Mali Iđoš

Not to be confused with Iđoš.

Map of Mali Iđoš municipality

Ethnic map of the Mali Iđoš municipality

Mali Iđoš (Serbian and Montenegrin Cyrillic: Мали Иђош, pronounced [mâːliː îdʑoʃ]; Hungarian: Kishegyes) is a village and municipality in the North Bačka District of Vojvodina, Serbia. The municipality comprises three local communities and has a population of 13,476, of whom 7,546 (55.92%) are ethnic Hungarians. Mali Iđoš has a population of 4,830.

Name

The first part of the name of the village, "mali" ("little" in English), was given in contrast to the village with similar name (Iđoš), which is situated in northern Banat.

Inhabited places

Mali Iđoš municipality includes the following villages:

• Mali Iđoš (Hungarian: Kishegyes)
• Lovćenac (Montenegrin: Lovćenac / Ловћенац)
• Feketić (Hungarian: Bácsfeketehegy)

Demographics (2002)

The total population of the Mali Iđoš municipality is 13,494. By ethnic structure:

• 7,546 Hungarians (55.92%)
• 2,812 Montenegrins (20.84%)
• 2,357 Serbs (17.47%)
• 779 other, undeclared and unknown (5.77%)

By language:

• 7,633 Hungarian (56.57%)
• 5,553 Serbian (41.15%)
• 308 other, undeclared and unknown (2.28%)

By religion:

• 5,404 Catholics (40.05%)
• 4,730 Eastern Orthodox Christians (35.05%)
• 2,185 Protestants (16.19%)
• 30 Muslims (0.22%)
• 32 other (0.24%)
• 1 agnostic (0.01%)
• 1,080 undeclared (8%)
• 21 atheists (0.16%)
• 11 unknown (0.08%)

Local communities with a Hungarian majority are Mali Iđoš and Feketić. There is one local community with a Montenegrin majority: Lovćenac.

History

The name of Kishegyes was first mentioned in historical documents in 1476. The village became totally destroyed under Turkish occupation in the 16th century. It was repopulated in 1769 by 81 Roman Catholic Hungarian families from Békésszentandrás. The region is extremely well suited for agriculture and the village increased in wealth and population until the 1980s. In the 1990s the local economy was ruined and young people began to emigrate to Hungary. Today the rate of unemployment is appr. 30 percent, and the Agricultural Cooperative and the Commercial Company went bankrupt. After the end of the civil war in Croatia and Bosnia (1995–96) Serbian refugees arrived to Mali Iđoš (Kishegyes). There are no ethnic tensions between native Hungarians and the Serbian refugees.

Historical population of the village

• 1961: 6,860
• 1971: 6,603
• 1981: 6,271
• 1991: 5,803
• 2002: 5,464
• 2011: 4,830

Sights

The oldest building in Mali Iđoš is the baroque Roman Catholic Church of St. Anne (1788) on the Main Street. There is an old Calvary, the obelisk of the Battle of Kishegyes and the ruins of the Pecze Mansion. The natural attractions are the River Krivaja and the imposing loessal walls of the Hills of Telečka.

Famous people

• The Hungarian singer Magdolna Rúzsa grew up in Mali Iđoš. She won Megasztár, Hungary's version of Pop Idol in 2006 and represented Hungary at the Eurovision Song Contest 2007 in Helsinki, Finland.
• Istvan Dudas is a former Serbian professional footballer, who currently works as Goalkeeper coach for R.O.C. de Charleroi-Marchienne.

See also

• List of places in Serbia
• List of cities, towns and villages in Vojvodina

References

• Slobodan Ćurčić, Broj stanovnika Vojvodine, Novi Sad, 1996.

External links

• Non-official website
• History of Mali Iđoš Template:Hu icon