The Romans conquered Sirmium in the late 1st century BC. The city developed at a breakneck speed and in the 1st century AD it was given the highest ranking – it became Colonia Flavia Sirmiensium with outstanding military and strategic importance. It was the place where the emperors Trajan, Marcus Aurelius and Claudius II Gothicus prepared their military campaigns. By the mid-3rd century Sirmium became the economic centre of the entire Pannonia and gave the Empire several great men. In the city or its vicinity the emperors Decius Trajan, Aurelius, Probus and Maximilian were born, they were all romanized Illyrians – the natives.

The confirmation of its prominent status within the Roman Empire was given to Sirmium during the Tetrarchy when it became one of the four capitals of the Empire, a city with an Imperial Palace, a hippodrome, a mint, an amphitheatre, a theatre, numerous workshops, public baths, temples, as well as a myriad of public palaces and luxurious villas.

From the year 313 Christian church started to play a big role in Sirmium, after the city had becometheEpiscopal see. For almost a century there were bitter religious conflicts over different teachings and heresies. Five episcopal councils were held in the city. Well-known “Sirmium formulae” resolved dogmatic issues relevant for the entire Christian world. In the 5th century the city’s development was interrupted by the Hunnic destruction. The city was alternatively ruled by the Eastern Goths and the Gepids until it was annexed to the Eastern Roman state by Justinian II. By the mid-6th century the Avars invaded Srem, together with the first Slavic groups, and in 582 finally conquered and destroyed Sirmium.

Inthe 9th century Srem was a part of Bulgaria and the role of Sirmium was increasing since the Bulgarians, who had adopted Christianity, established the episcopacy there. It is believed that the Slavic educator Methodius had been the bishop of Sirmium, before he left for Moravia. After the arrival of the Hungarians Sirmium was alternatively ruled by the Byzantines and the Hungarians, until 1180 when the Byzantine rule vanished forever and only ruins remained of what once used to be a glorious city. Only the renewed monastery of St Demetrius with the fortress was left standing. In the 13th century a new settlement which had grown outside the walls got its present name after the monastery – Dmitrovica (Latin “Civitas Sancti Demetri”, in Hungarian “Szava Szent-Demeter”).

Hungarian population retreated towards its homeland before the Turkish invasion, while the Serbs increasingly immigrated, which led to Srem becoming a Serbian region within a century and despot Stevan Lazarevic, among other possessions, was given Mitrovica as well. After 1529 Srem was finally a part of the Ottoman Empire. In just a few decades from a devastated place Mitrovica turned into Seher Dmitrovica, an oriental city with a big bazaar and became the economic and administrative center of Srem. With the Peace treaty of Požarevac, the city was freed from the Turks and annexed to the Habsburg Monarchy.By the mid-18th century the Ninth Petrovaradin Border Regiment was established with its headquarters in Mitrovica. The border command built about thirty buildings as a military headquarters of the regiment.

Even Bonfini, a historian at the court of Matthias Corvinus, wrote that Sirmium got its name after the leader of the Illyrian tribe Sir, whose name was later latinized into Sirmus. The name of the settlement appears as early as the 4th century BC. Another theory is that the name originates from the leader of the Celtic tribe Taurisci, also from the 4th century BC.

It seems that the root of the word originates from a Sanskrit word “sru” which means streaming, in this case “water flow”, “flow”, similar to the root of the word “ser”, which in its old Indian form means to drip, from which the Latin form serum stems from. The Illyrian word “sir” is probably a reduced form of the same word, and by latinization it became Sir-m-ium. Be it as it may, this latinized name dates back to the very beginning of the 1st century AD and the arrival of the Romans into this small and prosperous Illyrian and Celtic settlement on the bank of the Sava. The name Sirmium is directly related to the river Sava itself, Savum in Latin. At that time several other variations of the original name were recorded, namely: Civitas Sirmiensium et Amanttinorum (Pliny (Plinius, lat.), the beginning of the 1st century) and Colonia Flavia Sirmium (79 AD). However, both the origins of the name and the population of Sirmium had a centuries-old tradition even before the Romans arrived. This was mainly the result of a favourable geographical position in the fertile confluence of the Sava and the Danube rivers, which contributed to the development of trade between the Hellenistic (Greek) and the western world, and even in the old era Sirmium’s role in this process was of great importance.

