On the mild slopoes of Fruska Gora a sattlement was
first mentioned in documents in 1634. However, according to the arheoligical
finds people lived on the area of today's Ruma even in the earliest times.
In the Ruma municipality there are two famous arheological sites - Basijana
nearby Donji Petrovac and Gomolava, nearby Hrtkovci. Only later in the middle
age, in 1323, a settlement Arpatorlo (Arpatarro) was mentioned in this region
as a property, town, camp. Its traces disipeared. During the Austro-Turkish
wars Ruma was for some time under the Turkish rule. From the Pozarevac Treaty
in 1718 on, the Austro-Hungarian rule replaced the Turkish one and lasted in
Srem for the next two hundred years. German settled first and played an important
role in the economic, political and cultural life, all the time until their
escape in October, 1944. Croats and Hungarian inhabited this area at the beginning
of 19th century.
When Sremska Mitrovica became a part of the Military
border, Ruma belonged to province or parish. Therefore the count Marko Pejacevic
has chosen this place for a new seat of his landed estate. Such a barron's
decision was decisive 
for Ruma as it developed from a village into a trading centre. The city we
known is the result of the planned development and colonization. With the
status of a town it has existed fot two and half centuries. Because already
in 1746 a decision was made to proclaim Ruma the trading center. However,
thirteen years ago it got its first plan, the urbanistic conception. The street
system was orthogonal and the building conditions precisely defined. In the
time of Mother Tereza 1st January 1749 has been printed "freedomcharter" which
provide Ruma its coat of arms, seal, become a free trading center, get a civil
rights and right to select a judge which landowner Pejacevic will be confirm.
In the second half of the 18th century and the first
half of the 19th the croniclers noted four important local events. Ruma had
the Serbian and the Catholic, Franciscan Grammar schools - until 1787. Another
important event for Rumans of that time was appearance of well-known Srem or
Iris plague in 1795/96. Then the local authorities have taken measures to
protect the inhabitants of Ruma from this pernicious disease. By the beginning
of 19th century the Ruma past was marked by a famous Tican's rebellion. It
broke out in the nearby village Voganj aimed at the Ruma's landowner Pejacevic
and his officials who mistreaeted the landless peasants. The rebellion was
crushed in blood-shed, and its leader Todor Andrejevic - Tican wheel-tormented.
The same ruler, tzar Francis I who refused to grant amnesty to Tican, gave
special privileges by his Charter in 1818 to Ruma craftsman, Serbs and Germans.
This Charter greatly contributed to the development of various crafts so Ruma
became widely known by its extra-skilled masters.
A strong economic base made possible the cultural
super-structure in the earliest times. Therefore it should not be a surprise
that some inhabitants of this city 
got in Ruma schools excellent elementary education and continued later, as
the soons of wealthy tradesman an craftsman, their schooling beyound their
native town, and became distinguished personalities in any way.
Among the prominent persons of that time, born in
this town are: the writer of the first "Physics" in the Serbian language Atansije
Stojkovic, the writer of the first "History of Philosophy" in the Serbian
language Dimitrije Matic, the first "History of Surgery" writtening our language
by the Croat Antun Lombajer, then Tosa Andrejevic - the American, advanced
university student at Vienna conservatorium, the member of the world-wide
famous music band Johan Straus and the man who, besides the vocal composer
Stevan Mokranjac and Josif Marinkovic, is meritorious especially for the development
of the instrumental music in Serbs, then famous pholologist Radovan Kosutic
who is considered even by Russinas themselves as one of the best connoisseurs
of morphology an phonetics of the Russian language, and Pavle Vujovic, professor
at the Belgrade University, who wrote the first university textbook for mathematics
and physical geography. All the above mentioned well-known people of Ruma
do the honor to the Yugoslav science and art.
And a few words more about the urbanistic-architectural
image of town. By its structure Ruma, is a typically a place of Vojvodina.
It has wide straight streets, older houses have a mostly a ground floor, 
partly made of bricks and partly of mud and straw (firmly packed earth). New-built
houses in the center, multi-storey buildings in modern architectural style
contributed to beauty of the town. Ruma provides, with its parks and arranged
excursion site Borkovac with accumulation lake in it, a pleasant stay even
to an unexpected guest. The urban appearance of this place in Srem which has
about 35000 inhabitants is the result not only modernly equipped shops but
also of its asphalt-paved streets, industrial facilities and very busy traffic.
This illustrates that Ruma is a very important crossroads, via Sabac to the
Serbia and via Iriski Venac to other parts of Vojvodina.
When mentioning urban values we cannot avoid the
grandious Health Center which surely ranks among the most beautiful in Serbia,
then the Sports Center with hall of 2500 seats and a modern bowling alley
suitable for large competitions. Then, there is a Culture Center with various
contents and a large hall with 700 seats and small hall with 200 seats, four
elementary and four high schools, the Regional Museum, City Library and two
cultural-artistics societies - "Branko Radicevic" and "Matija Gubec". The
Festival of Music Societies and choruses of Vojvodina and the Festival of
Tamburitza Orchestras of Serbia are tradicionally held in this town.
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