The Fijaker — Sombor’s horse-drawn heritage

ABOUT THIS ATTRACTION

Every town on the Pannonian plain had horse cabs, but only Sombor made them its symbol. The golden age began in the mid-1800s, when the town magistrate designated a fijaker stand for thirty carriages — municipal transport, Bačka style. The cabbies became characters: singing, whistling, arguing politics on the stand. The ballad “Fijaker stari” and the town’s own anthem “U tom Somboru” fixed the tradition in song, and the local writer Velimir “Velja” Subotić kept the memory alive with his verse about naming every horse in his soul. The last working fijaker-man, Sanko Milutinović — čiča Duca — died in 2000, and for a while the tradition seemed to end. It did not: today a single fijaker still cruises the green streets, the fijaker stand by the City Museum keeps the booking habit alive, and the Western Bačka horse-lovers’ association periodically revives free town rides in the old style. In the City Museum, two original Sombor fijakers from the early 20th century stand preserved — and the ethno restaurant that bears their name serves under the plane trees of the town park.