Ilok Slovak community is closely linked with Slovaks in Serbia where there are Slovak communities and Slovak majority villages just across the border and with Slovak language being one of the official languages in Vojvodina. Once Evangelical Slovaks were granted the right to settle and buy property in the Kingdom of Slavonia in 1859 Slovak settlers across the Danube river in Bačka started to move to Syrmia. Slovak Evangelical Church of the Augsburg Confession established the local parish in Ilok in 1864 with building serving a place of worship, a school and a teacher's apartment. The Slovak Evangelical school, which existed until 1896, was at the time was one of four confessional schools in the town alongside Croat Catholic, Serb Orthodox and the Jewish Israelite school. State sponsored school education in Ilok was reinitiated in 1922 after the establishment of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes and the public Slovak school will continue its work until 1957. The first Slovak cultural association was established by students of the local gymnasium in 1925 which in the same year joined the Association of Czechoslovak Academicians in Yugoslavia. The Slovak Reading Society was established in 1928 which preserved that name until 1951 when it changed the name into contemporary name the Slovak Cultural and Educational Association Ľudovít Štúr. Slovak branch of the national Union of Czechs and Slovaks was established in Ilok in 1981 with Slovak cultural life continuing even during the Croatian War of Independence. Following the completion of the United Nations Transitional Administration for Eastern Slavonia, Baranja and Western Sirmium Slovak Cultural and Educational Association Ľudovít Štúr joined the Union of Slovaks in Croatia while local Matica slovenská was established on 18 December 1997. In that period Slovak community used the right to organize Slovak language education for the first four grades until 2002/2003 school year after which only elective Slovak classes were offered. In 2014 local community commemorated 140 years of the existence of the Evangelical-Slovak Church in Ilok. Gallery See also Church of St. Michael the Archangel, Ilok References External links Cities and towns in Croatia Populated places in Vukovar-Syrmia County Syrmia County Populated places on the Danube Populated places in Syrmia Slavonia Croatia–Serbia border crossings