Paulin Dvor – Discover Memorial Sites and Culture

Paulin Dvor brings together several forms of remembrance and named road connections. This makes it possible to situate the place geographically and thematically for a history-focused trip. The local memorial sites represent different aspects of remembrance.

Getting There and Finding Your Way

County road Ž4109 runs from D7 via Vladislavci and Paulin Dvor to Ernestinovo and onward to D518. Paulin Dvor is also connected by roads to Ernestinovo and Antunovac. The first description traces a specific route; the second describes a more general road connection. For your planning, it is advisable to check the route information before you travel, so you can prepare your journey based on your preferred route on the day of travel.

Memorial Sites in Paulin Dvor

The memorial complex in Paulin Dvor comprises 15 monuments to people who were killed in the village. The local cemetery contains the graves of 15 victims of the 1991 crime. The same number refers here to different things: monuments in the memorial complex, and graves and the victims buried there in the cemetery.

A plaque bearing the names of the deceased remains at the village school memorial. A local report records visible damage from the recent war to both the memorial and the school building. Nineteen civilians were killed in the Andrija Bukvić house. Together, these places offer insight into different forms of remembrance: monuments, a burial site, a plaque bearing names, and the remembrance of the civilians killed in the house. You can distinguish the historical information by place and subject, rather than viewing the different memorial sites as a single account.

Culture in the Wider Destination of the Municipality of Šodolovci

The area of the Municipality of Šodolovci is part of the extensive lowlands in the southeast of Osijek-Baranja County. It lies in the Drava and Danube drainage basin, or the Vuka river basin. The western part of the Municipality of Šodolovci, north of the Ernestinovo–Paulin Dvor–Hrastin road, belongs to the direct basin of the Bobotski Canal.

In Koprivna, the medieval Church of the Nativity of the Most Holy Mother of God stands in the Orthodox cemetery. Its present-day Baroque appearance dates to a restoration in 1751. Four medieval windows have been preserved; the structure of an original Romanesque portal was also identified at the present-day south portal. The plateau with the church and cemetery is protected as the medieval archaeological site “Udovičko polje.” Finds there point to a medieval settlement with an associated cemetery. In Koprivna, architectural details and evidence of an earlier settlement history come together.

Regional culture and architecture are also central in Silaš. The Church of Saint Prophet Elijah was completed in 2013; services have been held there regularly since then. The new building is designed in the Serbian-Byzantine style and has two domes. The carved iconostasis was made by Dragan Šaponja from Kolut. The church thus represents a different building history from the medieval church in Koprivna.

The cultural and artistic society ensemble “Zora” was founded in Silaš in 2006 to preserve the traditions and culture of Serbs in Croatia. The ensemble includes a folklore group and a women’s singing group. Its repertoire comprises twelve stylized choreographies and three staged depictions of customs. At performances, the cultural and artistic society presents some of the twelve choreographies as well as the three depictions. In this way, community-preserved folklore and singing complement the historical and architectural themes of the wider destination of the Municipality of Šodolovci.

For the wider travel overview: Municipality of Šodolovci.