Hrvatska
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Croats of Burgerland
I was recently in Burgerland (Hungarian side) and decided to create thread about historical Croatian community there
Burgenland Croats (Croatian: Gradišćanski Hrvati, German: Burgenlandkroaten, Hungarian: Burgenlandi horvátok, Slovak: Gradiščanskí Chorváti) is the name for ethnic Croats in the Austrian state of Burgenland and neighboring regions of Hungary and Slovakia.
Burgenland Croats began to emigrate from Lika, Krbava, Kordun, Banovina, Moslavina, Western Bosnia and Gorski Kotar, areas that were occupied by the Turks, in the 16th century during the Turkish wars (1533-1584). Refugee Croats were given land and independent ecclesiastic rights by the Austrian King Ferdinand I because many of their villages had been pillaged by the Turks. This gave the Croats a safe place to live while providing Austria with a buffer zone between Vienna and the Ottoman Empire to the south and east.
The first wave of emigration came in the 1530s after the Turks destroyed almost all the settlements between the river Una and the mountain Velebit, and the river Kupa and the mountain range Kapela. In the second wave of emigration in the 1540s many Croats left Slavonia. The third and last wave of emigration, came in the 1750s and 1760s.
Despite many languages that surround them Burgenland Croats preserved their Croatian language and its dialects from all Croatian regions from which they originated. Burgenland Croatian language as well as the general Croatian standard language combines Chakavian, Shtokavian and Kajkavian dialect. But unlike Croatian standard language which is mostly based on the most widespread Shtokavian dialect, Burgenland variant of the Croatian language is based on Chakavian dialect. Burgenland Croatian includes phrases no longer used in standard Croatian as well as certain phrases and words taken from German and Hungarian.
Area where Croats emigrated from based on linguistic evidence
Some photos:
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