CHURCH OF THE ASSUMPTION – Bajša

The Vojnić family has been the owners of half of Bajša from 1759. They were Catholics. In 1760 they rapidly built a small church 18.9 m long and 5.6 m wide. The church tower is built of wood and had a belfry. This church was located in the same place of today’s Catholic Church. According to the information dating from 1786 there was a bell in the center of the village which was used by believers of all three religions.

Between 1760 and 1784 Bajša ecclesial community had belonged to Subotica. In 1764 there were 28 Catholic families and 379 Catholics. The Vojnić family accepted to build a parish which was achieved in 1784.

The number of Catholics has been constantly increasing. In 1791 there were 595, and in Rogatica 82.

Kolar Ðerđ (Kollár György) the priest asked for permission to build new churches on July 3, 1804.

That same year, on July 28, he received a permit and asked the soldiers to help the family to build a new church.

On 9 April, 1806 the Vojnić family decided to donate a three-year lease of land, the whole earnings of restaurant and butcher shop, one tenth of the earnings of the sheep for the church construction. If this would not be enough, five members the Vojnić family would give 1,000 forints.

In 1811 the procurement of materials from Futog, Apatin, Kupusina , Kula, Sombor and Baja began.

The believers were obliged to participate in all operations. Along with the construction of the church a parish house was built. The foundations were set on 30 March1815. The church was consecrated on 9 September, 1816. After that they made lunch for 50 people. The new church is 29 m long, 11 m wide and tower is 32 m high, while the interior is up to 10 m high.

The builder was Šrober Jozef (Schrober Josef), who executed the construction work. The sculptural works were carried out by Vinces Vogl from Sombor. The paintings were painted by Jozef Schmidt (Schmidt Josef).The benches were made by Ehrlich Jozef (Erlich Josef) a carpenter from Kula. The carpenter works were carried by Petro Imre, Nadj Marton (Nagy Márton) and Tormaši Ferenc (Tormas Ferenc ) from the Bajša.

The total amount of money spent for the building of the church was 7666 forints. At that time, one house costed 300, 1 pair of boots 13, one lunch 4, and 1.000 bricks 7forints.

On 22 February, 1895 the organs were used for the first time. Church organs were made by Angster Joseph (Angster József) and Miller János (János Müller).

On 17 August, 1898 the three bells weighing 476 kg, 138 kg and 57 kg were brought from Baja. The bells were made by Bodiče Šandor (Bodicsi Sándor) from Baja.

On 20 September the church was electrified.

Since 1973 the bells have been running on electricity.