The variation of the name Sirmium, Sirmio (Sirmij) represents a direct continuity of the Latin name for the settlement and as such it remains in use despite the fall of the Roman Empire and frequent conquers, devastations and incinerations, first by the Eastern Goths, then the Huns (441), the Gepids and the Avars (582). The name even survived the period between the 8th and the 11th century and the change of the Frank, then the Bulgarian and finally the Byzantine rule.

In 1180 Byzantium handed the city over to the Kingdom of Hungary, which built a new medieval city on the foundations of the devastated and once glorious Sirmium. The city was named Civitas Sancti Demetrii (the city of St. Demetrius), after the city’s patron and a Christian martyr Saint Demetrius who had been executed in Sirmium. Ever since Hungarian people have been calling it Szávaszentdemeter, and Serbs – D(i)mitrovica.

In 1526 the city fell under the Ottoman rule. It was the beginning of Mitrovica’s growth as a Turkish borough. The city was known as Seher-Mitrovica or in Turkish Dimitrofçe.

With the Peace Treaty of Pozarevac in 1718 Mitrovica became a part of the Habsburg Monarchy in which Serbs received certain privileges, such as using their own language. It was then that the modified Serbian name for the city appeared for the first time (without the first letter “D”) – Mitrovica. By 1881 the Military border and the direct Austrian administration had been abolished, the city was known by its official German name Mitrovitz, but from that year on together with receiving the status of a free royal city, the city’s official name was in Serbian, i.e. Croatian language – Mitrovica/Mitrovica. This name lasted for about 40 years, until the fall of Austro-Hungary and the creation of the new mutual country of Serbs, Croats and Slovenians, when in the years after 1918 the geographical prefix Sremska was officially added. One of the reasons for this change was the need to formally differentiate Mitrovica from the city in Kosovo which had the same name, and now for the first time they were both in the same country.

The following change in the name was made by the Ustasha occupation authorities in 1941, when Srem was annexed to the Independent State of Croatia. The name was then changed into Croatian Mitrovica, but was changed back to Sremska Mitrovica in 1944, after the city had been liberated, and it is the name the city has borne ever since.

There are some other names in the languages of national minorities, such as Ruthenian Srimska Mitrovica and Croatian Srijemska Mitrovica. The names Srijem, Srijemska Mitrovica or Srijemski Karlovci were previously used by “ijekavian” Serbs, but today are only used by Catholic people who speak our language.

In Vulgar Latin language Sirmium was called Sermi. In the Museum of Vojvodina in Sremska Mitrovica some data are exhibited that claim that the older form of the city’s name was Sermi. In the collection “Vojvodina” (book I, Novi Sad (1939) page 109) in the part referring to toponymy it says that Sirmium was just the name of the city and not the territory. Further on, in the footnote 11 of the abovementioned book it says that the form with E instead of I (Sermenses) has been confirmed by inscriptions (“the article in the Zeitschrift fur roman Philologie, vol.HLVI, page 386, a piece entitled Examples of Vulgar Latin language, pages 24, 26, 31, 65”).

In the book “Sirmium – A history of a Roman city from 1st to 4th century” by Miroslava Mirkovic, on page 110 it says that the inscriptions from 6th century from Salona mention two figures who can be assumed to have fled Sirmium after the city had fallen into the hands of the Avars. One of them is an abbess Johanna, mentioned in the Vulgar Latin inscription: “Here lies in peace the holy abbess Johanna, a citizen of Sirmium who lived…” (In Latin: “….abatissa Johanna civis SERMENSES qui bicit….”).

The past of Sremska Mitrovica and its immediate surroundings, with a historical epoch that has existed for about two millennia, has its deeper roots in material culture of pre-historic populations and goes back to the beginnings of human life in Srem and Pannonian region – about 7000 years BC.
For the oldest epoch of human society, the old Stone Age (the Paleolithic era) there is no archeological evidence to confirm its presence on the territory of the present-day Sremska Mitrovica. Only the fossils of the mammoth (Elephas primigenius), the giant deer (Cervus megaceros) and the wild ox (Bos primigenius), which partly represent the fauna of that period, were found in the mud of the Sava River and indicate that there might have been temporary settlements of Paleolithic people whose primary occupation was hunting and gathering.

