The reconstruction of a synagogue and Jewish cultural center in one of Bosnia's most

war-ravaged towns symbolizes hope and peace, a Bosnian Jewish community leader
said here.
"This building, [which will be built using] a lot of glass, will show that the future will be
peaceful," said Mostar Jewish Community president Zoran Mandlbaum.
The glass-sided building's cornerstone was laid April 24 in the southern Bosnian town of
Mostar, the scene of heavy Muslim-Croat fighting in 1993-94. The synagogue was on the
front line then, and the area is still a no-man's-land of wrecked apartment buildings and
stray garbage nearly six years after the war.
"It was the place where there were the most victims [during the war], only because they
weren't of the same faiths," Mandlbaum said.
The center is part of the town's $15 million World Bank credit that will also reconstruct a
destroyed Serbian Orthodox church and a Croat cultural association building. Also slated
for reconstruction is Mostar's namesake, Stari Most (Old Bridge), a medieval Ottoman
bridge destroyed by Croat shelling in November 1993.
"In that place, in the center of the city, within 100 meters there will be a synagogue, a
Catholic church, an Orthodox church and a mosque," Mandlbaum said, adding that
Mostar will be only the third city in the world, after Jerusalem and Sarajevo, with such a
layout when the synagogue is finished late next year.
The synagogue is the first to be built in the former-Yugoslav region since 1945. PostWorld War Two Communist leaders shunned religion, because it meant divisions in a
country whose motto was "Brotherhood and Unity." The Mostar synagogue was turned
over to the authorities in 1952 and used as a puppet theater.
The building was handed back to the Jewish community when Bosnia declared
independence from Yugoslavia in 1992, but was badly damaged when the nearby
Orthodox church was blown up during the war.
Fighting took its toll in other ways as well. More than 100 Jews in Mostar were killed, and
many fled. Only about 1,000 Jews remain in Bosnia, around 50 of them in Mostar.

Mandlbaum said the cultural center on the first two floors, which will include a small
auditorium, a library and a museum, would serve the entire town. Its purpose was both to
mark the presence of the Jewish community and to bring Mostar's citizens together.
"It's so that no one will forget that we existed," he said. "And all four peoples can attend
the cultural manifestations together."
Mostar's physical scars of war underscore the still-tense political situation in the town.
The former front line marks the de facto border between Mostar's Muslims and Croats,
who have been in a shaky federation since 1994.
The synagogue's peaceful cornerstone ceremony last month came two weeks before
violent riots in Serb-held towns scuttled two similar ceremonies marking the rebuilding of
mosques destroyed during the war.
Mandlbaum said the difference is that Bosnian political leaders support the Mostar
Jewish community. He praised the Muslim and Croat Bosnian presidency members for
attending the cornerstone ceremony, and called Mostar Mayor Safet Orucevic "a man
who has struggled from the first days to make Mostar a unified city.

The first Jews settled at Mostar in 1850 and founded a community six years later. Up to the
Austrian occupation of Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1878 only Sephardic Jews lived in Mostar,
but thereafter Ashkenazic Jews from Austria-Hungary joinedthem. The community rents a
building for the purposes of a synagogue and maintains a cemetery. It has no rabbi, its
religious affairs being administered by the official who has charge of religious instruction in
the city schools. The Jews of Mostar are not excluded from state or municipal offices. The
Ashkenazim and Sephardim are numerically about equal; they live in complete harmony with
each other and with the members of other denominations.
A city rich with
history and a story behind every step, Mostar is one of Bosnia and Herzegovinas most mesmerizing
cities.
Mostars roots stem all the way back to the 15th century as part of the passage between the Adriatic
Sea and important parts of Bosnia. As Jewish refugees escaped to Mostar during the Spanish
Inquisition, a small Jewish community grew over time into a thriving one, with many members
finding successful livelihoods as doctors and merchants. A small hamlet of Jews continuously existed
in Mostar, numbering up to 100 people at the dawn of WWII. A synagogue was built in 1902, serving
the citys Jewish population until anti-Semitism erupted in 1942. Only two years later Nazi and
Ustasha soldiers burnt the Mostar synagogue to the ground.

Sadly, only a few Jews returned to Mostar after the war; most of them either survivors of the
Holocaust or escapees from other parts of Eastern Europe. Although they had found their homes
ravaged by tragedy and destruction, they stayed and worked hard at re-building their once-thriving
Jewish community.

The Jews lived in relative peace until the Bosnian War, where, this time, they were not on the
receiving end of discrimination. However, as victims themselves of ethnic violence and intolerance,
many of Mostars Jews became activists and even heroes during the turbulent Bosnian conflict.
Mostars Jewish community president, Zoran Mandlbaum, came to be known as the Bosnian
Schindler for his valiant efforts. Mandlbaum risked his personal safety to care for the citizens of his
beloved city, bringing them food and medicine, access to shelter, and even personally safeguarding
the marriage of a couple on opposite sides of the war. One such recipient, Ramiz Pandur, said
Zoran never turned down anyone who asked him for a favor. He was representative of the Mostar
community at large, knowing all too well the horror that springs from cultural warfare.
Progress has since advanced, and Mostar is now among one of the top tour destinations in Bosnia
and Herzegovina. Today it is a city where Muslims, Catholics, Orthodox Christians and Jews live
together peacefully. In fact, there is a plan for a new synagogue to be built. Jewish life in Mostar is
also visible at its Jewish cemetery, established around the early twentieth century, and still in use
today. There is also a Holocaust memorial that was completed in 1999, containing the names of 137
Mostar Jews who died in the war.
Perhaps what is most famous about Mostar, however, is its famed Stari-Most bridge that connects the
two banks of the Neretva River. Built in 1556 and destroyed in 1993 during the war, it was re-built in
2004, a symbol of Mostars rebirth. Like the Jewish people, it has gone through destruction and
renewal, and only has a promising future ahead of it.

MOSTAR

Synagogue
The synagogue was erected in 1902 and served the community until 17 November 1942.
The Jewish community was then deported to Croatian concentration camps, from which
few returned. Early in 1944 the synagogue was burnt by Ustae and Nazi forces. It was
reclaimed after the war by Jewish survivors, who took out a large loan to cover the costs
of refurbishment. The community eventually defaulted on repaying this loan, and the
building was turned into a puppet theatre. The adjoining house, once the home of the
rabbi, is now used by the theatre as an office. EU money funded further restoration work
after the 1990s war. A broken stone Decalogue was found during these renovations; it is
displayed on the ground near the great stairway that leads to the synagogue/theatre
entrance. It is the only evidence of either buildings Jewish origins.
Cemetery and Holocaust memorial

The cemetery was established sometime between 1890 and 1904. Designated
a National Monument in 2004, the 0.2-hectare site is surrounded by a stone wall with
an iron gate on the west side. It contains 50-100 gravestones, the oldest of which is
dated 1904. Some stones have portraits on them; inscriptions are in Serbo-Croat,
Hebrew, and Ladino. Restoration work was carried out with support from the EU in 1996.
The cemetery is still in use and is looked after by the Jewish Community of Mostar. The
key can be requested at the petrol station opposite.
A large Holocaust memorial, in the shape of a wall of mazevot, was dedicated at the
cemetery in 1999. It was the work of sculptor Florijan Mickovic [Mikovi], designed by
architects Zdravko Gutic [Guti], Edo Kadribegovic [Kadribegovi] and Zoran
Mandelbaum.
Pursuant to Article 2, paragraph 1 of the Law on the Implementation of the Decisions of the
Commission to Preserve National Monuments, established pursuant to Annex 8 of the General
Framework Agreement for Peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina, a National Monument is an item of
public property proclaimed by the Commission to Preserve National Monuments to be a National
Monument pursuant to Articles V and VI of Annex 8 of the General Framework Agreement for Peace in
Bosnia and Herzegovina and property entered on the Provisional List of National Monuments of
Bosnia and Herzegovina (Official Gazette of BiH no. 33/02) until the Commission reaches a final
decision on its status, as to which there is no time limit and regardless of whether a petition for the
property in question has been submitted or not.
Pursuant to petitions submitted on 16 December 2002 and 7 January 2003 by the Jewish
Community of Mostar, the Commission proceeded to carry out the procedure for reaching a final
decision to designate the Property as a National Monument, pursuant to Article V of Annex 8 and
Article 35 of the Rules of Procedure of the Commission to Preserve National Monuments.
II PROCEDURE PRIOR TO DECISION
In the procedure preceding the adoption of a final decision to proclaim the property a national
monument, the following documentation was inspected:

Documentation on the location and current owner and user of the property (copy of land
registry entry, Mostar Municipality, with copy of cadastral plan)

Data on the current condition and use of the property, including a description and
photographs, data of war damage, data on restoration or other works on the property, etc.

