Merk Zsuzsa - Bálint Attila: Baja is town for 300 years - A Bajai Türr István Múzeum kiadványai 27. (Baja, 1999)

From the middle of the last century, Baja's development slowed down to a certain degree. As the importance of the railroad-primarily of the main railroad lines connecting different economic regions of the country-grew, Baja's regional role in grain trading and artisanry became less and less prominent. However, Baja retained its significance in education and culture.

Although in 1909 a railroad bridge was built to connect Baja to Transdanubia on the Western side of the Danube, it did not instigate an economic boom, because after World War I, most of the territory of Bács-Bodrog county became part of Yugoslavia, and Baja became a border town.

We barely know anything about the everyday life of Baja's citizens before the 19th century. The oldest social association of the city is the Baja Rifle-Club, which was founded in 1803. The city provided a lot for the Club, on which the members, using the funds collected from donations, built the first wooden building that served both as a shooting range and as the venue of social events. In 1835, the Rifle-Club moved to the south of the city, where the city assembly provided ten Hungarian acres of sandy land for the Club. The Shooting Range became a center of social activities. The inscription on its facade read: "Polgár légy hazavéd! e szép célt elérni tanuld itt!" ("Citizen, be a protector of your homeland! Train with us!"). The targets of the Baja Rifle-Club were transferred into the museum and still survive. The photographs taken in 1903 on the 100th anniversary of the Rifle-Club reflect the atmosphere of the "era of peace".

After World War I, on November 13, 1920, Baja was occupied by Serbian troops. After the signing of the Trianon Peace Treaty on June 4, 1920, the new borders of a truncated Hungary were defined; yet Baja and its region only returned to Hungary on August 20, 1921.

On November 1, 1921, dethroned Charles IV and his wife Queen Zita were brought to Baja on a special train. In Baja, they boarded a British monitor, or rivergunboat, and left Hungary. The city established a humble memorial on the docks to commemorate this event, which reads:

"IV Károly Magyarország Felkent Apostoli Királya e helyről hagyta el hazáját és szállt hajóra, hogy az ellenség számkivetésbe vigye őt. Erről emlékezvén Magyarok tanuljátok jobban szeretni a hazát, mint ahogy egymást gyűlölitek. "

("Charles IV, Anointed Apostolic King of Hungary, boarded here to leave his home country, taken into exile by the enemy. Remember, Hungarians, and learn to love your country more than you are prone to hate one another.")

In accordance with the Trianon Treaty of 1921, most of Bács-Bodrog county, including the county seat, Zombor (today: Sombor, Yugoslavia), became part of

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