Today the exhibits of the discovered prehistoric findings of the lowland fauna are part of the permanent exhibition of the Museum of Srem.
If Fruska gora is observed as “an island” in the endless Pannonian plain it is not difficult to conclude that the prehistoric hunter often left his safe abode and went on longer fishing and hunting expeditions to the river Sava, where he spent several months in his temporary shelters, made exclusively for such occasions. The new Stone Age (the Neolithic era) in this territory is typically characterized by the emergence of agriculture, domestication of animals, as well as creation of new settlements – groups of dugouts, most often along the rivers or near the water. This was also the case with little agricultural and fishing settlements along the Sava, where Sremska Mitrovica is located today.

The older phase of the Neolithic age is known in archeology of our area as Starcevo and Keres civilization. Material remains of Starcevo culture were found at the site Kalvarija, so called ground zero and the centre of development of the future settlement in prehistory and ancient times, a small and almost inconspicuous hill in the eastern part of the present city, a subject of mysticism and stories for as long Mitrovica and its people have existed. Kalvarija elevation (today with a little catholic chapel and a crypt erected in 1921 and the cemetery from the 19th century) shaped as a horseshoe, 12 metres tall, is the only natural elevation visible in Mitrovica and its vicinity. Next to it there is the Cikas stream, which runs on the western side from its source on Fruska gora to the Sava River. With a very favourable position, the accessibility to potable water and the Sava, where Starcevo people used to go fishing, and probably to sail as well, the conditions were ideal for a larger settlement. So called Vinca culture is a successor of Starcevo culture in this area, it expanded the original settlement (Kalvarija) to two more locations directly next to the river, today on the outskirts of the city: Leget in the east and Varda or Little Side in the western suburbs of the present city. The ending of the early Stone Age is marked by the cultural group of Sopot and Lendjer that migrated to the former Starcevo and Vinca settlement from the western parts of Srem and Slavonia.

During the Copper Age (the Eneolithic Age) which comes after the younger Stone Age, Srem and the present area of Mitrovica were populated by new ethnic groups from the north and the west (Bodrog, Krstur, Baden and Vucedol groups) that had already been using metal and because of that managed to subjugate the natives. Typical findings from this period are multilayered settlements, as well as skillfully made items, examples of primitive metallurgy –fan like tools made of copper which could have been only brought through trade (the findings from the Leget site).

The Metal Age, which in this area started with the Middle Bronze Age,at its advanced stage was marked by the beginnings of plow farming anddeveloped metal processing. During that time this space was mostly populated by people from Vatin, Dubrovnik and Zutobrdo groups. The special value of bronze, as a special material in a plain, can be seen in the discoveries of bronze objects in storages where people kept their valuables in the times before the invasion of new civilizations that already had iron. One such civilization, so called Thracian and Khmer civilization, marks the beginning of the Iron Age (Hallstatt) in Srem area. Even to this day neither archeology nor history can provide more precise data on ethnicity of the population of prehistoric Mitrovica from the Iron Age. Some ancient sources mention tribes from the diverse Illyrian group –the Amantes, as possible settlers at that age in this area, while archeological excavations entertain the possibility of the existence of Pannonian tribes’ settlements.

With the arrival of the Celts Srem entered the protohistoric epoch, also known in history as the younger Iron Age (La Tene). This excellently organized warrior tribe arrived in Srem in the area of the present-day Mitrovica after the death of Alexander of Macedonia, at the end of the 4th century BC. Their tribe, or tribe alliance, known as the Scordisci,inhabited the wider downstream area of the Sava River and the confluence with the Danube and formed the first community that had features of a primitive state in this area. At Kalvaria site a Celtic (Scordisci) settlement was discovered, but later was badly devastated by new Roman excavations. To the area of Kalvaria settlement the Celts brought the use of iron as the main material, early pottery work and minting, as preconditions for the more significant development of trade, and initiated new commodity and money economy which rapidly replaced the previous primitive subsistence economy. At the end of Hallstatt Greek traders were intensively visiting the area (mostly by ships, on the Sava River) and brought primarily craftwork and forged products, which has been confirmed by numerous archeological findings of Greek jewelry and other items found in the wider city area and its vicinity. Anyhow, the Celtic opidium (fortress) is the early foundation of the prehistoric Sirmium, which the Roman colonizers found and initially used, at the peak of the Ancient era (the 1st century).

Thus, the continuity of life in the prehistoric age of Sremska Mitrovica lasted from the younger Stone Age until the arrival of the Romans,with minor interruptions in the Early Bronze Age.