Historical, architectural and other documentary material on the property, as set out in the
bibliography forming part of this Decision.
The findings based on the review of the above documentation and the condition of the site are
as follows:
1. Details of the property
Location
The Jewish cemetery is at the northern entrance to the city of Mostar on the route from
Sarajevo, about 5 km from the centre of town, in the quarter known as Sutina. It stands right beside
the M17 Sarajevo-Mostar main road.
The cemetery stands on c.p. 52 (new survey), c.p. 1881 (old survey), Land Registry entry no.
2528, c.m. Mostar I, Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Historical information
In the mediaeval period Mostar was a major crossroads, the intersection of the routes from
Bosnia to Montenegro and Dalmatia and, via the Adriatic ports, on to Italy and other European
countries. Archive records for 1570 refer to the first Jewish immigrants, Daniel Rodriguez and Mosho

Coen Habitori Sephardi Jews who had been expelled from Spain, who had fled persecution by
the Inquisition following the 1492 Edict of Granada and found asylum in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
In the 19th century, during the Austro-Hungarian period, Ashkenazi Jews also settled in the
region, bringing with them western European culture, the way of life of eastern European Jews, and
the Yiddish language.
In the Jewish Almanach for 1928/29, according to statistics on the Jews of the Kingdom of
Serbs Croats and Slovenes, Mostar had had a synagogue since 1889. The first synagogue was in fact
a converted hay barn. The plot on which this place of worship stood alongside former Muki street
(ari Brothers). The capacity of this temporary synagogue was limited, which led to the formation of
a Committee to build a new one. A record of the construction of the synagogue, with complete
documentation, was drawn up on 7 June 1904.
The location of the first Jewish cemetery in Mostar is not known. The cadastral records for the
city of Mostar provide the information that the plot where the present-day Jewish cemetery stands
A.c.p.1881 Bekline trenje cemetery B-1 dated 1890, was owned by the Jewish community of
Mostar, as a result of which this date is taken as the date it was established, although in 1893 the
Mostar City Council had plans to locate a new cemetery for people of all religious confessions living in
Mostar on the site of the present-day city swimming pool on the right bank of the river Neretva. A
Resolution to this effect was adopted on 5 December 1982, but the idea never came to fruition.
A contract of sale dated 13 March 1936, notarized by the County Prefecture in Mostar, was the
basis for registering the ownership rights of the Hevra Kedoa Jewish religious association to the
said cemetery. During the reign of King Petar II, in 1936, the Hevra Kadoa association erected a
wall around the cemetery.
In 1940 Mostar had 956 Jewish refugees from occupied Europe, to whom the city and the
Jewish community of Mostar municipality, headed by David Hajon, offered temporary asylum. By
establishing good relations with the Italian authorities in Mostar, David Hajon managed to save many
Jewish refugees. All Mostar's Jews were deported to Dalmatian islands on 17 November 1942, and
from there to Rab island, where they still were when Italy capitulated in 1943. Most of the younger
internees joined the Partisans, while those who remained were deported to concentration camps in
Germany or the so-called Independent State of Croatia.
Prior to World War II Mostar had had a well-organized Jewish community, with 310 members,
responsible for more than 1,500 Jews from Bosnia. During the Holocaust, 138 of Mostar's Jews were
killed, with the result that 39 surnames ceased to exist.
The Jewish cemetery was set in order in 1996 with financial assistance from the European
Union office in Mostar and the Mostar-based enterprises Vodovod and Komos.
In 1997, under Mayor Safet Oruevi, the city of Mostar adopted an initiative to erect a
Memorial to the Jews of Mostar in the Jewish cemetery. The funds were provided by the city of Mostar,
The American Joint Distribution Committee New York headed by the great humanist Yechiel BarChaim, Kon Mihajl and Dr. Moritz Levi, Sephardi Grand Rabbi from Switzerland. The memorial is the
work of the sculptor Florijan Mikovi, architects Duda, Guti and Atijas, and the architects' offices
Arten and ip from Mostar.
2. Description of the property
Very few monuments of material culture directly associated with the presence of the Jewish
community in Bosnia and Herzegovina have survived to the present day. This is particularly the case
with real property, including Jewish places of worship and cemeteries.
The Jews regard their cemeteries as sacred places, calling them houses of tombs, houses of
life, houses of eternity. The deceased are always interred with their heads facing east, towards
Jerusalem and Mount Sion. It is the custom for cemeteries to be fenced or walled, and for the tomb of
a leading or significant figure to be designated, with the proviso that it already contains the mortal
remains of ten (a minyan) members of the Jewish community (Mutapi, p. 323).
The majority of the tombstones in the Jewish cemetery in Mostar are of the horizontal or socalled couchant type of tombstone which, according to certain authorities, originated in ancient
Palestine. From ancient times, such tombstones were either monolithic or consisted of several blocks.
The tradition of couchant tombstones was largely continued by the Jews of the Middle East, and later
by those of the Pyrenean and Apennine peninsulas, gradually bestowing new forms on them. Such
tombstones may be found wherever Sephardi Jews are buried, particularly in the shape of a flattened
sarcophagus or slab. This type is not found in Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is fair to say that in this
part of the world there came about a specific shape of tombstone, chest-like in form, recalling in
appearance mediaeval steak tombstones or simplified antique-era sarcophagi (Spomenica, p. 128).

Although tombstones of this type mainly have the same basic stylistic features, certain
differences are to be observed, particularly in the shape both of the face and of the upper surface of
the sarcophagus. Various forms of chest or sarcophagus are common, with the upper surface flat,
rounded, stepped-rounded, ridged, or with characteristic foreshortening in height and width from front
to back (Mutapi, p. 325). Sometimes a tombstone is to be found in the shape of a roof with a
triangular gable, while others terminate in the shape of a pointed arch.
Particular variations are to be found as regards the way the monolithic stone block is laid on
the grave. In the case of older graves, it was common to use a basal slab, which does not appear in
more recent tombstones. Since the cemetery is located on a slight elevation, the lower surface of the
tombstones is in some cases angled to adjust to the lie of the land. The upper surface of the
tombstones has a slight or steep pitch in the opposite direction.
There is no decoration on the tombstones other than a border on the face of the monument
where there is an inscription. These epigraphics, worked in relief and consisting of incised square
Hebrew lettering, italics or Roman lettering, are an outstanding feature of these tombstones. On old
tombstones the epitaphs are usually on the north frontal face (with or without a niche), or on the upper
horizontal surface or the side faces, while on new ones they may be of this type or consist of
inscriptions on the vertical faces of the tombstone. As well as the standard Here lies, they consist of
the name of the deceased, his or her date of birth and death, sometimes a brief text of the deceased's
life and work, verses and quotations from Jewish tradition (Mutapi, pp. 326-327). In the case of older
tombstones, the lettering stands out in relief, while on newer ones it is incised. Adverse weather
conditions and lack of maintenance has resulted in the majority of the epitaphs in the Jewish cemetery
in Mostar becoming almost completely illegible.
The oldest tombstone to have been found and deciphered in this cemetery dates from 1892.
One of those on which the date can be read dates from 5656 (1895)(1).
Many tombstones date from 1900-1915 and later; for example, the tombstone of one S. Levi,
dating from 1903, and another belonging to one Salamon A. Liogi, dating from 1907.
The older tombstones are made partly of common limestone, others are of tenelijalimestone,
and the more recent ones are of granite or a combination of granite and concrete. Some have a metal
railing or barrier surrounding them.
The cemetery site is surrounded by a stone wall that was then plastered with cement plaster.
The upper part of the wall consists of a series of concrete balustrades. It is likely that the model for this
wall was that surrounding the Jewish cemetery in Sarajevo. The entrance to the cemetery is to the
north-west and is marked by two stone pillars with double metal gates between. Stone plaques have
been mounted on the inside of the pillars. The plaque on the south pillar bears the following
inscription:

Mostar's economy relies heavily on the aluminum and metal industry, banking services and
telecommunication sector.[citation needed] The city is the seat of some of the country's largest
corporations.
Along with Sarajevo, it is the largest financial center in Bosnia-Herzegovina, with two out of three
largest banks in the country having their headquarters in Mostar.[26][27] Bosnia-Herzegovina has
three national electric, postal and telecommunication service corporations; one of them in each
group has its seat in Mostar (electric service corporation 'Elektroprivreda HZHB', postal service
company Hrvatska Pota Mostar and HT Mostar, the third largest telecommunication company in
the country). These three companies (along with banks and aluminium factory) make a vast
portion of overall economic activity in the city.[citation needed] The private sector has seen a notable
increase in small and medium enterprises over the past couple of years contributing to the
positive business climate.[citation needed]

Considering the fact that three dams are situated on the city of Mostars territory, the city has a
solid base for further development of production. There is also an ongoing project for the possible
use of wind power and building of windmills.
Prior to the 1991-1995 Bosnian War, Mostar relied on other important companies which had been
closed, damaged or downsized. They included SOKO (military aircraft factory), Fabrika duhana
Mostar (tobacco industry), and Hepok (food industry). In 1981 Mostar's GDP per capita was
103% of the Yugoslav average[28]
The only company from the former Yugoslavia, which still works well is Aluminij. Aluminij is one of
the country's strongest companies and it has a number of international partners. The company
steadily increases its annual production and it collaborates with leading global corporations such
as Daimler Chrysler and Fiat.[29] Aluminij is one of the most influential companies in the city,
region, but also country. In relation to the current manufacturing capacity it generates an annual
export of more than 150 million. The partners with which the Aluminij does business are
renowned global companies, from which the most important are: Venture Coke Company L.L.C.
(Venco-Conoco joint Venture) from the USA, Glencore International AG from Switzerland, Debis
International trading GmbH, Daimler-Chrysler and VAW Aluminium Technologie GmbH from
Germany, Hydro ASA from Norway, Fiat from Italy, and TLM-ibenik from Croatia[5]. Mostar area
alone receives an income of 40 million annually from Aluminij.
Mostar also hosts the annual International Economic Fair Mostar ("Meunarodni sajam
gospodarstva Mostar")[30] which was first held in 1997. The Fair consist of several smaller
sections: "The Economy Fair", "Wine Fair", "Book Fair" and "Food Day".

