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

The Holy Trinity Square (1872), with the Church of Franciscan (gray friar) in the background

To replace the original inhabitants, who fled or fell victim during the Turkish rule, the imperial campaigns against the Ottomans, and Rákóczi's war of independence against the Habsburgs, new settlers came, creating a multiethnic Baja.

Although the 1699 Peace Treaty of Karlóca put and end to Turkish rule in Hungary, the Ottomans continued to control the Balkans. Fearing Turkish retaliation, the Christian peoples of the region fled to Hungary in masses, some of them settling down between the rivers Tisza and Danube, reclaiming the deserted and devastated parts of Bácska from their sad ruins. In 1686, a big group af Bunjevci (catholic Croatians) followed their leaders Markovié and Vidakovic to the region. In 1690, the Patriarch Arsenije Carnojevic and his group of Orthodox Serbs also arrived into Hungary. Up to the middle of the 18th century, Baja's population consisted mostly of Southern Slavs, primarily Bunjevci and Serbs.

Before the Ottoman rule, the Czobors were the landlords of Baja. In 1726, Márk Czobor gave proof of his ownership, and was reinstated as the Baja's landlord. From his estates in Felvidék, the Northern parts of historical Hungary, he relocated Hungarian families to provide labor for his newly acquired lands in Bácska. With all its peace-time advantages, Baja attracted Hungarian traders, many of whom came from Komárom.

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