Having founded the city on the banks of the Sava River, the Romans made its development possible. The city grew at a breakneck speed and in the 1stcentury AD it acquired the highest possible ranking as a city – it became a Colony of Roman citizens and attained significant military and strategic importance. Emperors Trajan, Marcus Aurelius and Claudius II prepared their war campaigns there. From the middle of the 3rd century Sirmium became the economic center of the entire Pannonia, and gave the Empire several great men. Emperors Decius Trajan, Aurelian, Probus and Maximilian were born in the city or its vicinity – all Romanized Illyrians, the natives.

During the Roman rule Sirmium was also one of the four capitals of the Empire (Augusta – Treverorum – Mediolanum – Nikomedia – Sirmium). The best known historian of the 4th century Ammianus Marcellinus, called Sirmium “famous and populous mother of cities”. The city was a metropolis of Pannonia and Illyria, an early Christian center with numerous bishops and martyrs. At its peak, in the 3rd and the 4th century, it had a big mint for gold and other kinds of money, a luxurious imperial palace with an aqueduct and a spa, a hippodrome, a theatre and an amphitheater, a forum and other important buildings. So far, eight early Christian temples have been discovered, best known being those dedicated to Saint Irenaeus, Saint Demetrius and Saint Sinerot. At the time of the greatest persecution of Christians, on Easter day, 6th May 304, the first bishop of Sirmium Saint Irenaeus was executed and three days later his deacon Demetrius as well. After 313 Sirmium became a prominent Christian center. During the 4th century several Pan-Roman church councils were held there and the famous Sirmium formulae were adopted, also, so called Arian teaching was confirmed and afterwards condemned.

By the end of the 4th century the city had been conquered by the Eastern Goths, and by 441 it had practically disappeared in the Hunnic slaughter and the great fire. Due to the Hunnic devastation of Sirmium the cult of Saint Demetrius was moved to Thessaloniki. A lot different rulers had taken turns before it surrendered to the Avars and the surviving inhabitants emigrated to Dalmatia. During this period the conquest of Sirmium was crucial for maintaining control over Southern Pannonia.

In 1688 the Austrian army arrived in Srem and after massive destruction under the Peace treaty of Pozarevac, the city, which had been completely devastated, became a part of the Hungarian section of the Habsburg monarchy. At that time Sremska Mitrovica was a border city in the Habsburg monarchy. Since the Sava River was the border towards the underdeveloped Ottoman Empire the city became a part of the Military border, the Petrovaradin regiment sector. This largely determined the development of the city in this period. The location of Sremska Mitrovica in the bordering region of the Habsburg monarchy towards the underdeveloped neighbour – the Ottoman Empire, contributed to its stagnation when compared to the previous Turkish period and the loss of its importance and prominence, at the same time the cities in the northern area (Sombor, Novi Sad, Zrenjanin) were going through a general revival.

Despite the unfavourable location the city developed and spread to the north. However, these changes did not influence the existing city structure around the present day Zitni square, so this part of the town remained mostly Serbian with an emphasis on trade and craft activities. Even today this part of the city is recognizable by the preserved remains of Turkish urbanism, such as triangular Zitni square and winding, narrow streets surrounding it. Also, today both Orthodox city churches are there, the old and the new one.
Not long after the merger new nations began to settle there: Germans, Hungarians, Ruthenians, Croatians. The centre of their settlement was the northern, less swampy part of the city, the present-day Square of St Trinity, where the Roman Catholic and Greek Catholic (Ruthenian) churches are today. This part of the city immediately became the centre of the city, and between this part and the Serbian part a segment with military objects was built, which kept its original purpose until the city gained the title of the free royal city in 1881. This division with two centres within one city was unique among the important cities in Vojvodina.

By the end of the 19th century the border on the Sava pacified and the new neighbour was small and underdeveloped Serbia. This contributed to the abolition of the Military border and the military rule in the city, as well as to gaining the status of a free royal city in 1881. The first mayor was noble Cira Milekic. With this novelty there was also a sudden rise of the city, especially in agriculture. Transport on the Sava River gained more significance and the city developed more in the coastal area where new streets were arranged and the first small factories built. Parobrodska street (Sremska Mitrovica) was shaped at that time and the richest families settled there. The railway passage 2km to the north from the centre contributed to the second line of development towards north, where the first industry appeared and which was related to the railway station complex. In the centre of the city the greatest change was the creation of the city park in place of the military training course, with the most prestigious private and public buildings being built shortly afterwards: the new Orthodox church of Saint Stephen, the Serbian House building, the “Magistrate” building (the present-day Police Administration), “Judicial board” building (the present-day art gallery), as well as homes of the richest city traders. The former two city centres – Zitni square and the Square of Saint Trinity were in this way joined by the square now called the Square of Saint Demetrius (colloquially “Majmunac”).

