Between November 16, 1698, and January 26, 1699, the town of Sremski Karlovci was the site of a congress that ended the hostilities between the Ottoman Empire and the Holy League, a coalition of various European powers including Austria, Poland, Venice and Russia; the congress produced the Treaty of Karlowitz.
The town was also the spiritual and cultural center of the Serbs in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The Metropolitan of the Serb Orthodox Church resided in the town which also housed a seminary which operates to this day. It also featured of the earliest Serb (and Slavic in general) grammar schools (sr: gimnazija/гимназија, fr: lycée) founded on August 3rd, 1791. To this day, the Serb Orthodox Patriarch retains the title of Metropolitan of (Sremski) Karlovci.