Tordinci

Tordinci is a Slavonian village and municipal centre on the left bank of the Vuka, 16 kilometres north of Vinkovci and 15 kilometres west of Borovo. The village counted 594 residents in 2021, while the municipality also encompasses Antin, Korođ and Mlaka Antinska. Its setting is unmistakably lowland: Tordinci stands at 87 metres above sea level, surrounded by fields associated chiefly with grain growing and livestock farming. Two churches reveal an unusually layered local identity—the Catholic parish church of the Holy Trinity, dating from 1738, and the Calvinist church built in 1868. The Reformed tradition reaches much further back, as Tordinci hosted a synod of Slavonian Calvinist congregations in 1551. The Croatian War of Independence is equally central to the village’s story: Tordinci was occupied, its Croatian residents were expelled, and a mass-grave memorial now anchors local remembrance. The renewed Croatian Victims Square brings together the municipal offices, the central war memorial and the principal stops on a compact walk through the settlement. Tordinci is therefore best approached as a small historical landscape rather than a conventional sightseeing centre.

Tordinci’s identity rests on the Vuka River, the surrounding agricultural plain and a remarkably long religious history. The settlement first appeared in written records in 1269 and came under Ottoman rule in 1526. With few Catholic priests present in the 16th century, Calvinism gained a firm foothold, and Tordinci hosted a synod of Slavonian Reformed congregations in 1551. A Catholic parish was established in 1737, shortly before the Holy Trinity church was built. Modern Tordinci forms one municipality with Antin, Korođ and Mlaka Antinska, covering roughly 50 square kilometres along the northern edge of Vukovar-Srijem County. The village’s present-day character also carries the memory of its occupation and losses in 1991, followed by the return of residents after the peaceful reintegration process in 1997.