The first word in the name means New, and there's also an Old Gradiška nearby, the village of Stara Gradiška and the Bosnian town of Gradiška.
History
Nova Gradiška in 1906
Nova Gradiška is often referred to as The Youngest Town.
The town of Nova Gradiška was founded in 1748 as an outpost in the Military Frontier and was first named Friedrichsdorf in German. Already in 1750 it was renamed Neu-Gradischka which later became Nova Gradiška in Croatian. The Hungarian name is Újgradiska.[4]
The first building constructed was the church of Saint Tereza, which is an important monument of baroque architecture in Slavonia. The old core of the town comprises the church of Saint Terezija and the old court house and prison from the 18th century.
Between 1881 and 1918, Nova Gradiška was a district capital in the Požega County of the Kingdom.
Directly elected minority councils and representatives are tasked with consulting tasks for the local or regional authorities in which they are advocating for minority rights and interests, integration into public life and participation in the management of local affairs.[6] At the 2023 Croatian national minorities councils and representatives electionsSerbs of Croatia fulfilled legal requirements to elect 15 members minority councils of the Town of Nova Gradiška.[7]
Tourism
Here are several hotels and other tourist resorts present. The Tourist board is also present and well developed in Nova Gradiška.[8] There are a number of townfaires. Some of the most important ones are:
Carnival festivities "Pokladne svečanosti"
Flower show "Izložba cvijeća"
The Folklore Show ("međužupanijska smotra folklora")
The display of traditional wind instruments ("smotra tradicijskih puhačkih instrumenata")
Nova Gradiška Music Summer ("Novogradiško glazbeno Ljeto")
Historically, there were also two Serbian Orthodox Churches in Nova Gradiška, one of them destroyed during World War II and one during the Croatian War of Independence.[9] Those were the Church of Saint Nicholas and the Church of the Holy Trinity. The Church of the Holy Trinity was the central orthodox church located at the town square.[9] It was erected in 1824 at the spot of an earlier wooden church from 1755.[9] The church was destructed by the Ustasha regime in 1941.[9] The new neo-Byzantine Church of the Holy Trinity was complete in 1982 but it was detonated 9 times and destroyed during the Croatian War of Independence.[9] The second church of Saint Nicholas was constructed in 1818 on the local cemetery, it was reconstructed in 1866 but it was also destroyed during the Croatian War of Independence.[9]
Local electronic media
Croatian Radio Nova Gradiška (Croatian: Hrvatski Radio Nova Gradiška, HRNG) is the local radio station.[10]
Commerce
Today some furniture industry and beer industry exists in small parts. There is an initiative to extend the industry park.[11]
^Beer, Mathias (2012). "2 stund von hier schon alles türkisch ist [2 hours from here everything is Turkish]". Damals (in German). Vol. 44, no. 4. pp. 70–75.
