Petlovac

Petlovac (Baranyaszentistván,, Петловац) is a village and municipality in the western part of Baranja, which comprise the northern part of Osijek-Baranja County in Croatia. Petlovac is underdeveloped municipality which is statistically classified as the First Category Area of Special State Concern by the Government of Croatia.

Until the end of World War II, the majority of the inhabitants was Danube Swabian, also called locally as Stifolder, because their ancestors arrived in the 17th and 18th centuries from Fulda (district). Most of the former German settlers were expelled to Allied-occupied Germany and Allied-occupied Austria in 1945-1948, as a result of the Potsdam Agreement.

Name
Its name derived from the word "petao" (which means "rooster" in English). The village had different names in history. During Hungarian rule, it was called Sent Ištvan (Saint Stephen), and German settlers named it Blumendorf, which means Village of Flowers.

Population
Municipality of Petlovac has 2,405 inhabitants (2011 census), including:
 * 73.22% Croats
 * 13.72% Hungarians
 * 5.07% Serbs
 * 4.53% Romani

Geography
It is located between border with Hungary in the north-west, Baranja municipalities of Beli Manastir and Jagodnjak in the east and Slavonia region in the south-west.

The municipality of Petlovac include following settlements:
 * Petlovac
 * Baranjsko Petrovo Selo
 * Luč
 * Novi Bezdan
 * Novo Nevesinje
 * Sudaraž
 * Širine
 * Torjanci
 * Zeleno Polje

Minority councils
Directly elected minority councils and representatives are tasked with consulting tasks for the local or regional authorities in which they are advocating for minority rights and interests, integration into public life and participation in the management of local affairs. At the 2023 Croatian national minorities councils and representatives elections Hungarians, Roma and Serbs of Croatia each fulfilled legal requirements to elect 10 members municipal minority councils of the Petlovac Municipality but the elections for Serb council were not held due to the lack of candidates.

History
Till 1991. part of settlement was Zeleno Polje which is now independent settlement.

Austria-Hungary 1910. census

 * In 1910. census together with settlement Zeleno Polje.

Literature

 * Book: "Narodnosni i vjerski sastav stanovništva Hrvatske, 1880–1991: po naseljima, autor: Jakov Gelo, izdavač: Državni zavod za statistiku Republike Hrvatske, 1998., ISBN 953-6667-07-X, ISBN 978-953-6667-07-9;