Slavonia and Baranja
Slavonia is a land of legends, with its myths and secrets proudly passed down through the generations. Here the locals fiercely uphold their traditions, such as harvest festivals, traditional dresses and the popular local music.
They are also generous hosts, always ready to engage in a heart-to-heart over a glass of one of the many quality wines produced by the area’s fertile lowlands and some of the spicy local dishes such as čobanac (stew) or fiš paprikaš (fish soup).
Bordered by the Drava and the Danube rivers and divided by Croatian-Hungarian state border, in the east charmed by a swamp, in the south and southeast sheltered by mouths of the river and in the north and northeast open for connection via wine roads and paths – Baranja is even today quite closed, almost secluded, more mystical than ever before. Despite old bridges having been renovated and new ones being built, regardless of the fact that it is dappled with several international road routes and that it is becoming an ever more interesting tourist destination – at this day Baranja manages to preserve a unique note since its people jealously keep their existential secrets.
They strongly and clearly remember the tales older than their own families, secrets of life and survival, of love and dying, wines, hot peppers, special kind of fishing, weddings, buše (traditional masks from Baranja), pudarine (guarding ripening grapes), paunići (embroidered motifs of small peacocks on traditional folk costumes), slamnjače (straw beds) and i kandile (hanging candles). Owing to this still existent ethnographic magic which can be read from the faces of people living outside main roads, Baranja is capable of attracting, yet never revealing itself to the fullest.
Photo: Ivo Biočina, HTZ
| Country | Slavonia and Baranja |
|---|---|
| Location | Region in the easternmost part of Croatia, encompasses Slavonia and Baranja |
| Population | 805.998 (2011.) |
| Area (km2) | 12.500 |