The National Anthem of

Bosnia and Herzegovina
Capital
(and largest city)
Official language(s)

Ethnic groups (2000)

Demonym
Government

Dravna himna Bosne i

Hercegovine /

Sarajevo
4352N 1825E / 43.867N
18.417E
Bosnian, Croatian and Serbian.
48.0% Bosniaks,
37.1% Serbs,
14.3% Croats,
0.6% others
Bosnians, Herzegovinians
Federal democratic republic

High Representative

Valentin Inzko1

Presidency members

Bakir Izetbegovi2
Neboja Radmanovi3
eljko Komi4

Prime Minister
Independence
-

First mentioned

950/753

Banate

1154

Kingdom

1377

Independence lost
to Ottoman Empire
conquest
-

Bosnian uprising

Jurisdiction transferred
to Austro-Hungarian
Empire
Annexation of
Bosnia by AustroHungarian Empire
-

National Day

Independence Day
- (from SFR Yugoslavia)
Observed
Area

1831
1878
1908
November 25, 1943 (ZAVNOBIH)
March 1, 1992
April 6, 1992
51,197 km2 (127th)
19,741 sq mi

2011 estimate

3,839,737 (129th5)

1991 census

4,377,033

Density

GDP (PPP)
-

1463

Total

Population
-

Vjekoslav Bevanda

Total

Per capita
GDP (nominal)
Total

75/km2 (129th5)
194/sq mi
2011 estimate
$31.366 billion
$8,063
2011 estimate
$18.294 billion

Per capita
Gini (2007)
HDI (2011)
Currency
Time zone

$4,702
34.1
0.733 (high) (74th)
Convertible Mark (BAM)
CET (UTC+1)

Summer (DST)
CEST (UTC+2)
Drives on the
right
ISO 3166 code
BA
Internet TLD
.ba
Calling code
387
Not a government member; the High Representative is an
1 international civilian peace implementation overseer with
authority to dismiss elected and non-elected officials and
enact legislation
2
Current presidency Chair; Bosniak.
3
Current presidency member; Croat.
4
Current presidency member; Serb.
5
Rank based on 2007 UN estimate of de facto population.
Bosnia and Herzegovina ( i/bzni n hrtso
vin/;Bosnian, Croatian and Serbian: Bosna i
Hercegovina, Cyrillic script: ), sometimes
called Bosnia-Herzegovina or simply Bosnia, is a country
in Southeastern Europe, on the Balkan Peninsula. Its capital
and largest city isSarajevo. Bordered by Croatia to the north,
west and south,Serbia to the east, and Montenegro to the
southeast, Bosnia and Herzegovina is almost landlocked,
except for the 20 kilometres (12 miles) of coastline on
the Adriatic Sea surrounding the town of Neum. In the central
and southern interior of the country the geography is
mountainous, in the northwest it is moderately hilly, and the
northeast is predominantly flatland. The inland is a
geographically larger region and has a moderate continental
climate, bookended by hot summers and cold and snowy
winters. The southern tip of the country has a Mediterranean
climate and plain topography.
The country that is now Bosnia and Herzegovina is a region that
traces permanent human settlement back to the Neolithic age.
Culturally, politically and socially, the country has one of the
richest histories in the region, having been first settled by
the Slavic peoples that populate the area today from the 6th
through to the 9th centuries AD. They then established the first
independentBanate in the 12th century upon the arrival and

convergence of people that would eventually come to call

themselves Dobri Bonjani (literally "Good Bosnians"). This
evolved into theKingdom of Bosnia in the 14th century, after
which it was annexed into the Ottoman Empire, under whose
rule it would remain from the mid 15th to the late 18th century.
The Ottomans brought Islamto the region, and altered much of
the cultural and social outlook of the country. This was followed
by annexation into the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy, which
lasted up until the end of World War I. Following the dissolution
of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, the country, like
most other in the region, proclaimed independence in 1992,
which was followed by a bloody war, which lasted until late
1995.
Today, the country maintains high literacy, life expectancy and
education levels and is one of the most frequently-visited
countries in the region. Bosnia and Herzegovina is regionally
and internationally renowned for its natural beauty and
heritageinherited from six historical civilizations,
its cuisine, winter sports, its eclectic and
unique architecture and the Sarajevo Film Festivaland Sarajevo
Jazz Festivals, both the largest and most prominent of their kind
in Southeastern Europe.
The country is home to three ethnic groups or,
officially,constituent peoples, a term unique for Bosnia and
Herzegovina.Bosniaks are the largest group of the three,
with Serbs second and Croats third. Regardless of ethnicity, a
citizen of Bosnia and Herzegovina is often identified in English
as a Bosnian. The terms Herzegovinian and Bosnian are
maintained as a regional rather than ethnic distinction, and the
region of Herzegovina has no precisely defined borders of its
own. Moreover, the country was simply called "Bosnia" (without
Herzegovina) until the Austro-Hungarian occupation at the end
of the nineteenth century.
Formerly one of the six federal units constituting the Socialist
Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, Bosnia and Herzegovina
gained its independence during the Yugoslav Wars of the
1990s. Bosnia and Herzegovina is a parliamentary republic,
which has abicameral legislature and a three-member
Presidency composed of a member of each major ethnic group.
However, the central government's power is highly limited, as
the country is largely decentralized and comprises two
autonomous entities: theFederation of Bosnia and
Herzegovina and Republika Srpska, with a third region,
the Brko District, governed under local government. The
country is a potential candidate for membership to the European
Union and has been a candidate for NATOmembership since

April 2010, when it received a Membership Action Plan at the

summit in Tallinn. Additionally, the country has been a member
of the Council of Europe since April 2002 and a founding
member of the Mediterranean Union upon its establishment in
July 2008.
Etymology
The first preserved mention of the name "Bosnia" is in De
Administrando Imperio, a politico-geographical handbook
written by the Byzantine emperor Constantine VII in the mid10th century (between 948 and 952) describing the "small
country" ( inGreek) of "Bosona"
(). The Chronicle of the Priest of Duklja from 1172-1196
of Bar's Roman Catholic ChristianArchbishop Grgur names
Bosnia, and references an earlier source from the year of 753 the De Regno Sclavorum (Of the Realm of Slavs). The name
"Bosnia" probably comes from the name of the Bosna river
around which it has been historically based, which was
recorded in the Roman era under the nameBossina. More
direct roots of the river's names are unknown. Philologist Anton
Mayer proposed a connection with the IndoEuropean root *bos or *bogh, meaning "running water".
[16]
Certain Roman sources similarly mention Bathinus flumen as
a name of the Illyrian Bosona, both of which would mean
"running water" as well. Other theories involve the
rare Latin term Bosina, meaning boundary, and
possible Slavic origins.
The origins of "Herzegovina" can be identified with more
precision. During the Early Middle Ages the region was known
asHum, from the Zachlumoi tribe of southern Slavs which
inhabited it. In the 1440s, the region was ruled by the powerful
noblemanStefan Vuki Kosaa. In a document sent to Friedrich
III on January 20, 1448, Stefan Vuki Kosaa called himself
"Herzog of Saint Sava, Lord of Hum and Primorje, Grand Duke
of Bosnia". Herzog is the German for "duke", and so the lands
he controlled later became known as Herzegovina ("Dukedom",
from the addition of -ovina, "land"). The region was administered
by the Ottomans as the sanjak and then pashaluk of Hersek.
The name Herzegovina was first included in the official name of
the then Ottoman province in the mid-19th century.
On initial proclamation of independence in 1992 the country's
official name was the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina but
following the 1995 Dayton Agreement and the new constitution
that accompanied it the name was officially changed to Bosnia
and Herzegovina.

History
Main article: History of Bosnia and Herzegovina
Early history
Main article: Early history of Bosnia and Herzegovina
Bosnia has been inhabited since at least the Neolithic age. The
earliest Neolithic population became known in the Antiquity as
theIllyrians. Celtic migrations in the 4th century BC were also
notable. Concrete historical evidence for this period is scarce,
but overall it appears that the region was populated by a
number of different peoples speaking distinct languages.
Conflict between the Illyrians and Romans started in 229 BC,
but Rome did not complete its annexation of the region
until AD 9.
It was precisely in what is now Bosnia and Herzegovina that
Rome fought one of the most difficult battles in its history since
thePunic Wars, as described by the Roman
historian Suetonius. This was the Roman campaign against the
revolt of indigenous communities from Illyricum, known in
history as the Great Illyrian Revolt, and also as the Pannonian
revolt, or Bellum Batonianum, the latter named after two leaders
of the rebellious Illyrian communities, Bato/Baton of
the Daesitiates, and Bato of theBreuci.
The Great Illyrian revolt was a rising up of Illyrians against the
Romans, more specifically a revolt against Tiberius' attempt to
recruit them for his war against the Germans. The Illyrians put
up a fierce resistance to the most powerful army on earth at the
time (the Roman Army) for four years (AD 6 to AD 9), but they
were finally subdued by Rome in AD 9.
The last Illyrian stronghold, of which their defence won the
admiration of Roman historians, is said to have been
Arduba.Bato of Daesitiates was captured and taken to Italy. It is
alleged that when Tiberius asked Bato and the Daesitiates why
they had rebelled, Baton was reputed to have answered: "You
Romans are to blame for this; for you send as guardians of your
flocks, not dogs or shepherds, but wolves." Bato spent the rest
of his life in the Italian town of Ravenna.
In the Roman period, Latin-speaking settlers from the
entireRoman Empire settled among the Illyrians, and Roman
soldiers were encouraged to retire in the region.
The land was originally part of Illyria up until the Roman

occupation. Following the split of the Roman Empire between

337 and 395 AD, Dalmatia and Pannonia became parts of
theWestern Roman Empire. Some claim that the region was
conquered by the Ostrogoths in 455 AD. It subsequently
changed hands between the Alans and the Huns. By the 6th
century, Emperor Justinian had reconquered the area for
the Byzantine Empire. The Illyrians were conquered by
the Avars in the 6th century.
Medieval Bosnia
Main article: History of Bosnia and Herzegovina (9581463)
Modern knowledge of the political situation in the west Balkans
during the Early Middle Ages is unclear. Upon their arrival,
theSlavs brought with them a tribal social structure which
probably fell apart and gave way to Feudalism only
with Frankishpenetration into the region in the late 9th century.
The Slavic tribes also brought their mythology and pagan
system of beliefs, theRodovjerje. In particular, Perun / ,
the highest god of the pantheon and the god of thunder and
lightning is also commonly found in Bosnian toponymy, for
instance in the name of Mount Perun (Perunova
Gora / ). Along with the Slavic settlers, the native
Illyrians were Christianized. Bosnia and Herzegovina, because
of its geographic position and terrain, was probably one of the
last areas to go through this process, which presumably
originated from the urban centers along the Dalmatian coast.
Thus, Slavic Bosnian tribes remained pagans for a longer time,
and finally converted to the Bogumil Christian faith.
The principalities of Serbia and Croatia split control of Bosnia
and Herzegovina in the 9th and 10th century, but by the High
Middle Ages political circumstance led to the area being
contested between the Kingdom of Hungary and the Byzantine
Empire. Following another shift of power between the two in the
early 12th century, Bosnia found itself outside the control of both
and emerged as an independent state under the rule of
localbans.
The first Bosnian monarch was Ban Bori. The second was Ban
Kulin whose rule marked the start of a controversy with
theBosnian Church, because he allowed an
indigenous Bogomilismsect considered heretical by the Roman
Catholic Church. In response to Hungarian attempts to use
church politics regarding the issue as a way to reclaim
sovereignty over Bosnia, Kulin held a council of local church
leaders to renounce the heresy and embraced Catholicism in
1203. Despite this, Hungarian ambitions remained unchanged
long after Kulin's death in 1204, waning only after an

unsuccessful invasion in 1254.

