Nuštar is a village in eastern Croatia

Croatia

Croatia , officially the Republic of Croatia , is a unitary democratic parliamentary republic in Europe at the crossroads of the Mitteleuropa, the Balkans, and the Mediterranean. Its capital and largest city is Zagreb. The country is divided into 20 counties and the city of Zagreb. Croatia covers ...

, located northeast of Vinkovci

Vinkovci

Vinkovci is a city in Croatia, in the Vukovar-Syrmia County. In the 2011 census, the total population of the city was 35,375, making it the largest town of the county...

 and west of Vukovar

Vukovar

Vukovar is a city in eastern Croatia, and the biggest river port in Croatia located at the confluence of the Vuka river and the Danube. Vukovar is the center of the Vukovar-Syrmia County...

, on the route D55

D55 (Croatia)

D55 state road in the eastern part of Croatia connects the cities and towns of Vukovar, Vinkovci, Županja to the state road network of Croatia, and most notably to the A3 motorway. The road is long...

. The population of Nuštar is 3,639, with a total of 5,772 people in the municipality, which also includes the nearby villages of Cerić

Cerić

Cerić is a village in eastern Croatia, located to the northeast of Vinkovci.During the Croatian War of Independence, Cerić was on the eastern front, and it was occupied by Serbian forces on October 2, 1991, to the detriment of the Croatian civilian population....

 and Marinci

Marinci, Croatia

Marinci is a village in the Nuštar Municipality, Vukovar-Syrmia County, eastern Croatia located northeast of Vinkovci and southwest of Vukovar. The population is 671 ....

 (census 2011).
90.79% declare themselves Croats

Croats

Croats are a South Slavic ethnic group mostly living in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and nearby countries. There are around 4 million Croats living inside Croatia and up to 4.5 million throughout the rest of the world. Responding to political, social and economic pressure, many Croats have...

 (census 2001).

History

The name Nuštar comes from monasterium, because a Benedictine monastery

Monastery

Monastery denotes the building, or complex of buildings, that houses a room reserved for prayer as well as the domestic quarters and workplace of monastics, whether monks or nuns, and whether living in community or alone .Monasteries may vary greatly in size – a small dwelling accommodating only...

 of the Holy Spirit existed there in 1263. The nobleman Nikola Berzeta acquired the estate in the 14th century, and in the 15th century it was owned by the Gorjanski

Gorjanski

Garay or Garai were a Hungarian noble family in the Kingdom of Hungary, a branch of the Dorozsma clan, with notable members in the 14th and 15th centuries. They were lords of Csesznek.-Name and origin:...

 family. A castle that was owned by the Khuen-Belassy family was expanded and had a church built within it in the 18th century. This church was renovated during the 19th century and the castle is now surrounded by a park.
Nuštar suffered major damage during the Croatian War of Independence

Croatian War of Independence

The Croatian War of Independence was fought from 1991 to 1995 between forces loyal to the government of Croatia—which had declared independence from the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia —and the Serb-controlled Yugoslav People's Army and local Serb forces, with the JNA ending its combat...

, when it was surrounded by the rebel Serb forces

Republic of Serbian Krajina

The Republic of Serbian Krajina was a self-proclaimed Serb entity within Croatia. Established in 1991, it was not recognized internationally. It formally existed from 1991 to 1995, having been initiated a year earlier via smaller separatist regions. The name Krajina means "frontier"...

 and often shelled. When Vukovar fell in the Battle of Vukovar

Battle of Vukovar

The Battle of Vukovar was an 87-day siege of Vukovar in eastern Croatia by the Yugoslav People's Army , supported by various paramilitary forces from Serbia, between August and November 1991. Before the Croatian War of Independence the Baroque town was a prosperous, mixed community of Croats,...

, Nuštar was the main extraction point for survivors and the village itself became surrounded from three directions. The parish church of the Holy Spirit suffered extensive damage in the war, which has since been repaired.