Slabinja (; ; ) is a village in the Sisak-Moslavina County in the central part of Croatia. It is in the Una Valley near the border with Bosnia and Herzegovina, southeast of the town of Hrvatska Kostajnica, northwest of the village of Hrvatska Dubica, and southeast of Croatian capital Zagreb, at the south fringe of the Banovina region. Slabinja is a dormitory village with a resident population of just over 250 people.
History
The Roman Empire conquered this area in the 1st century AD. Construction of roads has started at that time. There are two main roads in the Illyricum Province; one road led from Salona to Siscia and the other from Siscia to Sirmium. The latter course went near today's Slabinja, which is proven by the Roman milestone found near the village. A total of five such milestones were in the area of the village. During the Roman Empire, the area of today's Slabinja was at the southern fringe of the province Pannonia, and Pannonia Superior and Pannonia Savia subsequently.
The first settlers in this area came in the 7th century. In the 10th century, the area became a part of the newly formed the Kingdom of Croatia. Succession crisis to the Croatian throne has weakened the Kingdom which in the end led to the unification with Kingdom of Hungary under the Pacta conventa in 1102. Before that, the Hungarian King's Army led by King Coloman defeated Petar Snačić, the last Croatian king, in the Battle of Gvozd Mountain. In the Middle Ages, the area of the village belonged to the Dubica cemetery, while the first known holders of the land were the Babonić family. In 1334, Slabinja first appears in a written source when its church is mentioned in a list of parishes of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Zagreb.
This area was attacked by the Ottomans in 1461 for the first time. In October 1483, near the Dubica, the army of Knyaz Bernardin Frankopan defeated the regional Ottoman forces in the Battle of Una. In 1513, the Ottomans attacked the border zone again and occupied Dubica. On 16 August, Croatian Army led by Ban Petar Berislavić clashed with the Ottoman army forces between the Sava and Una rivers and won a great victory over them in the Battle of Dubica. Estimates of Ottoman casualties range from over 2,000 to 7,000 killed, drowned while fleeing, and imprisoned, together with a large number of freed Christian captives. Among them, there were four army commanders killed and one captured. After the battle, Berislavić was named as Count of Dubica and Prior of Vrana by King of Hungary and Croatia Vladislaus II. In 1538, during the Third Ottoman Venetian War, Slabinja had fallen under the Ottoman rule and remains under their control until 1685. At the time of Turkish rule, part of the Sanjak of Banja Luka, within Bosnia Eyalet.
17th century
Under the anti-Ottoman liberation struggle, in 1685, Croatian Ban Nikola III Erdődy issued a command to curtail the Ottoman army to the Una Valley. The Imperial Army liberated the area. The established conditions of power were confirmed by the 1699 Treaty of Karlowitz, thus the border was formally drawn to the Una Valley. The settlement of the Serbs in the area began in 1687. Ban Erdödy asked Bishop Martin Borković of Zagreb to settle Serbs at the Bishop's estates near Bović and Kirin.
In the southern part of Banovina, near Blinja, the Keglevich family had significant land. Because of this, they stood in constant clash with the Bosnian–Ottoman army. To strengthen the defense forces, the Keglevichs settled a large number of Orthodox Serb families southern from Petrinja and Sunja. In 1693, Count Ferenc Erdődy of Petrinya appointed Knyaz Petar Draškovich as the governor of "Vlachs" (a term used for a community of mostly Orthodox refugees, mainly Serbs) in Slabinja and other surrounding inhabited places. For protection from the Ottoman army, the watchtowers were built along the Una River, several of which were located in Slabinja, one stood near the village's church.
On September 19, 1698, people of Slabinja got a land charter (). They were granted land as a reward for the service in the Great Turkish War and a defense of the Croatian Military Frontier. The Charter guaranteed them a legal, undisturbed and protected land management in Slabinja. Also, with this act Count Péter Keglevich, Commander-in-chief of the Kostajnica confirmed their earlier taxation and tenancy rights. At the time, Knyaz Pavle Dragošević was administrating the County. He was appointed on March 1, 1693. The area was known as the Slabinja County () at the time. The County had three stockades (Upper, Middle, and Lower) and about a hundred people capable of military service according to the census on December 13, 1969.