History

In the 14^th century, a feudal Hungarian property owned by Cobor-Szent Mihály started to grow into a small town. The city today bears his name. 

The Cobor-Szent Mihály was rapidly growing and progressing and the fact that meetings of the Assembly of the Bodrog County were occasionally held there, testifies to it. 

In 1541, Cobor-Szent Mihály was conquered by the Ottomans. In their ‘defterler’ (notebooks) dating back to 1543, the Turks use the name Sombor instead of Cobor-Szent Mihály.

At the time of the Ottoman conquest, Sombor was a large town, with a citadel and many jewellery stores (Serbian: kujundžije from the Turkish kuyumcular). There was about 2 000 houses and Sombor was considered a rich town. Most of the citizens were Christian Vlachs (Serbians) but Hungarians lived there too.  

In 1554, Sombor became the administrative centre of the Sanjak of Segedin (Serbian: Segedinski sandžak, Turkish: Segedin Sancağı, Hungarian: Szegedi szandzsák) which comprised 46 settlements and was a wide area military, administrative, juridical, commercial and religious centre. At the time, Sombor had two madrasahs (Islamic schools) and tekijas (dervish houses for meditation from the Turkish word tekke meaning dervish), 6 primary schools, 2 khans (roadside inns) for travellers and a hamam (Turkish bath).

On 12 September 1687, Sombor was conquered by Austrians. In 1687, 5 000 Bunjevci settled in it and Serbians led by Arsenije III Čarnojević came in 1690. It was then that Sombor became a frontier town and its military unit assisted in the Battle of Slankamen in 1691 and the Battle of Senta fought on 11 September 1697. As a result, Sombor acquired a good reputation and became the administrative centre of the Bačka County. In 1702, Sombor became ‘oppidum fossatum’ within the Habsburg Monarchy. In 1717, it was granted the status of an ‘oppidum militare’, and the Count Jovan Branković became the first captain of the military town. The first Orthodox religious school in Sombor was founded the same year and a Catholic primary school in 1722. In 1716, the people of Sombor, led by the captain Branković, assisted the conquest of Petrovaradin and, in 1717, of Belgrade as well. They suffered casualties fighting for the Habsburg Monarchy in Poland, Turkey and various battlefields in Europe. Two thirds of Sombor population at the time were Orthodox.  

For its loyalty to the Monarchy, Sombor was granted land and the people of Sombor were exempt from paying taxes to the Austrian Monarchy. The Monarchy granted pieces of land to the soldiers depending on their rank. Infantrymen got 18 ha of arable land, corporals and cavalrymen 24 ha, infantry first sergeants 31 ha, cavalry first sergeants 46 ha, infantry flag bearers 61 ha, cavalry flag bearers 96 ha, lieutenants 112, and captains 192 ha. The grand captain had high privileges and was granted 354 ha of arable land.  

When the Ottomans no longer presented a danger, upon request by the county government and Hungarian aristocrats, the military was stripped of their privileges. The Viennese Court opposed the changes but the Empress Maria Theresa had been under a lot of pressure so, in 1741, she signed the ‘Legal Article XVIII’ subjugating military towns to county authorities, and the military unit was disbanded. Sombor then joined the Bačka County and was placed under the authority of the Hungarian Court. By this, the people of Sombor were deprived of all privileges. Aware of their loss, they gathered in front of the Great Orthodox Church, on 18 November 1745, and agreed not to give up on their privileges. They managed to keep them but for a high price of 150 000 golden forints paid to the royal treasury.  

On 17 February 1749, the Empress Maria Theresa signed the Charter of Privileges granting Sombor the Free Royal City status.

Despite the high price that Sombor paid, in the same time, it gained a lot. The city was granted 11 unpopulated areas later on used to establish, mostly rural, settlements that still bear their old names: Bukovac, Čičovi, Gradina, Ivanovo Selo, Šaponje, Bilić, Nenadić, Karakorija, Rančevo, Bračevac and Pipereš. 

In 1759, the Serbian Orthodox Church founded a four-year Grammar School and later on a Latin school managed by the Franciscans. By establishing ‘Norma’, Avram Mrazović built a foundation for teacher education of Serbians and other South Slavic nations in the area.

In 1786 Sombor became the permanent seat of the Bács-Bodrog County. The second largest county in Hungary covered the vast area between the rivers Danube and Tisa, bordering with Kalocsa to the north encompassing also the cities of Subotica and Novi Sad.

Many cultural, educational and banking institutions and, later on, sports associations, were established in Sombor at the time. It became an important administrative, trade, craft, traffic, cultural and educational centre. It got its first railway in 1869. Already existing greenery spread around turning the city into a green oasis. On 12 October 1850, Károly Bitterman started the first printing company and the first newspapers and magazines were issued.