VUKOVAR
- It has Croatia's largest river port, located at the confluence of the Vuka River and the Danube
- The name Vukovar (Serbian Cyrillic: Вуковар) means 'town on the Vuka River' (Vuko from the Vuka River, and vár from the Hungarian word for 'fortress'). The name of the Vuka River itself originates from the Slavic word 'vuk', meaning 'wolf
- Vukovar was mentioned first in the 13th century
- Vukovar was part of the Habsburg Monarchy, Slavonia (, and soon after in the Kingdom of Croatia-Slavonia, in 1868.
- Vukovar was heavily damaged during the Croatian War of Independence. Approximately 2,000 self-organised defenders defended the city for 87 days, between August and November 1991, against approximately 36,000 JNA troops supplemented with 110 vehicles and tanks and dozens of planes. The city suffered heavy damage during the siege and was eventually overrun. It is estimated that 2,000 defenders of Vukovar and civilians were killed, 800 went missing and 22,000 civilians were forced into exile.
- The damage to Vukovar during the siege has been called the worst in Europe since World War II, drawing comparisons with Stalingrad. The city's water tower, riddled with bullet holes, was retained by city planners to serve as a testimony to the events of the early 1990s.
- The Vukovar massacre, also known as the Vukovar hospital massacre or the Ovčara massacre, was the killing of Croatian prisoners of war and civilians by Serb paramilitaries and the Yugoslav People's Army (JNA) at the Ovčara farm southeast of Vukovar on 20 November 1991, during the Croatian War of Independence. The massacre occurred shortly after Vukovar's capture by the JNA, Croatian Serb Territorial Defence (TO), and paramilitaries from neighbouring Serbia. It was the largest massacre of the war and the worst war crime in Europe since World War II up until that point.
- In the final days of the battle, the evacuation of the Vukovar hospital was negotiated between Croatian authorities, the JNA and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). The JNA subsequently refused the ICRC access to the hospital despite the agreement and removed approximately 300 people from its premises. The group, largely consisting of Croats but also including Serbs, Hungarians, Muslims and two foreign nationals were transported to the Ovčara farm south of Vukovar. Once at the farm, the prisoners were beaten for several hours before taken to a prepared site, shot in groups of ten to twenty and buried in a mass grave. The mass grave was discovered in October 1992 and guarded by the United Nations Protection Force which had deployed to the area earlier that year. In 1996, 200 sets of remains were exhumed from the grave by International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY)

OSIJEK
- Osijek is the largest city and the economic and cultural centre of the eastern Croatian region of Slavonia, located on the right bank of the river Drava
- The name was given to the city due to its position on elevated ground which prevented the city being flooded by the local swamp waters. Its name Osijek comes from the Croatian word "oseka" which means "ebb tide".
- The origins of human habitation of Osijek dates back to Neolithic times, with the first known inhabitants belonging to the Illyrians and later invading Celtic tribes
- After the conquest of Pannonia, Osijek, was under the administration and protection of the Roman 7th legion which maintained a military castrum at the colony and a bridge over the river Drava. Roman emperor Hadrian raised the old settlement of Mursa to a colony with special privileges in 131
- The earliest recorded mention of Osijek dates back to 1196.The town was a feudal property of Kórógyi family between 1353 and 1472.
- The Turks rebuilt it in Ottoman oriental style and in 1566, Suleiman the Magnificent built a famous, 8 kilometer-long wooden bridge of boats in Osijek, considered at that time to be one of the wonders of the world
- Osijek was restored to western rule on 29 September 1687 when the Turks were ousted and the city was occupied by the Habsburg Empire.The Austrian authorities built a new fortress, outer walls and all five planned bastions known as Tvrđa, and the beautiful Holy trinity Squarein the heart of the town

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