Kneževi Vinogradi is the municipality center with a population of 1 657 (according to the 2011 Census) and a total of 13 streets (Glavna St., Svetozar Miletić St., 8. mart St., Šandor Petefi St., Naselje hrvatskih branitelja St., Hrvatska Republika St., 1. maj St., Olgina St., Vinogradska St., Moša Pijade St., Mihajlo Klajn St., Antun Plavec St. and Ciglana St.). Major economic entities include Belje d.d. (wine cellar and wine tasting room in the settlement center) as well as Bor plastika d.o.o. and Rabo d.o.o. in the business park. Kneževi Vinogradi is known far and wide for their Sports and Recreation Center “Bazeni”. Kneževi Vinogradi also has an elementary school (grades 1-8) and Daycare Center “Zeko”. There are also around 10 different culture, NGO and sports associations, most significant ones being FC “Borac”, Association of Women “Izvor”, Hungarian Youth Association “Hercegszöllösi Mihály”, Pensioners’ Association, Folklore Society “Živojin Žika Mandić”, Tamburitza Lovers Association “Baranjski biseri” and other sports and culture associations.
History
Kneževi Vinogradi was founded in the ancient times as a very important strategic settlement in the key position of the main road. The village was a Roman colony named Donatium and this was confirmed by numerous archaeological findings.
Kneževi Vinogradi, as one of the oldest settlements in Baranja was mentioned first by this name in the census in 1687, even before the Belje estate was founded. According to these facts, it can be concluded that the village belonged to the family Herceg in the Middle Ages.
Once, when the village was a part of the Belje estate, one fifth of the entire area were vineyards producing good wines. In the mid of the 18th century there were various manorial buildings in the village: a building for wine-pressing, distillery, coopery (cooper’s workshop), big manorial cellar (built during the Prince Eugene of Savoy time) with capacity of 700,000 litres and two manorial inns. While peasants used to sell wine and cherries mostly in Slavonia, there were 14 craftsmen working in the village ( a wheelwright, a bootmaker, a furrier, a hatter, tailors, shoe-makers, coopers, blacksmiths ) and six merchants.
In 1824 Kneževi Vinogradi was the biggest village on the Belje estate having 1961 inhabitants who used to live in 266 houses. There were three churches in the village, the Reformed church, the Orthodox church with a church tower made of copper and a small Catholic church without the church tower. As the postal road led through Kneževi Vinogradi, there was a post office and not far from that a brickyard was built with a brick kiln for producing tiles for covering roofs. According to the census in 1766, Kneževi Vinogradi was mostly inhabited by Hungarians as members of the Reformed church and Raci, members of the Orthodox church.
According to the census in 1824 the population was a mixture of ethnic communities of Germans, Hungarians, Raci and Šokci.