Bosnian history from then until the early 14th century was
marked by a power struggle between
the ubi and Kotromani families. This conflict came to an end
in 1322, when Stephen II Kotromanibecame Ban. By the time
of his death in 1353, he was successful in annexing territories to
the north and west, as well as Zahumlje and parts of Dalmatia.
He was succeeded by his nephew Tvrtkowho, following a
prolonged struggle with nobility and inter-family strife, gained full
control of the country in 1367. Tvrtko crowned himself on 26
October 1377 as Stephen Tvrtko I the King ofRascia, Bosnia,
Dalmatia, Croatia, the Seaside.
Based on archaeological evidence, he was crowned in the in
Mile near Visoko in the church which was built in the time
of Stephen II Kotromani's reign, where he was also buried
alongside his uncle Stjepan II. Following his death in 1391
however, Bosnia fell into a long period of decline. The Ottoman
Empire had already started its conquest of Europe and posed a
major threat to the Balkansthroughout the first half of the 15th
century. Finally, after decades of political and social instability,
the Kingdom of Bosnia ceased to exist in 1463.
Ottoman Era (14631878)
Main article: History of Bosnia and Herzegovina (14631878)
The Ottoman conquest of Bosnia marked a new era in the
country's history and introduced drastic changes in the political
and cultural landscape. The Ottomans allowed for the
preservation of Bosnia's identity by incorporating it as an
integral province of the Ottoman Empire with its historical name
and territorial integrity a unique case among subjugated
states in the Balkans.
Within Bosnia the Ottomans introduced a number of key
changes in the territory's socio-political administration; including
a new landholding system, a reorganization of administrative
units, and a complex system of social differentiation by class
and religious affiliation.
The three centuries of Ottoman rule also had a drastic impact
on Bosnia's population make-up, which changed several times
as a result of the empire's conquests, frequent wars with
European powers, forced and economic migrations, and
epidemics. A native Slavic-speaking Muslim community
emerged and eventually became the largest of the ethnoreligious groups due to the restriction imposed by the Ottoman

Empire, and conversions-for-gain.

The Bosnian Christian communities also experienced major
changes. The Bosnian Franciscans (and the Catholic population
as a whole) were to a minor extent protected by official imperial
decree, while the Bosnian Church disappeared altogether.
As the Ottoman Empire continued their rule in
the Balkans(Rumelia), Bosnia was somewhat relieved of the
pressures of being a frontier province, and experienced a period
of general welfare. A number of cities, such as Sarajevo
and Mostar, were established and grew into regional centers of
trade and urban culture and were then visited
by Ottoman traveler Evliya elebi in 1648. Within these cities,
various Ottoman Sultans financed the construction of many
works of Bosnian architecture such as the country's first library
in Sarajevo, madrassas, a school of Sufi philosophy, and
a clock tower (Sahat Kula), bridges such as theStari Most,
the Tsar's Mosque and the Gazi Husrev-beg's Mosque.
Furthermore, some Bosnians played influential roles in the
Ottoman Empire's cultural and political history during this
time.Bosnian recruits formed a large component of the Ottoman
ranks in the battles of Mohcs and Krbava field, while numerous
other Bosnians rose through the ranks of the Ottoman military to
occupy the highest positions of power in the Empire, including
admirals such as Matrak Nasuh; generals such as Isa-Beg
Isakovi, Gazi Husrev-beg and Telli Hasan Pasha;
administrators such as Ferhat-paa Sokolovi and Osman
Gradaevi; andGrand Viziers such as the influential Mehmed
Paa Sokolovi. Some Bosnians emerged as Sufi mystics,
scholars such as Ali Dabi; and poets in
the Turkish, Albanian, Arabic, and Persian languages.
However, by the late 17th century the Empire's military
misfortunes caught up with the country, and the conclusion of
theGreat Turkish War with the treaty of Karlowitz in 1699 once
again made Bosnia the Empire's westernmost province. The
following century was marked by further military failures,
numerous revolts within Bosnia, and several outbursts of
plague. The Porte's false efforts at modernizing the Ottoman
state were met with distrust growing to hostility in Bosnia, where
local aristocrats stood to lose much through the proposed
reforms.
This, combined with frustrations over political concessions to
nascent Christian states in the east, culminated in an
unsuccessful revolt by Husein Gradaevi, in 1831 after the
Turkish Sultan Mahmud II slaughtered and abolished

theJanissary. Related rebellions would be extinguished by

1850, but the situation continued to deteriorate. Later agrarian
unrest eventually sparked the Herzegovinian rebellion, a
widespread peasant uprising, in 1875. The conflict rapidly
spread and came to involve several Balkan states and Great
Powers, a situation which eventually led to the Congress of
Berlin and the Treaty of Berlin in 1878.
Austro-Hungarian rule (18781918)
Main article: History of Bosnia and Herzegovina (18781918)
At the Congress of Berlin in 1878, the Austro-Hungarian Foreign
Minister Gyula Andrssy obtained the occupation and
administration of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and he also obtained
the right to station garrisons in the Sanjak of Novi Pazar, which
remained under Ottoman administration. The Sanjak preserved
the separation of Serbia and Montenegro, and the AustroHungarian garrisons there would open the way for a dash to
Salonika that "would bring the western half of the Balkans under
permanent Austrian influence." "High [Austro-Hungarian]
military authorities desired [an...] immediate major expedition
with Salonika as its objective."
On 28 September 1878 the Finance Minister, Koloman von Zell,
threatened to resign if the army, backed by the Archduke Albert,
were allowed to advance to Salonika. In the session of the
Hungarian Parliament of 5 November 1878 the Opposition
proposed that the Foreign Minister should be impeached for
violating the constitution with his policy during the Near East
Crisis and by the occupation of Bosnia-Herzegovina. The
motion lost 179 to 95. The gravest accusations were raised by
the opposition rank and file against Andrassy.
Although an Austro-Hungarian side quickly came to an
agreement with Bosnians, tensions remained in certain parts of
the country (particularly the south) and a mass emigration of
predominantly Slavic dissidents occurred. However, a state of
relative stability was reached soon enough and AustroHungarian authorities were able to embark on a number of
social and administrative reforms which intended to make
Bosnia and Herzegovina into a "model colony".
With the aim of establishing the province as a stable political
model that would help dissipate rising South Slav nationalism,
Habsburg rule did much to codify laws, to introduce new political
practices, and to provide for modernisation. The AustroHungarian Empire built the three Roman Catholic churches in
Sarajevo and these three churches are among only 20 Catholic

churches in the state of Bosnia.

Within three years of formal occupation of Bosnia Herzegovina,
Austria-Hungary, in 1881, obtained German, and more
importantly, Russian, approval for the annexation of these
provinces, at a time which suited Vienna. This mandate was
formally ratified by the Dreikaiserbund (Three Emperor's
Treaty)on June 18 of that year. Upon the accession of Czar
Nicholas II, however, the Russians reneged on the agreement,
asserting in 1897 the need for special scrutiny of the Bosnian
Annexation issue at an unspecified future date.
External matters began to affect the Bosnian Protectorate,
however, and its relationship with Austria-Hungary. A bloody
coup occurred in Serbia, on June 10, 1903, which brought a
radical anti-Austrian government into power in Belgrade. Serb
attempts to foment agitation followed, advocating a unified
South Slavic state, ruled from Belgrade. This gained little
support amongst most of the population of Bosnia Herzegovina,
and only found fertile ground with disaffected portions of the
Orthodox minority. Also, the revolt in the Ottoman Empire in
1908, raised concerns that the Istanbul government might seek
the outright return of Bosnia Herzegovina. These factors caused
the Austrian-Hungarian government to seek a permanent
resolution of the Bosnian question, sooner, rather than later.
On July 2, 1908, in response to the pressing of the AustrianHungarian claim, the Russian Imperial Foreign Minister
Alexander Izvolsky offered to support the Bosnian Annexation in
return for Vienna's support for Russia's bid for naval access
through theDardanelles Straits into the Mediterranean. With the
Russians being, at least, provisionally willing to keep their word
over Bosnia Herzegovina for the first time in 11 years, AustriaHungary waited and then published the annexation
proclamation on October 6, 1908. The international furor over
the annexation announcement caused Izvolsky to drop
the Dardanelles Straits question, altogether, in an effort to
obtain a European conference over the Bosnian
Annexation. This conference never materialized and without
British or French support, the Russians and their client state,
Serbia, were compelled to accept the Austrian-Hungarian
annexation of Bosnia Herzegovina in March 1909.
Political tensions culminated on 28 June 1914, when Serb
nationalist youth Gavrilo Princip, a member of movement Young
Bosnia, assassinated the heir to the Austro-Hungarian
throne,Archduke Franz Ferdinand, in Sarajevo an event that
proved to be the spark that set off World War I. Although some
Bosnians died serving in the armies of the various warring

