Sombor - city of culture, art and tradition

After visiting the village of Stapar, the delegation led by the Ambassador of Australia headed towards Sombor to meet the Mayor Sasa Todorovic and Dusan Jovic, Deputy Mayor for Culture and Information. The Mayor presented investment, economic and cultural potential of Sombor and pointed out that the city is multicultural, rich in historical and cultural heritage, and expressed the hope that Stapar rugs to grow into one of the most recognizable brands not only for Sombor, but for entire Serbia. \\\'Preserving the traditions and crafts will promote female entrepreneurship and branding authentic products by which we want Sombor to be recognizable. Traditional heritage has to be supported as the foundation for the development of women\\\'s entrepreneurship in the field of traditional crafts,\\\' said the Mayor. Mayor Todorovic and Ambassador Feeney agreed that old crafts offer ample opportunity for self-employment and the development of tourism, as traditional crafts almost magnetically attract foreigners and tourists and the market for these items is certainly there, but it is necessary to build capacity among producers, organize production according to market principles, and develop a stable marketing network.

\\\'Women\\\'s entrepreneurship is very important for us and we support cooperation with the city of Sombor and Ethno network to help conserve traditional heritage mainly through the revival of Stapar rugs. To sustain these efforts, the embassy has initiated cooperation of the city of Sombor with the municipality of Pirot, which has done much to preserve the local rug-making and is ready to exchange experiences with Sombor and work on joint promotion, \\\' said the Ambassador Feeney.

As part of the tour of the city hall, guests were given a presentation of the well-known painting \\\'The Battle of Senta\\\' which is the largest oil painting in historical genre in Serbia, the size of 28 square meters. Following the spirit of the visit, the Mayor presented the Ambassador with a souven