Geographic location

The Subotica region occupies a heartland position in the great plain and is surrounded by the Carpathian Mountains, Alps and the mountains of the Balkan Peninsula. In fact, the city lies slightly to the north from the Bela Crkva-Stara Pazova-Sremska Mitrovica line designating 45o of the North Temperate Zone Subotica is situated on the intersection of various geo-morphologic units. Telečka, a loess plateau on the south spans into the Subotica-Horgos sandy terrain northwards. The city is located centrally between the rivers Danube on the north and the Tisza on the east and represents the most distinctive urban settlement between the two rivers.

The region's climate is typical for the great plain, with very hot summers and severe winters and small annual quantity of sediments. Northerly cold and westerly wet winds are the most frequent of the various winds that blow in the region, thus the vegetation is typical of a steppe, but it was replaced, in the course of times, with cultivated crops.
The tourist and transit location of Subotica has been, so to say, improved by the establishment of Serbia and Montenegro. Namely, the territory of Subotica lies in the vicinity of the international transit motorway, E-75 and two international, highly frequent border crossings. Presently, Horgos and Kelebia are the border crosses having the highest interaction of passengers and goods both in road and railway transport thus, generally, attributing Subotica as an advantageous location. There are traffic-related factors in the background of this beneficial position, especially in view of the fact that the city is located on the presently most important spatial and strategic direction: Corridor X .

Archaeology

The earliest archaeological findings in the broader Subotica area were excavated along the Lake Ludas front and originate from the period of the last Ice Age. Yet, there are also sites from the period of Neolith, Copper and Bronze Ages. Some of the findings evidence the presence of Scythians, Dracians, Goths, Huns and Avars in the area. In times when Hungarian tribes were settling the territory of the Carpathian Basin they encountered Slav tribes in this region.

History

The name "Subotica" appears much later, i.e. in 1391, in written sources as . There are scarce relevant data about the city from that period, except for the one that the town was from 1526 under the jurisdiction of the Szeged sandzak.
The progress of Subotica is landmarked by the following dates: 1749, when it was awarded the status of a trading town under the name St. Mary, 1779, when the town was declared a free royal town under the name Mariatheresiapolis and 1869, when the Szeged-Subotica railroad was built.
In the period after this latter date, Subotica experienced a renaissance in cultural and economic progress. The town started to build connection with the rest of Europe thus the railroad brought along new people: salesmen, bankers and others who sublimated the new cultural needs of the times.