Novi Bečej

Novi Bečej Нови Бечеј
Town and municipality
Serbian Orthodox church in Novi Bečej
Novi Bečej Location of Novi Bečej within Serbia
Coordinates: 45°36′N 20°7′E / 45.600°N 20.117°E / 45.600; 20.117Coordinates: 45°36′N 20°7′E / 45.600°N 20.117°E / 45.600; 20.117
Country	Serbia
Province	Vojvodina
District	Central Banat
Government
• Mayor	Saša Šućurović (LDP)
Area
• Novi Bečej	609.0 km2 (235.13 sq mi)
Population (2011)
• Novi Bečej	13,133
• Metro	23,925
Demonym(s)	novobečejci, (sr)
Time zone	CET (UTC+1)
• Summer (DST)	CEST (UTC+2)
Postal code	23272
Area code(s)	+381(0)23
Car plates	ZR
Website	www.novibecej.rs

Novi Bečej (Serbian Cyrillic: Нови Бечеј), is a town and municipality located in the Central Banat District of the autonomous province of Vojvodina, Serbia. The town has a population of 13,133, while Novi Bečej municipality has 23,925 inhabitants.

Novi Bečej means "new Bečej". In the past it was known as Turski Bečej (Турски Бечеј, "Turkish Bečej"), while the current town of Bečej, across the river Tisa (in the Bačka region) was in the past known as Stari Bečej (Стари Бечеј, "old Bečej") and today is known as Bečej.

There are several theories about town's name origin. The first one is that it derives from Castellum de Beche, which was the name of the fort located near today's town center. The other theory is that the name was given after the family Wechey, which used rule the settlement and the land around modern-day Novi Bečej. The town was also known as Turski Bečej (Турски Бечеј). In 1919 it was renamed Novi Bečej (Нови Бечеј). For a short period of time after the World War II the name of the town was Vološinovo / Волошиново after Red Army Colonel Laverentiĭ Voloshinov who died in the battle for the liberation of the town. The name Novi Bečej has been in official use since 1952.

In Serbian, the town is known as Novi Bečej (Нови Бечеј), in Hungarian as Törökbecse and in German as Neu-Betsche. Both Serbian and Hungarian are officially used by municipal authorities.

12th century BC ornithomorphic pendants were found in the town. The Dacians inhabited the region before the Roman conquest in the 2nd–1st century BC.

The town was first mentioned in 1091 during the administration of the Kingdom of Hungary. In the 15th century, it was a possession of the Serbian despot Đurađ Branković. During the Ottoman rule (in 1660/6), it was populated by ethnic Serbs. Ottomans administered the town as Beçe from 1552 to 1718. Until 1918, it was part of the Habsburg Monarchy, then part of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes and subsequent South Slavic states.