Reformed Church – Kopačevo (Kopács)
With its 890 seats, the Reformed church of Kopačevo is the largest Reformed church in Drávaszög (Baranja). The congregation of this village next to the Kopački rit wetlands was formed in the first decades of the Reformation, and its present church was built at the beginning of the 19th century.
The congregation is thought to have been founded around 1545, and the first preacher of the Gospel here was probably Mihály Sztárai. István Kopácsi, known as the founder of the Sárospatak college, was presumably a native of the village. In 1576 Miklós Kopácsi signed the Canons of Hercegszőlős on behalf of the congregation of Kopačevo; they still form the basis of its church order today. According to the earliest known figures, 1,044 Reformed believers lived in the village in 1782–1785, and as many as 1,209 in 1886.
The earlier church burned down in 1666; a new one was built in its place and enlarged several times. The foundations of the present church were laid in 1804, it was consecrated in 1808 and enlarged again in 1848. In 1759 pastor Sámuel Polgárdi Czene began keeping the parish register, in which, besides the names of pastors and schoolmasters, he also recorded the history of the church. The street-facing tower of the church, which stands in a garden enclosed by an iron fence, is articulated by round-arched windows and decorated with pilasters at the corners.
During the war in the former Yugoslavia, between 1991 and 1995, the village came under the control of the Republic of Serbian Krajina, and about half of its inhabitants fled. The church suffered heavy damage; after the war it was restored with the support of the Hungarian state, and the work was completed in 1999. In the same year the Reformed Christian Church of Hungarians in Croatia adopted its present name at a synod held in Kopačevo. After the war most of the refugees returned, and today the congregation has around four hundred members.
Visiting: Kopačevo lies about 10 km north-east of Osijek, next to Bilje. The Kopački rit Nature Park stretches beside the village, so a visit to the church combines well with exploring the Danube–Drava floodplain.
Sources: Wikipedia · Wikipedia (English) · Wikipedia – Hungarian Reformed Christian Church in Croatia
Photo: Szajci / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0 · Photo: Szajci / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
Town:
Kopačevo (Kopács)