states, Bosnia and Herzegovina itself managed to escape the

conflict relatively unscathed.
Kingdom of Yugoslavia (19181941)
Main article: History of Bosnia and Herzegovina (19181941)
Following the war, Bosnia and Herzegovina joined the South
Slavkingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (soon renamed
Yugoslavia). Political life in Bosnia at this time was marked by
two major trends: social and economic unrest over property
redistribution, and formation of several political parties that
frequently changed coalitions and alliances with parties in other
Yugoslav regions. The dominant ideological conflict of the
Yugoslav state, between Croatian regionalism and Serbian
centralization, was approached differently by Bosnia's
majorethnic groups and was dependent on the overall political
atmosphere. The political reforms brought about in the newly
established Yugoslavian kingdom saw few benefits for the
Bosniaks; according to the 1910 final census of land ownership
and population according to religious affiliation conducted in
Austro-Hungary, Muslims (Bosniaks) owned 91.1%, Orthodox
Serbians owned 6.0%, Croatian Catholics owned 2.6% and
others, 0.3% of the property. Following the reforms Bosnian
Muslims had a total of 1,175,305 hectares of agricultural and
forest land taken away from them.
Although the initial split of the country into 33 oblasts erased the
presence of traditional geographic entities from the map, the
efforts of Bosnian politicians such as Mehmed Spaho ensured
that the six oblasts carved up from Bosnia and Herzegovina
corresponded to the six sanjaks from Ottoman times and, thus,
matched the country's traditional boundary as a whole.
The establishment of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia in 1929,
however, brought the redrawing of administrative regions
intobanates or banovinas that purposely avoided all historical
and ethnic lines, removing any trace of a Bosnian entity. SerboCroat tensions over the structuring of the Yugoslav state
continued, with the concept of a separate Bosnian division
receiving little or no consideration.
The famous Cvetkovi-Maek Agreement that created
theCroatian banate in 1939 encouraged what was essentially a
partition of Bosnia between Croatia and Serbia. However the
rising threat of Adolf Hitler's Nazi Germany forced Yugoslav
politicians to shift their attention. Following a period that saw
attempts at appeasement, the signing of the Tripartite Treaty,
and a coup d'tat, Yugoslavia was finally invaded by Germany

on 6 April 1941.
World War II (194145)
Main article: History of Bosnia and Herzegovina (19411945)
Once the kingdom of Yugoslavia was conquered by Nazi forces
in World War II, all of Bosnia was ceded to the Independent
State of Croatia. The Croat leaders embarked on a campaign of
extermination of Serbs, Jews, Roma, communists and large
numbers of Josip Broz Tito's Partisans by setting up a number
ofdeath camps.
Many Serbs themselves took up arms and joined the Chetniks;
a Serb nationalist movement that conducted operations
coordinated with Nazi forces against the partisans. The
Chetniks were also known to persecute and murder non-Serbs
and communist sympathizers. They committed many war
crimes against Bosnian Muslims in Eastern Bosnia. On October
12, 1941 a group of 108 notable Muslim citizens of Sarajevo
signed the Resolution of Sarajevo Muslims by which they
condemned thepersecution of Serbs organized by Ustae,
made distinction between Muslims who participated in such
persecutions and whole Muslim population, presented
informations about the persecutions of Muslims by Serbs and
requested security for all citizens of the country, regardless of
their identity.
Starting in 1941, Yugoslav communists under the leadership
ofJosip Broz Tito organized their own multi-ethnic resistance
group, the partisans, who fought against both Axis and Chetnik
forces. On 29 November 1943 the Anti-Fascist Council of
National Liberation of Yugoslavia with Tito at its helm held a
founding conference in Jajce where Bosnia and Herzegovina
was reestablished as a republic within the Yugoslavian
federation in its Habsburg borders.
Military success eventually prompted the Allies to support the
Partisans, but Tito declined their offer to help and relied on his
own forces instead. All the major military offensives by the
antifascist movement of Yugoslavia against Nazis and their local
supporters were conducted in Bosnia-Herzegovina and its
peoples bore the brunt of fighting. More than 300,000 people
died in Bosnia and Herzegovina in World War II. At the end of
the war the establishment of the Socialist Federal Republic of
Yugoslavia, with the constitution of 1946, officially made Bosnia
and Herzegovina one of six constituent republics in the new
state.

Socialist Yugoslavia (19451992)

Main article: History of Bosnia and Herzegovina (19451992)
Because of its central geographic position within the
Yugoslavian federation, post-war Bosnia was selected as a
base for the development of the military defense industry. This
contributed to a large concentration of arms and military
personnel in Bosnia; a significant factor in the war that followed
the break-up of Yugoslavia in the 1990s. However, Bosnia's
existence within Yugoslavia, for the large part, was peaceful and
prosperous. Though considered a political backwater of the
federation for much of the 1950s and 1960s, in the 1970s a
strong Bosnian political elite arose, fueled in part by Tito's
leadership in the Non-Aligned Movement and Bosnians serving
in Yugoslavia'sdiplomatic corps.
While working within the communist system, politicians such
asDemal Bijedi, Branko Mikuli and Hamdija
Pozderacreinforced and protected the sovereignty of Bosnia
and Herzegovina[34] Their efforts proved key during the turbulent
period following Tito's death in 1980, and are today considered
some of the early steps towards Bosnian independence.
However, the republic did not escape the increasingly
nationalistic climate of the time. With the fall of the Soviet Union
and the start of the break-up of Yugoslavia, the old communist
doctrine of tolerance began to lose its potency, creating an
opportunity for nationalist elements in the society to spread their
influence.
Bosnian War for independence (19921995)
Main article: Bosnian War
On 18 November 1990 the first multi-party parliamentary
elections were held (with a 2nd round on 25 November), which
resulted in anational assembly dominated by three ethnically
based parties, which had formed a loose coalition to oust the
communists from power. Croatia and Slovenia's subsequent
declarations of independence and the warfare that ensued
placed Bosnia and Herzegovina and its three constituent
peoples in an awkward position. A significant split soon
developed on the issue of whether to stay with the Yugoslav
federation (overwhelmingly favored among Serbs) or seek
independence (overwhelmingly favored among Bosniaks and
Croats).
The Serb members of parliament, consisting mainly of the Serb
Democratic Party members, abandoned the central parliament
in Sarajevo, and formed the Assembly of the Serb People of

Bosnia and Herzegovina on 24 October 1991, which marked the

end of the tri-ethnic coalition that governed after the elections in
1990. This Assembly established the Serbian Republic of
Bosnia and Herzegovina on 9 January 1992, which
became Republika Srpska in August 1992.
On 18 November 1991, the party branch in Bosnia and
Herzegovina of the ruling party in the Republic of Croatia,
theCroatian Democratic Union (HDZ), proclaimed the existence
of the Croatian Community of Herzeg-Bosnia, as a separate
"political, cultural, economic and territorial whole", on the
territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina, with Croat Defence
Council (HVO) as its military part. The Bosnian government did
not recognize it. The Constitutional Court of Bosnia and
Herzegovina declaredHerzeg-Bosnia illegal, first on 14
September 1992 and again on 20 January 1994.
A declaration of Bosnia and Herzegovina sovereignty on 15
October 1991 was followed by a referendum for independence
from Yugoslavia on 29 February and 1 March 1992 boycotted
by the great majority of the Serbs. The turnout in the
independence referendum was 63.4 per cent and 99.7 per cent
of voters voted for independence. Bosnia and Herzegovina
declared independence on 3 March 1992. Following a tense
period of escalating tensions the opening shots in the incipient
Bosnian conflict were fired when Serb paramilitary forces
attacked Bosnian Croat villages around Capljina on 7 March
1992 and around Bosanski Brod and Bosniak town Gorazde on
15 March. These minor attacks were followed by much more
serious Serb artillery attacks on Neum on 19 March and on
Bosanski Brod on 24 March. The killing of a Bosniak civilian,
woman (Suada Dilberovi), on 5 April 1992 by a sniper, while
she was demonstrating in Sarajevo against the raising of
barricades by Bosnian Serbs, is widely regarded as marking the
start of warfare between the three major communities.
Secret discussions between Franjo Tuman and Slobodan
Miloevi on the division of Bosnia and Herzegovina between
Serbia and Croatia were held as early as March 1991 known
asKaraorevo agreement. Following the declaration of
independence of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the
Serbs attacked different parts of the country. The state
administration of Bosnia and Herzegovina effectively ceased to
function having lost control over the entire territory. The Serbs
wanted all lands where Serbs had a majority, eastern
and western Bosnia.
The Croats and their leader Tuman also aimed at securing
parts of Bosnia and Herzegovina as Croatian. The policies of

the Republic of Croatia and its leader Franjo Tuman towards

Bosnia and Herzegovina were never totally transparent and
always included Franjo Tuman's ultimate aim of expanding
Croatia's borders. Bosnian Muslims, the only ethnic group loyal
to the Bosnian government, were an easy target, because the
Bosnian government forces were poorly equipped and
unprepared for the war.
International recognition of Bosnia and Herzegovina increased
diplomatic pressure for the Yugoslav People's Army (JNA) to
withdraw from the republic's territory which they officially did.
However, in fact, the Bosnian Serb members of JNA simply
changed insignia, formed the Army of Republika Srpska, and
continued fighting. Armed and equipped from JNA stockpiles in
Bosnia, supported by volunteers and various paramilitary
forcesfrom Serbia, and receiving extensive humanitarian,
logistical and financial support from the Federal Republic of
Yugoslavia, Republika Srpska's offensives in 1992 managed to
place much of the country under its control.
Initially, the Serb forces attacked the non-Serb civilian
population in Eastern Bosnia. Once towns and villages were
securely in their hands, the Serb forces military, police, the
paramilitaries and, sometimes, even Serb villagers applied the
same pattern: Bosniak houses and apartments were
systematically ransacked or burnt down, Bosniak civilians were
rounded up or captured, and sometimes beaten or killed in the
process. 2.2 million refugees were displaced by the end of the
war (of all three nationalities).
Men and women were separated, with many of the men
detained in the camps. The women and indeed some children,
as young as twelve years of age, were kept in various detention
centres where they had to live in intolerably unhygienic
conditions, where they were mistreated in many ways including
being raped repeatedly. Serb soldiers or policemen would come
to these detention centres, select one or more women, take
them out and rape them.
In June 1992 the focus switched to Novi Travnik and Gornji
Vakufwhere the Croat Defence Council (HVO) efforts to gain
control were resisted. On 18 June 1992 the Bosnian Territorial
Defence in Novi Travnik received an ultimatum from the HVO
which included demands to abolish existing Bosnia and
Herzegovina institutions, establish the authority of the Croatian
Community of Herzeg-Bosnia and pledge allegiance to it,
subordinate the Territorial Defense to the HVO and expel
Muslim refugees, all within 24 hours. The attack was launched
on June 19. The elementary school and the Post Office were

attacked and damaged.

