1. Elementary school Vladimira Nazora
Nova Bukovica
Republic of Croatia
Research work – cultural
and historical heritage of
Nova Bukovica

2. Position of Nova Bukovica
District Nova Bukovica is positioned in the south-eastern part of
Virovitica-Podravina county. It is a rather small county and it has 8
villages under its juristiction - Bjelkovac, Brezik, Bukovački
Antunovac, Dobrović, Donja Bukovica, Gornje Viljevo, Miljevci,
Nova Bukovica.

3. History of Nova Bukovica
 By the list from 1334 ,there are 13 settlements in this area and
Nova Bukovica is also mentioned as one of them.
 Nova Bukovica is again mentioned on the map of Virovitica
county from 15th century.
 The population of Nove Bukovice can be observed from the
middle of 18th century when 35 families came to this area and
founded a settlement called Nova Bukovica.
 Nova Bukovica as a district was founded on December 29th
1992 and since then it contains the other 7 villages already
mentioned.
 In 1994 District council decided that the municipality may
have its own coat of arms, flag and a seal. The coat of arms
consists of silver rearing unicorn in a red field, a flag is blue
with yellow bordered coat of arms in the middle.

4. Parish of Nova Bukovica
- In the oldest list of parishes of the Diocese of Zagreb in 1334
there is a mention of the parish "Sanctorum Cosme et Damiani
de Bocuha" which was located in what is now Nova Bukovica.
- Bukovica in the Middle Ages had a fortress city. Between the
fort and the moat there was the old church that was 24 meters
long and had 96 centimeters wide walls, as shown from the
excavations in 1904.
- Bukovica was occupied by the Turks probably in 1542 same as
the surrounding villages. The natives, that were Catholics were
mostly killed, taken as slaves, and the rest fled into northern
regions.
-
During the reign of the Turks, the church in Bukovica was
mentioned 1660 in the description of an visitation. The church
was then demolished and the residents and the priests scattered.
According to historical sources at that time in Bukovica there was
forty households. After liberation from Ottoman rule a lot of
Croatian population moved to Bukovica and the work of the
church community was renewed.
- From 1778 to 1786 a new church was built, where worship was
done until 1904.

5. Parish of Nova Bukovica
 Parish Nova Bukovica was established in 1812.
The parish church is dedicated to the Blessed
Virgin Mary into Heaven Assumption (August
15th) and was built in 1904. The church is built in
the Gothic style.
 A major contribution to the parish was given by
pastor Alojzije Stanek who served in the parish
from 1958 to 1999. He built a subsidiary chapels
in places Mikleuš, Četekovac, Kozice and Borik.
 Besides the chapel pastor Stanek built the first
Catechism hall in Croatia after the Second World
War.

7. Sjenjak
 Archaeological site "Sjenjak" is located at
the beginning of the village Nova
Bukovica.
 This arheological rich site was discovered
in 1976 and the research and excavations
started in 1997.
 This site entered in the register of
Croatian Cultural Monuments.

8.  It was discovered that the inhabitants lived in
two villages. One settlement from the late
Bronze Age, from 3000 years ago. The
second is a village dating from 2100 years
ago.
 The most numerous group of findings from
both the village includes fragments of
pottery vessels, metal tools and weapons
(bronze spear, iron awl, fibula, buckles and
pins that were used for anchoring clothing,
etc.) .
 Most items found at this site is kept in the
Town Museum in Slatina.

10. School
 1857 - the first mention of school in this
area
 1868 - the official opening of the first
school
 1968 - the school has been named after
the writer Vladimir Nazor

11. The memorial of the school, dating from 1876

12. Women's Association
“Bukovica in the Heart”
 “Bukovica in the Heart” is the women’s association from
Nova Bukovica. There are 43 members of the
association.
 Before Christmas, they decorate a big Christmas tree at
village centre. They also organize the costume party,
decorate the church, made ​​embroideries, embellishment
which they display at the museum...
 A few years ago, the association has organized the
filming of a documentary film in which the life of our
ancestors was described. This film was sent to Australia.

13. Museum – Nova Bukovica

15. The IT club  Members of the IT
team learn about the
new technology.
Together with their
leader, devise icons to
protect computes.
There are 12
computers there and
young people who are
18-30 years old can
be members of the
club.

16. The Firehouse
 The patron saint of
firefighters is Florian and
his anniversary is on May
4th. Fire Board has
various meetings. There
are plenty of members
who include children,
adults and teens.
Firefighters go to many
competitions. Our fire
station was built in 1928
and the fire community
was founded in 1904.

18. Cultural Artistic Society
“Lipa”
Cultural Artistic Society “Lipa “ is an association
in which people dance, act and sing and thereby
display the old customs. Participation in the
association makes people happy.

21. SLOVAKS IN MILJEVCI
Slovaks began to migrate to Miljevci in 1835.
They came from overpopulated parts of northern
Slovakia, more precisely, from Stara i Nova
Bistrica. The reason of their arrival was a search
for the land that would feed them. They settled the
part of Miljevci that leads towards Mikleuš. What
made them different from Croatian and Serbian
population was diligence, dedication to work,
simplicity and a large number of children in
families. It was recorded that there were 390
Slovaks in Miljevci. Original Slovak surnames,
which are mentioned in old books, are: Cerjak,
Podmanicki, Kljescik, Sobol, Krupa, Mrva,
Kraljik, Kolembus, etc.

22. Today, their descendants speak in
Slovakian language, which is
characterized by the Croatian and Serbian
influences, but they declare themselves as
Croatians. They feel like Slovaks, they
keep and cherish their tradition, culture
and language because their origin is
Slovakian.

23. In 2004., Matica Slovaka Miljevci was established , the president was
Đuro Sobol and their first performance was in the same year at the
Christmas concert in Osijek. Matica consists of 3 singing-dancing
groups, older, middle and younger.

25. In September 2008., Matica slovačka Miljevci organized the first Days
of corn which are regularly held every year and it is visited by guests
from Slovakia.

27. In 2009, Croatian – Slovakian home was built in which
different cultural events and all kind of meetings are held.

29. Writers from Nova Bukovica
Stjepan Tomaš was born
on January 21st 1947 in
Nova Bukovica and is
currently living in Osijek.
He is well known
croatian author and his
stories are very popular
among children.

30. Pavle Bistrović
 Born on June 9th, 1929 in Nova
Bukovica. He became a member of the
Croatian Writers Association after
publishing a collection of poems called
The vibrations of youth in 1954.
 He attended elementary school in Nova
Bukovici. He started to write poems since
early age. He used to write down lyrics on
pieces of paper while guarding livestock.
Because of this his childhood friends had
nicknamed him Poet.
 Pavle Bistrović died in his native village
in 2001, at the age of 72.

31. Easter 2014
 This year for Easter Nova Bukovica had the biggest Easter egg in
the whole Republic of Croatia. The egg was placed on the village’s
square. The egg was made by a local artist and children from our
school helped him with the colouring.