The Bačka Topola parish was founded after the First World War, when volunteers from the Salonika Front who had fought at Dobruja and Kajmakčalan began, by decision of the state authorities, to settle the fertile and peaceful lands of Bačka, particularly the Bačka Topola district. Once they had solved their basic material problems, and while still getting used to the new climate and way of life, they expressed the wish to found a church. The then Bishop of Bačka, Dr Irinej Ćirić, recognising the wish as justified, appointed Georgije Ugrišić in 1921 as priest of the newly founded parish. He began building up the parish and the church community, which included all the settler villages around Bačka Topola.
At first, services were held in the hall of the town’s secondary school until 1932, when the prayer house – today’s St Sava Hall – was completed. With the arrival of Petar Dimitrijević as parish priest, work on building the church and the parish house became better organised. Thanks to his efforts, and with generous help from his associates Miloje Stajić and Dimitrije Debeljević and many others, a campaign to collect voluntary donations was launched and successfully completed.
Ministers Zaharije Stanković and Mr Bešlić, as well as the Ban of the Danube Banovina, Svetislav Rajić, showed great understanding and support for the campaign. Their generous donations contributed most to the construction of the church in the Serbo-Byzantine style, resembling a three-aisled basilica.
The iconostasis is wooden and partly carved. Its icons were painted by Aleksandar Džigurski from Bečej, modelled on the work of the great Serbian painter Uroš Predić.
The wall paintings are more recent; they were created between 1993 and 1998 by several artists led by Radoslav Prokić from Kragujevac and Dimitrije Riđički.
Once built and consecrated, the church did not serve its purpose for long. Within less than a year, prayer and all other activity in it fell silent. After the outbreak of the Second World War and the entry of Hungarian forces into Yugoslavia, everyone who had not been born in Bačka was deported. The newly founded parish was thus left without its congregation. The faithful were driven from their homes and deported to the camps of Sárvár, Bačka Topola and Baja, or expelled to Serbia.
The newly built Serbian Orthodox church was taken over by the local Roman Catholics and adapted as their place of worship. It remained in their hands until liberation on 1 April 1945, when Bishop Dr Irinej Ćirić appointed Miroslav Sadžakov, previously parish priest in Gardinovci, as its priest. With the return of the Serbian population from the camps, parish life resumed. The church was completely renovated between 1993 and 1998.
After Srbislav A. Stojanov became parish priest on 1 December 2004, restoration work intensified. Since then a new parish house has been built; the roof structure, sanitary facilities, part of the interior and the façade of the old St Sava Hall have been renovated; and the church has been clad in granite and fitted with new lighting and air conditioning.