Gornji Vakuf was initially attacked by Croats on 20 June 1992,
but the attack failed. The Graz agreement caused deep division
inside the Croat community and strengthened the separation
group, which led to the conflict with Bosniaks. One of the
primary pro-union Croat leaders, Bla Kraljevi (leader of
the Croatian Defence Forces (HOS) armed group) was killed by
HVO soldiers in August 1992, which severely weakened the
moderate group who hoped to keep the Bosnian Croat alliance
alive.
The situation became more serious in October 1992 when Croat
forces mattacked the Bosniak population in Prozor. According
toJadranko Prli indictment, HVO forces cleansed most of the
Muslims from the town of Prozor and several surrounding
villages.
By 1993, when an armed conflict erupted between the
predominantly Bosniak government in Sarajevo and the
Croatian Republic of Herzeg-Bosnia, about 70% of the country
was controlled by Republika Srpska. Ethnic cleansing and civil
rightsviolations against non-Serbs were rampant in these areas.
DNA teams have been used to collect evidence of the atrocities
committed by Serbian forces during these campaigns.[45] One
single most prominent example is the Srebrenica Massacre,
ruled genocide by the International Criminal Tribunal for the
former Yugoslavia. An estimated 7,000 Bosnians were killed by
the Serbian political authorities.
In March 1994, the signing of the Washington Accords between
the leaders of the republican government and Herzeg-Bosnia
led to the creation of a joint Bosniak-Croat Federation of Bosnia
and Herzegovina, which absorbed the territory of the Croatian
Republic of Herzeg-Bosnia and that held by the Army of the
Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The Federation soon
liberated the small Autonomous Province of Western Bosnia.
A NATO bombing campaign began in August, 1995, against the
Army of Republika Srpska, after the Srebrenica massacre.
Meanwhile, a ground offensive by the allied forces of Croatia
and Bosnia, based on the treaty in Split by Tudjman and
Izetbegovi, pushed the Serbs away from territories held in
western Bosnia which paved the way to negotiations. In
December 1995, the signing of the Dayton
Agreement in Dayton, Ohio by the presidents of Bosnia and
Herzegovina (Alija Izetbegovi), Croatia (Franjo Tuman), and
Serbia (Slobodan Miloevi) brought a halt to the fighting,
roughly establishing the basic structure of the present-day state.

A NATO-led peacekeeping force was immediately dispatched to

Bosnia to enforce the deal.
The number of identified victims is currently at 97,207, and the
recent research estimates the total number to be less than
110,000 killed (civilians and military), and 1.8 million displaced.
This is being addressed by the International Commission on
Missing Persons.
According to numerous International Criminal Tribunal for the
former Yugoslavia (ICTY) judgments the conflict involved
Bosnia and the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (later Serbia and
Montenegro) as well as Croatia.
The Bosnian government charged Serbia of complicity in
genocide in Bosnia during the war at the International Court of
Justice (ICJ). The ICJ ruling of 26 February 2007 effectively
determined the war's nature to be international, though
exonerating Serbia of direct responsibility for the genocide
committed by Serb forces of Republika Srpska. The ICJ
concluded, however, that Serbia failed to prevent genocide
committed by Serb forces and failed to punish those who
carried out the genocide, especially general Ratko Mladi, and
bring them to justice. Ratko Mladi was arrested in a village in
northern Serbia on 26 May 2011, being accused of directly
orchestrating and overseeing the slaughter of 8,000 Muslim
men and boys, amongst other genocide and war crime charges.
The judges ruled that the criteria for genocide with the specific
intent (dolus specialis) to destroy Bosnian Muslims were
met only in Srebrenica or Eastern Bosnia in 1995. The court
concluded that the crimes committed during the 19921995 war,
may amount to crimes against humanity according to
the international law, but that these acts did not, in themselves,
constitute genocide. The Court further decided that,
following Montenegro'sdeclaration of independence in June,
2006, Serbia was the only respondent party in the case, but that
"any responsibility for pastevents involved at the relevant time
the composite State of Serbia and Montenegro".
Geography
Main article: Geography of Bosnia and Herzegovina
See also: List of mountains in Bosnia and Herzegovina, List of
lakes in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and List of rivers of Bosnia
and Herzegovina
Bosnia is located in the western Balkans,
bordering Croatia(932 km/579 mi) to the north and southwest, Serbia(302 km/188 mi) to the east,

and Montenegro (225 km/140 mi) to the southeast. It lies

between latitudes 42 and 46 N, and longitudes 15 and 20 E.
The country's name comes from the two
regions Bosnia andHerzegovina, which have a very vaguely
defined border between them. Bosnia occupies the northern
areas which are roughly four fifths of the entire country, while
Herzegovina occupies the rest in the south part of the country.
The country is mostly mountainous, encompassing the
centralDinaric Alps. The northeastern parts reach into
the Pannonian basin, while in the south it borders the Adriatic.
Dinaric Alps generally run in east-west direction, and get higher
towards the south. The highest point of the country is
peak Magli at 2,386 m, at the Montenegrin border. Major
mountains
include Kozara,Grme, Vlai, vrsnica, Prenj, Romanija, Jahor
ina, Bjelanicaand Treskavica.
Overall, close to 50% of Bosnia and Herzegovina is forested.
Most forest areas are in Central, Eastern and Western parts of
Bosnia. Herzegovina has drier Mediterranean climate, with
dominant karst topography. Northern Bosnia (Posavina)
contains very fertile agricultural land along the river Sava and
the corresponding area is heavily farmed. This farmland is a
part of the Parapannonian Plain stretching into neighboring
Croatia and Serbia. The country has only 20 kilometers (12 mi)
of coastline, around the town of Neum in the HerzegovinaNeretva Canton. Although the city is surrounded by Croatian
peninsulas, by the international law, Bosnia has a right of
passage to the outer sea.
The major cities are the capital Sarajevo, Banja Luka in the
northwest region known as Bosanska
Krajina, Bijeljina and Tuzlain the northeast, Zenica and Doboj in
the central part of Bosnia and Mostar, the capital
of Herzegovina.
There are seven major rivers in Bosnia and Herzegovina

The Sava is the largest river of the country, but it only

forms its northern natural border with Croatia. It drains
76% of the country's territory into the Danube and the
Black Sea. Bosnia and Herzegovina is therefore also a
member of theInternational Commission for the
Protection of the Danube River (ICPDR).

The Una, Sana and Vrbas are right tributaries of Sava

river. They are located in the northwestern region of

Bosanska Krajina.

The Bosna river gave its name to the country, and is the
longest river fully contained within it. It stretches through
central Bosnia, from its source near Sarajevo to Sava in
the north.

The Drina flows through the eastern part of Bosnia, and

for the most part it forms a natural border with Serbia.

The Neretva is the major river of Herzegovina and the

only major river that flows south, into the Adriatic Sea.

Phytogeographically, Bosnia and Herzegovina belongs to

theBoreal Kingdom and is shared between the Illyrian province
of theCircumboreal Region and Adriatic province of
the Mediterranean Region. According to the WWF, the territory
of Bosnia and Herzegovina can be subdivided into
three ecoregions: the Pannonian mixed forests, Dinaric
Mountains mixed forests and Illyrian deciduous forests.
Government and politics
Main articles: Politics of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Political
divisions of Bosnia and Herzegovina
Bosnia and Herzegovina has several levels of political
structuring, according to the Dayton accord. Most important of
these levels is the division of the country into two
entities: Republika Srpska and the Federation of Bosnia and
Herzegovina. The Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina
covers 51% of Bosnia and Herzegovina's total area, while
Republika Srpska covers 49%. The entities, based largely on
the territories held by the two warring sides at the time, were
formally established by the Dayton peace agreement in 1995
because of the tremendous changes in Bosnia and
Herzegovina's ethnic structure. Since 1996 the power of the
entities relative to the State government has decreased
significantly. Nonetheless, entities still have numerous powers
to themselves. The Brko District in the north of the country was
created in 2000 out of land from both entities. It officially
belongs to both, but is governed by neither, and functions under
a decentralized system of local government. The Brko District
has been praised for maintaining a multiethnic population and a
level of prosperity significantly above the national average.
The third level of Bosnia and Herzegovina's political subdivision
is manifested in cantons. They are unique to the Federation of
Bosnia and Herzegovina entity, which consists of ten of them.
All of them have their own cantonal government, which is under

the law of the Federation as a whole. Some cantons are

ethnically mixed and have special laws implemented to ensure
the equality of all constituent people.
The fourth level of political division in Bosnia and Herzegovina
is the municipalities. The Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina
is divided in 74 municipalities, and Republika Srpska in 63.
Municipalities also have their own local government, and are
typically based on the most significant city or place in their
territory. As such, many municipalities have a long tradition and
history with their present boundaries. Some others, however,
were only created following the recent war after traditional
municipalities were split by the Inter-Entity Boundary Line. Each
canton in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina consists of
several municipalities, which are divided into local communities.
Besides entities, cantons, and municipalities, Bosnia and
Herzegovina also has four "official" cities. These are: Banja
Luka,Mostar, Sarajevo, and East Sarajevo. The territory and
government of the cities of Banja Luka and Mostar corresponds
to the municipalities of the same name, while the cities of
Sarajevo and East Sarajevo officially consist of several
municipalities. Cities have their own city government whose
power is in between that of the municipalities and cantons (or
the entity, in the case of Republika Srpska).
As a result of the Dayton Accords, the civilian peace
implementation is supervised by the High Representative for
Bosnia and Herzegovina selected by the Peace Implementation
Council. The High Representative has many governmental and
legislative powers, including the dismissal of elected and nonelected officials. More recently, several central institutions have
been established (such as defense ministry, security ministry,
state court, indirect taxation service and so on) in the process of
transferring part of the jurisdiction from the entities to the state.
The representation of the government of Bosnia and
Herzegovina is by elites who represent the country's three major
groups, with each having a guaranteed share of power.
The Chair of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina rotates
among three members (Bosniak, Serb, Croat), each elected as
the Chair for an eight-month term within their four-year term as
a member. The three members of the Presidency are elected
directly by the people (Federation votes for the
Bosniak/Croat,Republika Srpska for the Serb).
The Chair of the Council of Ministers is nominated by the
Presidency and approved by the House of Representatives. He

