Professional paper
Prekodravlje - Repaš Area Growth of Settlements and Population
Ivan Crkvenčić
; Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Zagreb – Full Professor (retired)
Mladen Crkvenčić
; Zagreb, Croatia
Abstract
Croatia has 2080km of land borderline- out of this total, the borderline pertaining to Rep. of Hungary is 329km long, which makes it 16,2% of total borderline. This borderline has been one of the oldest, longest-living borders in Europe, particularly alongside the river Drava, making it the longest part of the said borderline. The only newer additions to this borderline are only the most western and eastern tips of this border, drafted under the historic Trianon Treaty in 1920. Those parts have the borderline brought up much further north than Drava. In the west, it separates Croatian province Međimurje from Hungary; on the east, it’s Croatian province Baranja. Međimurje is almost entirely populated with Croats and is being a part of Croatian ethnic territories. Baranja, however, is a part of a greater natural entity, with a complex ethnical map. southern part of Baranja had been annexed to so-called Kingdom of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs (SHS), later on - Croatia, based on the Croatian ethnic population and its regional gravitation to the city of Osijek. Between the two areas in the most western and the most eastern parts, Međimurje and Baranja, there are only two Croatian areas, north of Drava: the larger and more important - Prekodravlje, the region between the river of Drava and its old riverbed, today water- channel for a creek Ždalica. In the old documents, this area is referred to as Repaš. This particular position makes Prekodravlje a Croatian enclave, surrounded by the state territory of Hungary. It is a triangle-shaped, with a slanting (from approx. 124m to approx.113m slope), in northwest-southeast direction. It’s length is approx. 23km, with a widest perimeter set at some 12km. The total acreage is 88,78 square kilometers. This paper aims at defining a social and geographical analysis of Prekodravlje area, especially in population processes and changes in population numbers and structure. We want to establish, whether the population is a key factor of the region’s future economic development, and if yes, to what extent.
Keywords
borderline area; ethnicity figures; population; river Drava
Hrčak ID:
79083
URI
Publication date:
1.12.2003.
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