Last Updated: May 2026
Vukovar is a city in eastern Croatia, located on the banks of the Danube River near the border with Serbia. It is best known as a symbol of resilience and suffering due to its pivotal role in the Croatian War of Independence, but its history and cultural significance extend much further — back through Habsburg elegance, Ottoman occupation, and prehistoric settlements that gave the world one of archaeology’s most extraordinary artifacts. Sandy and I sailed from Budapest aboard the River Duchess as the Danube widened and the landscape flattened into the broad agricultural plains of Slavonia. Arriving in Vukovar felt different from the great imperial cities we had visited upstream. This was a city that had been through something — and had chosen, deliberately and with considerable courage, to come back.
