Sonta



Sonta (Сонта) is a village located in the municipality of Apatin, West Bačka District, Vojvodina, Serbia. The village has a Croat ethnic majority and its population numbering 4,238 people (2011 census).

Name
According to some sources, inhabitants of Sonta originating from Herzegovina and they came to this village under the leadership of Sonda Vidaković, thus the name of Sonta derived from the name of this person. In Serbian Cyrillic the village is known as Сонта, in Croatian as Sonta, in Hungarian as Szond, and in German as Waldau.

History
It was first mentioned in the 12th century under name Zund. In Ottoman records, Sonta was mentioned as a settlement with 36 families, while in 1898, its population numbered 4,972 inhabitants and 650 houses. During the 1920s, the village was moved 3 km to the north from its original location because of the large floods of the river Danube.

On the session of the Municipality of Apatin in June 2006, Croatian language gain the status of the official language in Sonta. Until then, Serbian language was the sole official language in this village, although Croats comprised majority in the village since the country of Serbia and Montenegro was established.

Culture

 * Grožđe bal, Annual grape festival

Demographics

 * Ethnic groups (2002 census)
 * Croats = 2,966 (59.42%)
 * Serbs = 975 (19.53%)
 * Hungarians = 267 (5.35%)
 * Romanians = 211 (4.23%)
 * Romani = 138 (2.76%)
 * others.


 * Historical population
 * 1961: 6,821
 * 1971: 6,508
 * 1981: 6,313
 * 1991: 5,990
 * 2002: 4,992
 * 2011: 4,238