing is next Sunday's football match against Tompojevci, another village, just as neat as Lovas, that lies a few miles away to the west. This is a region full of sunflowers, maize and vines. Rich red soils grade gently down to the Danube river. Away to the east is the old fortress at Ilok. The villages around, on both sides of the modern border between Serbia and Croatia, reflect the complicated ethnic and religious mix of the region.


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About the authors

hidden europe

and manage hidden europe, a Berlin-based editorial bureau that supplies text and images to media across Europe. Together they edit hidden europe magazine. Nicky and Susanne are dedicated slow travellers. They delight in discovering the exotic in the everyday.

This article was published in hidden europe 18.