or she is then responsible for appointing a Foreign Minister,

Minister of Foreign Trade, and others as appropriate.
The Parliamentary Assembly is the lawmaking body in Bosnia
and Herzegovina. It consists of two houses: the House of
Peoplesand the House of Representatives. The House of
Peoples has 15 delegates, two-thirds of which come from the
Federation (5 Croat and 5 Bosniaks) and one-third from the
Republika Srpska (5 Serbs). The House of Representatives is
composed of 42 Members, two-thirds elected from the
Federation and one-third elected from the Republika Srpska.
The Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina is the
supreme, final arbiter of legal matters. It is composed of nine
members: four members are selected by the House of
Representatives of the Federation, two by the Assembly of the
Republika Srpska, and three by the President of the European
Court of Human Rights after consultation with the Presidency.
However, the highest political authority in the country is the High
Representative in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the chief executive
officer for the international civilian presence in the country.
Since 1995, the High Representative has been able to bypass
the elected parliamentary assembly, and since 1997 has been
able to remove elected officials. The methods selected by the
High Representative have been criticized as
undemocratic. International supervision is to end when the
country is deemed politically and democratically stable and selfsustaining.
Military
Main article: Armed Forces of Bosnia and Herzegovina
The Armed Forces of Bosnia and Herzegovina were unified into
a single entity in 2005, with the merger of the Army of the
Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Army of
Republika Srpska, which had defended their respective regions.
The Ministry of Defense had been founded in 2004.
The Bosnian military consists of the Bosnian Ground
Forces andAir Force and Air Defense. The Ground Forces
number 10,000 active and 5,000 reserve personnel. They are
armed with a mix of American, Yugoslavian, Soviet, and
European-made weaponry, vehicles, and military equipment.
The Air Force and Air Defense Forces has 2,500 personnel and
about 45 aircraft. All of its aircraft are utility helicopters and
basic trainers. The Air Defense Forces operate MANPAD handheld missiles, SAM missile batteries, anti-aircraft cannons, and
radar. Almost all of its anti-aircraft equipment is of Soviet origin,

though it also operates some U.S. and Swedish hardware.

Foreign relations
Main article: Foreign relations of Bosnia and Herzegovina
See also: Accession of Bosnia and Herzegovina to the
European Union
EU integration is one of the main political objectives of Bosnia
and Herzegovina, it initiated the Stabilisation and Association
Process in 2007. Countries participating in the SAP have been
offered the possibility to become, once they fulfill the necessary
conditions, Member States of the EU. Bosnia and Herzegovina
is therefore a potential candidate country for EU accession.
[60]
The implementation of the Dayton Accords of 1995 has
focused the efforts of policymakers in Bosnia and Herzegovina,
as well as the international community, on regional stabilization
in the countries-successors of the former Yugoslavia. Within
Bosnia and Herzegovina, relations with its neighbors
of Croatia, Serbia andMontenegro have been fairly stable since
the signing of theDayton Agreement in 1995.
On April 23, 2010, Bosnia and Herzegovina received
theMembership Action Plan from NATO, which is the last step
before full membership in the alliance. Full membership is
expected in 2014 or 2015, depending on the progress of
reforms.
Demographics
Main articles: Demographics of Bosnia and
Herzegovina andDemographic history of Bosnia and
Herzegovina
Further information: Ethnic groups in Bosnia and
Herzegovina, Religion in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and List of
people from Bosnia and Herzegovina
Bosnia and Herzgovina is home to three ethnic "constituent
peoples": Bosniaks, Serbs and Croats. Tensions between the
three constitutional peoples remain high and often provoke
political disagreements.
According to the 1991 census, Bosnia and Herzegovina had a
population of 4,377,033, while the 1996 UNHCR unofficial
census showed a decrease to 3,919,953.
Ethnically, according to the last official census data from 1991,
1,902,956 (43.5%) are Bosniaks, 1,366,104 (31.2%) Serbs and
760,852 (17.4%) Croats, with 242,682 (5.5%) Yugoslavs. The
remaining 2.4% of the population numbering 104,439

consisted of various other ethnicities. According to the 1996

UNHCR census, 1,805,910 (46.1%) are Bosniaks, 1,484,530
(37.9%) Serbs, 571,317 (14.6%) Croats and 58,196 (1.4%)
others and unspecified. According to 2000 data from the CIA
World Factbook, Bosnia's three largest ethnic groups have the
following percentages - the Bosniaks (48%), the Serbs (37.1%)
and the Croats (14.3%). Majority of the population
spokeBosnian language. There is a strong correlation between
ethnic identity and religion in Bosnia and Herzegovina: Muslims
constitute 40% of the population, Orthodox 31%, Roman
Catholics 15%, and other groups, including mostly nonreligious, 14%.
Large population migrations during the Yugoslav wars in the
1990s have caused demographic shifts in the country. No
census has been taken since 1991/96, and political
disagreements have made it impossible to organize one.
Nevertheless, a census has been planned for 2012. As almost
all of the post-war data is simply an estimate, a census would
be a statistical, inclusive, and objective way to analyze the
demographics of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Most sources,
however, estimate the population to be about four million,
representing a decrease of 500,000 since 1991.
The last official estimate by BHAS (Agency for Statistics of BiH)
for 2011 shows a decrease of the population to
3,839,737. Other BHAS estimation of population done on 30
June 2009 is 3,842,566.
Rank City name
1

Sarajevo

Banja
Luka

Tuzla

Zenica

Bijeljina

Mostar

7
8

Prijedor
Brko

Biha

10 Doboj

Division
Federation of Bosnia and
Herzegovina
Republika Srpska
Federation of Bosnia and
Herzegovina
Federation of Bosnia and
Herzegovina
Republika Srpska
Federation of Bosnia and
Herzegovina
Republika Srpska
Brko District
Federation of Bosnia and
Herzegovina
Republika Srpska

Pop.
300,855
238,353
99,543
93,233
78,960
68,392
43,307
38,968
37,511
31,794

Economy
Main article: Economy of Bosnia and Herzegovina
Bosnia faces the dual problem of rebuilding a war-torn country
and introducing market reforms to its formerly centrally planned
economy. One legacy of the previous era is a greatly
overstaffed military industry; under former leader Josip Broz
Tito, military industries were promoted in the republic, resulting
in the development of a large share of Yugoslavia's defense
plants but fewer commercially-viable firms.
For the most of Bosnia's history, agriculture has been based on
small and inefficient privately owned farms; food has
traditionally been a net import for the republic.
The war in the 1990s caused a dramatic change in the Bosnian
economy. GDP fell by 75% and the destruction of physical
infrastructure devastated the economy. While much of the
production capacity has been restored, the Bosnian economy
still faces considerable difficulties. Figures show GDP and per
capita income increased 10% from 2003 to 2004; this and
Bosnia's shrinking national debt being positive trends, but high
unemployment and a large trade deficit remain cause for
concern.
The national currency is the (Euro-pegged) Convertible
Mark(KM), controlled by the currency board. Annual inflation is
the lowest relative to other countries in the region at 1.9% in
2004.The international debt was $3.1 billion (2005 est) the
smallest amount of debt owed of all the former Yugoslav
republics. Real GDP growth rate was 5% for 2004 according to
the Bosnian Central Bank of BiH and Statistical Office of Bosnia
and Herzegovina.
Bosnia and Herzegovina has one of the highest income equality
rankings in the world, ranking eighth out of 193 nations.
According to Eurostat data, Bosnia and Herzegovina's PPS
GDP per capita stood at 31 per cent of the EU average in 2010.
Overall value of foreign direct investment (19992008):

1999: 166 million

2000: 159 million

2001: 133 million

2002: 282 million

2003: 338 million

2004: 534 million

2005: 421 million

2006: 556 million

2007: 1.628 billion

2008: 1.083 billion

From 1994 to 2008, 5.3 billion were invested in the country.

The top investor countries (19942007):

Austria (1,294 million)

Serbia (773 million)

Croatia (434 million)

Slovenia (427 million)

Switzerland (337 million)

Germany (270 million)

Italy (94.29 million)

Netherlands (63.52 million)

United Arab Emirates (56.70 million)

Turkey (54.81 million)

All Other Countries (892.54 million)

Foreign investments by sector for (19942007):

37.7% Manufacturing

21% Banking

4.9% Services

9.6% Trade

0.30% Transport

1% Tourism

Communications
Main article: Telecommunications in Bosnia and Herzegovina
The Bosnian communications market was fully liberalised in
January 2006. There are three landline telephone providers,
although each one predominantly serves a partile services are
provided by three operators, with nationwide services. Mobile
data services are also available, including highspeed EDGE and3G services.
Osloboenje (Liberation), founded in 1943, is one of the
country's longest running continuously circulating newspapers.
There are many national publications, only some of which
include theDnevni Avaz (Daily Voice), founded in 1995,
and Jutarnje Novine (Morning News) in circulation in
Sarajevo. Other local periodicals include the Croatian
newspaper Hrvatska rije and the Bosnian magazine Start, as
well as the weekly newspapersSlobodna Bosna (Free Bosnia)
and BH Dani (BH Days). Novi Plamen, a monthly magazine, is
the most left-wing publication currently. The international news
station Al Jazeera maintains a sister channel that caters to
the Balkans region, Al Jazeera Balkans, broadcasting out of and
based in Sarajevo.
Additionally, the country is the most liberated in terms
of freedom of the press in the region, ranking 43rd
internationally.
Tourism
Main article: Tourism in Bosnia and Herzegovina
See also: Sites of interest in Sarajevo
According to an estimation of the World Tourism Organization,
Bosnia and Herzegovina will have the third highest tourism
growth rate in the world between 1995 and 2020.
Lonely Planet, in ranking the best cities in the world,
rankedSarajevo, the national capital and host of the 1984
Winter Olympic Games, as #43, ahead of Dubrovnik at
#59, Ljubljana at #84, Bled at #90, Belgrade at #113,
and Zagreb at #135. Tourism in Sarajevo is chiefly focused on

historical, religious, and cultural aspects. Bosnia has also

become an increasingly popular skiing
and Ecotourism destination.
More recently Sarajevo was nominated one of Top 10 cities to
visit in 2010 in the 2010 edition of Lonely Planet's "Best In
Travel".
Bosnia and Herzegovina remains arguably one of the last
undiscovered natural regions of the southern area of the Alps,
with vast tracks of wild and untouched nature attracting
adventurers and nature lovers. The central Dinaric Alps are
favored by hikers and mountaineers, containing both
Mediterreanean and Alpine climates. Whitewater rafting is
somewhat of a national pastime, with three rivers, including the
deepest river canyon in Europe, the Tara River Canyon.
Tourist attractions
Some of the tourist attractions in Bosnia and Herzegovina
include:

Sarajevo The "Olympic City". Scientific, cultural, tourist

and commercial center of Bosnia-Herzegovina. Called
the "European Jerusalem".

