The village today
Rakovac began as a prnjavor, a settlement of serfs who worked the monastery’s land. The old village grew around the monastery, in the valley of the Rakovac stream.
The 1877 Austrian special map still shows only the old village in its valley, between Beočin and Ledinci (more old maps).
After the old village was burned in 1943, it was not rebuilt in the same place. A new settlement, Novi Rakovac, grew further down the valley, towards the main road between Novi Sad and Beočin. Later the name was shortened to simply Rakovac, and the old part became Stari Rakovac. Over the following decades many families from Bosnia settled here, drawn by work at the Beočin cement factory. Because Novi Sad is so close, many weekend houses were also built in the hills.
Today Rakovac is one of the largest local communities of Beočin municipality. It has a branch of the Beočin primary school (grades 1–4), a kindergarten group and a good number of small and medium-sized firms.
| Census | Residents |
|---|---|
| 1948 | 582 |
| 1961 | 1,060 |
| 1971 | 968 |
| 1981 | 1,081 |
| 1991 | 1,357 |
| 2002 | 1,989 |
| 2011 | 2,248 |
| 2022 | 2,137 |
Archaeological site · protected cultural property
Seven thousand years in one place: a Neolithic village, a Roman villa, a medieval Benedictine abbey that became a fortress, and today an excavation site on the edge of Rakovac.
From a legend of 1498 to today
A hunter’s vow, a scriptorium that copied Serbia’s medieval law code, a baroque golden age, destruction in 1943 and a slow rebirth.
1941–1945
Quarry workers who swore the partisan oath, raids on the quarry’s dynamite store, the great offensive of August 1942, and a village burned in 1943.
Rakovac
