Vukovar, city in eastern Croatia, on the Danube River, near its junction with the Vuka River, close to the Serbian border. During the civil war following Croatia's vote for independence from Yugoslavia in June 1991, the city was under Serbian siege for three months, falling to the Serbs in November 1991. Heavy Serb tank fire and shelling created extensive damage to nearly every structure, forcing all the Croats to leave. The region was then resettled by Serbian refugees—estimated at more than 150,000—fleeing war in other parts of the former Yugoslavia. Prior to the war, Vukovar had been a prosperous town with a river cargo port and textile and agricultural industries.
There were several beautiful churches in the city, representing the prewar mixed ethnic character of the city, when the population included Orthodox Serbs, Catholic Croats, Muslims, and others. These included a Catholic Franciscan church from the beginning of the 18th century and, from the same era, the Orthodox church of St. Nicholas. There was also a city museum founded in 1948.