At the turn of the 20th century the city exceeded the figure of 10,000 inhabitants. However, this was not enough to bridge the “gap” between the city and other more prominent cities in Vojvodina.

In 1918 Sremska Mitrovica became a part of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenians, later the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. With this change the city found itself in a much more favourable position, now being in the centre of the country on the road between its two main centres – Belgrade and Zagreb. Even so, in the period between the two world wars the city developed slowly due to underdeveloped market, which contributed to the concentration of economic activity in big cities.

During the World War II Sremska Mitrovica was a part of the Independent State of Croatia (NDH) and between 1941 and 1944 the city was called Croatian Mitrovica. In just a few weeks in August and September 1942 the criminals of the Ustasa police penal expedition under the command of Viktor Tomic killed over 400 people in the vicinity of the Serbian Orthodox cemetery, in the fields of Radinci and the Sava embankment, while the total number of the victims of Tomic’s expedition in the Srem area is estimated to be over 6,000 innocent people (mostly Serbian, but also Jews and Roma people), as well as over 10,000 people who were sent to concentration camps. At least 404 people from Mitrovica itself were killed in that period.

After five days of fighting, the city (during the operation to break through the Syrmian front) was liberated from the fascist authorities by the 16th and the 11th Krajina division of the People Liberation Army and the Yugoslav Partisan Squads, as well as the 4th artillery regiment and the 87th armored motorized regiment Kachusha of the Soviet Red Army, on 1 November 1944. The enemy army consisted of 30,000 soldiers: Germans, Ustashas, as well as a smaller number of fugitive members of Nedic’s gendarmerie and SDS. German forces gathered around the 13th SS “Handzar” division and included several infantry and motorized units from the regular army composition (Wehrmacht), as well as a few dozen anti-tank and anti-aircraft batteries. The Ustasha forces in the city had 5,417 soldiers of joint Ustasha and Home guard forces, according to the data from the beginning of 1945 (Mitrovica was the seat of the military district and the command centre of the so called 13th standing active camaraderie of the Ustasha army, divided into five units).
The four-year occupation left deep scars on the population and the city. In 1938 Mitrovica had the population of 16,199 inhabitants, and in December 1944 only 9,292.

The greatest loss, apart from the mass destruction and displacement, was definitely the loss of life. The occupying forces killed at least 662 citizens of Mitrovica. Ninety-five of which were partisans, 284 were shot, 208 died in concentration camps, 77 died in some other way. Two hundred and twenty-two citizens of Mitrovica saw the end of the war permanently disabled. On the other hand, about 500 inhabitants of Sremska Mitrovica died serving German or Ustasha military forces, or were shot after the war had ended because of their collaboration with the enemy. Thus, in 1946, dr Petar Gvozdic, among others who had been imprisoned, was sentenced to death. He was the pre-war president of the Mitrovica wing of the Croatian Peasant Party and the first, so called, Ustasha cityofficer.

November 1st 1944 is considered to be the beginning of the city’s development in the modern age. For more than 50 years this date was celebrated as the Day of the city. Today the liberation of the city in both world wars is celebrated during the city’s November festivities.

After the war the city’s ethnic structure changed. The Jewish population had disappeared during the war, and instead of the local Germans, whohad made up the significant 20% of the population, and were evicted to their native country, Serbs from the neighboring villages and other parts of the country arrived. The city became the centre of the Srem county, later renamed Srem district. The city saw sudden development in the decades after the war, due to its locationnear the most important road of the SFRY, “Bratstvo-Jedinstvo” road. Numerous new industrial, administrative, educational and health care objects were built. A number of residential blocks were constructed as well. Because of that the city’s population tripled in only four decades, from 13,000 people after the World War II to almost 40,000 at the beginning of the 1990s. During this time the greatest construction projects were carried out – a modern embankment and two bridges over the Sava River (road and pedestrian). The road bridge in Sremska Mitrovica is the key traffic connection between Srem and Backa on one side and Macva on the other. It was open for traffic on 19th November 1977 and it replaced the only bridge that had existed before – the old pontoon bridge with one lane which was built in 1951. The Saint Irenaeus bridge was opened in 1994, it is 262.5m long and it connects the centre of Sremska and Macvanska Mitrovica.