Danube Cruise and Exploration 2017 -- Day 8

Saturday, August 19

Novi Sad, Serbia
Vukovar, Croatia

We are visiting two towns today one in Serbia and the next in Croatia. We start the day in Novi Sad, Serbia. 

Defensive tunnel in the fort

We left early and took a hike through town to the Petrovaradin Fortress, and went through the underground tunnels. You couldn't be claustrophobic and be a soldier there. The fort is one of the largest Habsburg installations and it defended Europe against the attacking Turkish Empire. There were multiple levels of fortification. The lower-level, where the civilians lived, was surrounded by a moat. Then there were upper levels with dry moats and the military installation.  It was the newest military technology of it's day.

Yoyi is not feeling well and will stay on the ship for the afternoon today.

Landing in Vukovar, Croatia

This afternoon we head for Croatia.

The tour this afternoon focuses on the Civil War in Yugoslavia in 1991. We disembarked the ship near the town of Vukovar, which was a flash point of the war. The bus took us to the middle of a sheep farm where a memorial building was constructed on the site of the most famous massacre of the war.

The floor of the memorial:
Bullets memorialized in concrete

The last Croatian defenders of the town, besieged by the Yugoslavian army, had been cornered in the city hospital. When the Yugoslav army finally took the hospital, They marched everyone from the hospital including nurses, patients, and defenders onto the sheep farm and into a stable where they apparently tortured them. Then they marched them all out into the field, shot them, And buried them in a mass grave. The memorial was built in the reconstructed stable similar to the model of Yad Vashem. 

The entire city of Vukovar was destroyed by Yugoslav bombing, and buildings bear the scars of bullet holes and bomb blasts to this day.

Walking through the center of town.
Buildings bear the markings of battle.
Often owners have fled, and repairs can't be made.

We then visited the city museum in the Eltz Palace. This is a converted Habsburg palace, donated to the city by the Habsburg family. For a mere city museum it was very beautifully done. 

From the museum we walked back to the ship through the center of the town. The population of the town had been 40,000 before the Civil War, but now numbered only 23,000. While the nationality mix of the town is 60% Croatian and 30% Serbian, many of the Serbians that had lived there before the war left after the war.