The fact that Sombor is the municipality and county seat today is the result of the consistent sequence of roles it has been given by historical circumstances, more often vested interests, throughout past times. Sombor had these roles as the centre of larger or smaller districts, administratively more or less important political units, by means of which it is easiest to follow its rises and declines.

Hump of Cobor family

On the whole, those rises and declines are perhaps the most important entries of the story about Sombor, which began in the 12th and 13th century, when a nameless settlement which would survive for many years to come, was founded. It was first mentioned in 1360, as part of a nobleman’s estate, at the time belonging to the influential Cobor family. Being mentioned frequently under the Cobors and their name, this settlement would develop at a steady pace. This, according to the customs of that period, would soon lead to another name being added to the already established name of Cobor - the name of the patron-saint Szent Mihaly. Thus the town’s first full name became Cobor-Szent-Mihaly. In order to deserve a saint’s name, the requirement was that the settlement, apart from its already achieved good reputation, also had a church.

Hump of Cobor Szent Mihaly

Cobor-Szent-Mihaly certainly met all these requirements, also having good prospects for the future, which lead to the change of roles - the Cobors would add “of Szent Mihaly” to their family noble name. The growing reputation and proof of steady development of Cobor-Szent-Mihaly was especially strengthened in 1478, with the construction of a fortification, which served as the advance guard and defense from all the more aggressive attacks by the Ottomans on the southern borders of Hungary.
However, as events soon proved, the fortress and the palisades were not strong enough to resist and stop the Turkish invasion. Therefore, the settlement came under Turkish rule in 1541,the year when Petrev-pasha declared it part of the Ottoman Empire, in which it would be mentioned in the books under the present name of Sombor for the first time in 1543. The very record about the mention of this new name best tells about the changes preceding these historical events. Namely, among the here hitherto settled Slav and Hungarian ethnic groups, the Hungarians would move northwards. On the other hand, the Slav peoples, in fact the Serb Orthodox inhabitants, by far the most numerous, stayed here and soon changed the Hungarian name “Cobor” into “Sombor”, a name more in accordance with their own language. The Turks also took this name over from them, since it was well known that, without a pressing need, they did not change the already existing names of settlements they conquered.

Sombor in Turkish times dymmy of town

Evidence about Sombor as the seat of an Ottoman district was left by Evlija Celebi, the great Turkish writer of travels, who visited Sombor in 1665: “... In the olden days, Celebi tells us, it was a big town. Remains of its buildings can clearly be seen even today. Now this town is part of the territory of the Segedin Turkish district... It is a very strong small quadrangular town. The town citadel was built of hard material... Across the trench... in the town...mostly silversmith shops are to be found”. Continuing his narration with the description of the town outside the citadel walls, Celebi depicts the characteristics of its inhabitants as well: ”It is a big town which lies on the southeast side of the fortress and is surrounded by vineyards, gardens and fenced flower- -gardens... There are fourteen Muslim mosques in all, among which Pasha’s Mosque stands out... There are two thousand solid, spacious, tile-roofed houses, ground-floor or multi floor ones... There is no running water in this area, but the place is very prosperous... All the non-Muslim inhabitants living there are not Hungarians, but Vlachs - Christians. These places are something special, they do not belong to Hungary, but to the provinces of Backa and Vlaska... Most of the inhabitants are merchants, and they all wear border guard clothes; they are very polite and brave people”. It should be added that at the time there were also two Muslim secondary schools and two Turkish chapels, six primary schools, two inns for travelers and “a Turkish bath which freshens up the soul”, so that the picture of Sombor as a respectable and prosperous small town, a place of good living for the Turks and hard living for the non-Muslim population, may look more complete.
The Christian population suffered severely, oppressed not only by the Turks, but also by the Tartars, who were in Sombor twice - in 1594 and 1598, as Turkish allies in the wars waged against the Austrian Empire from 1593 to 1606. Most often, the non-Muslim population sought salvation in refuge, and therefore the figures of the census roll carried out at the command of the Military Council in 1720 are not surprising. Even three and a half decades after the Asians had left, there were only 32,600 souls and not more than 3362 households (3265 of which belonged to Serbs, Bunjevaces and Sokaces) in the entire territory of Backa