As a result of all the mentioned circumstances, it is understandable that the Christian inhabitants of Sombor were delighted to welcome the Austrian regiments as their saviors. They entered the town without fight on 12th September 1687. Thus, after 146 years under Turkish rule, Sombor became part of the Austrian Empire, during which time the town would gradually reach the summit of its importance, fame and renown.
AAlthough the Turkish population and its army left the town, the total number of inhabitants did not decrease; to the contrary, in a very short period the number increased. Namely, in the same year (1687) the royal court in Vienna gave permission for 5000 Bunjevaces to settle on the territory of north-west Backa. The Bunjevaces, officially noted as the “ of the Catholic faith” by the Royal court office, were lead by Djuro Vidakovic and Domenik-Dujo Markovic, a Serb converted to Catholicism. A small number of them established their new homes in Sombor, while the majority headed towards Subotica and Baja.
Three years later, a new wave of settlers, this time Serbs lead by patriarch Arsenije III Carnojevic, not only increased the number of Serbs, but also stabilized the ethnic structure in favor of the Serb ethnic entity. The same ethnic picture remains down to the present day.
According to the census roll carried out in 1702, it is evident that, with regard to the circumstances of the peroid, Sombor was already a settlement of considerable size and wealth, with 2855 inhabitants owning 2000 heads of cattle, 550 horses, 1830 sheep, 462 beehives, 2940 acres of wheat-planted land, 700 "hoes" (a traditional local unit of measurement) of vineyard, etc. However, there is no doubt that a great deal of these were not registered in the books.

Sombor in 1697

The military men of Sombor, complying with the conditions of the charters signed by Leopold I and the later emperors, were at first only defending the Turkish borders, but that was also going to change gradually, and consequently they fought in battles all over Europe, defending the interests of the Habsburg Monarchy. Those were the days of heroic deaths, great and numerous battles, glorious individual accomplishments and family tragedies.
As soon as 1691,the people of Sombor (200 cavalrymen and 600 infantrymen) fought in the Slankamen battle. They were lead by their commander Dujo Markovic, who lost his life on the very battlefield. The same tragedy befell the Popovic family, whose head and eight sons lost their lives in the Battle of Senta in 1697. 500 citizens of Sombor, under the command of captain Jajic, fought in the Battle of Senta. The LaloSevic family had no better luck, either - the bones of the father and five sons were left to rest by the Belgrade ramparts, after the battle against the Turks in 1717.

Battle at Senta in 1697.

However, all these were only the well known individual examples of heroism and tragedy, which were by far exceeded by the number of those who lost their lives and scattered their bones all over the battlefields of Europe, for the glory, fame and grandeur of Austrian arms. In 1745, the results of census roll showed that the number of Sombor’s military men had been reduced from 661 to 585 in the course of a single year. It was also noted that the recent wars left behind them 305 widows, many orphans, 144 invalids incapable of doing any work, with about 200 people already in Prussian captivity, taken prisoners of war way back before the mentioned events.

Hump of military town Sombor in 1717

It was obvious that the war glory and privileges enjoyed since 1702, when Sombor was declared "military trench" and 15 years later obtained the status of "military town", were paid for too dearly
In addition, instead of the well deserved appreciation, the year 1741 saw the adoption of the 13th article of law which deprived some towns of the "military town" status. Among these was also the town of Sombor, and hence, its inhabitants, military men - "the emperor’s sons" as they were called for their service done to the Empire, became "jobadjas", meaning "day labourers". Sombor, along with other towns, came under the district office’s ("zupanija") rule.
Although the authorities were not in haste to put this article of law into effect, the disarmament of Sombor’s military forces was carried out on November 1st 1745. However, the citizens of Sombor, aware of what they had been deprived of, were ready for counterattack. As soon as November 18th they gathered in front of the Sv. Georgije (St. George) Orthodox church, in order to agree on how to fight for liberation, and thus retain their privileges. 244 heads of households, 84.5% of which were Orthodox Serbs and 15.5% Catholic Bunjevaces, were present at the meeting.
Thanks to the strong determination of the delegation from Sombor, and following the Alternative, a document signed by both the Orthodox and the Catholics on July 1 1748, which regulated the rules for the election of town authorities, based on the principles of equal number of representatives, an important event in the town’s history followed. After 150,000 golden forints (the Austro-Hungarian currency) had been paid to the royal fisk, all requirements were met for the Empress Maria Theresa to put her signature on the charter which elevated Sombor to the rank of free royal town. This historic occasion took place on February 17th 1748.

The charter of Sombor as the free royal town in 1749

Amidst celebrations unlike any the town had witnessed before, the Charter was handed over to the citizens of Sombor on April 24th 1749. The Magistrate Board and other town authorities were elected in the week to come. Martin Parcetic was appointed the town’s first judge and this most important duty was later taken over by Jovan Damjanovic, an Orthodox, in compliance with the points of the Alternative, the signed agreement. This series of important events ended on April 28th, with the first Bylaws of the free and royal town of Sombor handed over to the citizens.
Nevertheless, regardless of the high price paid for the status of free royal town, which got Sombor into such debts that the town was not able to pay them before 1766, it was one of the most important dates in the town’s history. The events soon proved it so; in less than two years (after 1759), the Orthodox citizens completed the construction of their Grand Cathedral, and in the same year opened a four-grade grammar school,which,four years later, turned into a Latin grammar school. On May 1st 1778 Avram Mrazovic founded the "Norma", and thus started the teacher-training tradition with Serbs and other South-Slavpeoples, he himself being appointed as the supreme headmaster of all Serb schools in the Backa, Baranjska, Torontalska and Bodroska districts. For his seat he chose Sombor, his native town. A decade before the end of the century (1790), the Orthodox inhabitants erected church, the "Small Church" dedicated to Sv.Jovan Preteca (St.John), which is today under protection as a cultural site of greatest importnce.
The Roman Catholics erected the Holy Trinity Church (1752-1763) which made up a complex together with the Franciscan monastery from 1743. In the meantime, immediately after being appointed to the post, the Magistrate Board started the construction of the Town Hall on the remains of the castle which belonged to count Jovan Brankovic. He built it in 1718, a year after he had been appointed as first captain of the military town of Sombor. Baron Franz de Rodl erected the Chapel of St.Ivan Nepomuk in 1750; in 1763 count Anton Grasalkovic completed the construction of the building which was to shelter German immigrants; finally, in 1771, Crusper de Varbo erected a single storey family house as an extension to Pasha’s Tower, both of which today house the Town’s archive that dates back to the year of 1749. All these buildings shaped the square they surrounded, named after the monument of the Holy Trinity, erected there in 1774. The square’s name has been kept down to the present day.
On March 1st 1766 First aid service was established in Sombor, being the first medical institution of its kind on the territory of today’s Vojvodina. In the same year Ferdinand Plank opened the town’s first pharmacy, on the place where, with the same intention, Emil Gale (an apothecary), erected another building which today houses the "Milan Konjovic" art gallery.