Vukovar’s name means “the town on the Vuka River”; it is located in eastern Croatia where the Vuka and Danube meet. The river’s name comes from the Slavic word vuk, or wolf. The area was originally settled by Slavic tribes in the 6th century A.D. It was part of the Habsburg empire since the end of the 17th century and in 1918 became part of the newly formed kingdom that became Yugoslavia. The largest Croatian town and river port on the Danube, Vukovar was devastated during the Croatian War of Independence in the 1990s, enduring almost unimaginable suffering and many attractive buildings were damaged. It is still struggling to restore its economy, based on farming, livestock, viticulture, manufacturing and tourism.