Shrine of Our Lady of Meugorje (with an Annual Youth

Festival), the Catholic pilgrimage site of a famous Marian
apparition;

Mostar, "City on Neretva", "City of Sunshine", the

UNESCO site of Stari most and old town Mostar;

Viegrad, the UNESCO site of the Mehmed Paa

Sokolovi Bridge;

Banja Luka, the "Green City" with various cultural sights

like Kastel fortress and Ferhadija mosque;

Biha and the river Una with its waterfalls and the Una
River, within Una National Park;

Jajce, historical city of the Bosnian Kings, also famous

for being the city that hosted the foundation of Yugoslavia
and its famous waterfalls;

Prijedor, Old City Mosque (National heritage), Kozara

National Park and Bosnia's largest World War II

monument at Mrakovica;

Tuzla Birthplace of Mea Selimovi and the "salt lakes" of

Tuzla.

The Neretva river and the Rakitnica river canyons

in Upper Neretva;

The Trebiat river and its waterfalls Kravice and Koua;

The Buna and its spring Vrelo Bune with the historical
town of Blagaj;

The Lower Tara river canyon, the deepest canyon in

Europe;

The Peruica ancient forest, one of the last two

remaining primeval forests in Europe, and
the Sutjeska river canyon, both within Sutjeska National
Park;

Poitelj historical village;

Mount Bjelanica and Jahorina, sites of the XIV Olympic

Winter Games;

Neum on the coast. City on the Adriatic shore of BosniaHerzegovina.

Doboj and its 13th century fortress;

Stolac, the Begovina neighborhood

and Radimljatombstones;

Visoko, city of Bosnian Kings and the site of the

allegedBosnian pyramids;

Teanj, one of the oldest cities in Bosnia with its old town;

Bijeljina, known for its agriculture and ethno village

Stanii.

Lukavac - Modrac Lake (Jezero Modrac) the largest

artificial lake in Bosnia and Herzegovina

Travnik - The birthplace of Ivo Andri and site of old town

Travnik

Ostroac Castle - 16th century castle built by the

Ottomans and a second addition added by the Habsburg
familiy.

Gornji Vakuf - Mountain Vranica & Kula Mehmed bega

Stoanina

Education
Main article: Education in Bosnia and Herzegovina
Higher education has a long and rich tradition in Bosnia and
Herzegovina, the first classifiable higher-education institution
having been established a school of Sufi philosophy by Gazi
Husrev-beg in 1531, with numerous other religious schools
following suit over time. In 1887, under the Austro-Hungarian
Empire, a Sharia Law School began a five-year program. In the
1940s the University of Sarajevo became the city's first secular
higher education institute. In the 1950s post-bachelaurate
graduate degrees became available. Severely damaged during
the war, it was recently rebuilt in partnership with more than 40
other universities. There are various other institutions of higher
education, including: University "Demal Bijedi" of
Mostar,University of Banja Luka, University of
Mostar, University of Tuzla,American University in Bosnia and
Herzegovina and theAcademy of Sciences and Arts of Bosnia
and Herzegovina, which is held in high regard as one of the
most prestigious creative arts academies in the region.
Also, Bosnia and Herzegovina is home to several private and
international higher education institutions, some of which are:

Sarajevo School of Science and Technology

International University of Sarajevo

American University in Bosnia and Herzegovina

Sarajevo Graduate School of Business

International Burch University

Primary schooling lasts for nine years. Secondary education is

provided by general and technical secondary schools
(typicallyGymnasiums where studies typically last for four years.
All forms of secondary schooling include an element
of vocational training. Pupils graduating from general secondary
schools obtain theMatura and can enroll in any tertiary
educational institution or academy by passing a qualification
examination prescribed by the governing body or institution.

Students graduating technical subjects obtain a Diploma.

Culture
Main article: Culture of Bosnia and Herzegovina
Architecture
Main article: Architecture of Bosnia and Herzegovina
The architecture of Bosnia and Herzegovina is largely
influenced by four major periods where political and social
changes influenced the creation of distinct cultural and
architectural habits of the population. Each period made its
influence felt and contributed to a greater diversity of cultures
and architectural language in this region.
Literature
Main article: Literature of Bosnia and Herzegovina
Bosnia and Herzegovina has a rich literature, including a Nobel
prize winner Ivo Andri and poets such as Antun Branko
imi,Aleksa anti, Jovan Dui and Mak Dizdar, writers such
asMea Selimovi, Semezdin Mehmedinovi, Miljenko
Jergovi,Isak Samokovlija, Abdulah Sidran, Petar
Koi, Aleksandar Hemon, and Nedad Ibriimovi. The
National Theater was founded 1919 in Sarajevo and its first
director was famous drama-play writer Branislav Nui.
Magazines such as Novi Plamen, Most and Sarajevske
biljeznice are some of the more prominent publications covering
cultural and literary themes.
Besides native Bosnian literature there are many books which
cover the nineties Bosnian conflict written by international
authors. A few books worthy of mention are:

Slaughterhouse: Bosnia and the Failure of the West

byDavid Rieff

Love Thy Neighbor: A Story of War by Peter Maass

Safe Area Gorazde: The War in Eastern Bosnia 1992

1995 by Joe Sacco, and Christopher Hitchens

The Balkans: Nationalism, War & the Great Powers,

18041999 by Misha Glenny

Zlata's Diary: A Child's Life in Wartime Sarajevo, by Zlata

Filipovi
and in novels:

From Bosnia with Love by Javed Mohammed, S: A novel

about the Balkans by Slavenka Drakuli.

Art
Main article: Art of Bosnia and Herzegovina
The art of Bosnia and Herzegovina was always evolving and
ranged from the original medieval tombstones called Steci to
paintings in Kotromani court. However, only with the arrival of
Austro-Hungarians did the painting renaissance in Bosnia really
begin to flourish. The first educated artists from European
academies appeared with the beginning of 20th century. Among
those are: Gabrijel Jurki, Petar Tijei, Karlo Miji, piro
Bocari, Petar ain, oko Mazali, Roman Petrovi and Lazar
Drljaa. Later, artists such as: Ismet Mujezinovi, Vojo
Dimitrijevi, Ivo eremet, and Mica Todorovi amongst others
came to rise. After World War II artists like: Virgilije Nevjesti,
Bekir Misirli, Ljubo Lah, Meho Sefi, Franjo Likar, Mersad
Berber, Ibrahim Ljubovi, Devad Hozo, Affan Rami, Safet
Zec, Ismar Mujezinovi, and Mehmed Zaimovi rose in
popularity. Ars Aevi a museum of contemporary art that includes
works by renowned world artists was founded in Sarajevo.
Music
Main article: Music of Bosnia and Herzegovina
Typical Bosnian and Herzegovinian songs are ganga, rera, and
the traditional slavic music for the folk dances such as kolo and
from Ottoman era the most popular is sevdalinka. Pop and Rock
music has a tradition here as well, with the more famous
musicians including Dino Zoni, Goran Bregovi, Davorin
Popovi, Kemal Monteno, Zdravko oli, Edo Maajka,Hari
Varesanovic and Dino Merlin. Very popular are also the
numerous Slavic Metal bands, performing an interesting
combination of upbeat tempos and traiditional tunes. Among
them Silent Kingdom, Emir
Hot, D'n'K, Toxicdeath, Agonize andIrina Kapetanovi, often
performing with folk metal musicians from other neighbouring
slavic countries like Stribog (Croatia),Svarica (Croatia/Bosnia)
and Arkona (Russia). Also, it would be unfair not to mention
some of the talented composers such asore Novkovi, Esad
Arnautali, Kornelije Kova, and many pop and rock bands, for
example, Bijelo Dugme, Indexi, Plavi Orkestar, Zabranjeno
Puenje, who were among the leading ones in the former

Yugoslavia. Bosnia is home to the composer Duan esti, the

creator of the current national anthem of Bosnia and
Herzegovina and father of singer Marija esti, composer Saa
Loi and pianist Sasha Toperich. In the villages, especially in
Herzegovina, Bosniaks, Serbs, and Croats play the
ancientGusle. The gusle is used mainly to recite epic poems in
a usually dramatic tone.
Cinema
Main article: List of Bosnia-Herzegovina films
Notable Bosnian film-makers are Hajrudin Krvavac-iba, Emir
Kusturica (known for the Palme d'Or-winning 1985 film When
Father Was Away on Business, among others), Mirza Idrizovi,
Aleksandar Jevevi, Ivica Mati, Danis Tanovi (known for
theAcademy Award and Golden Globewinning 2001 film No
Man's Land), Ademir Kenovi, Benjamin Filipovi, Jasmin
Dizdar, Pjer alica, Jasmila bani, Dino Mustafi, Sran
Vuleti, Aida Begi, among many others.
Sports
Bosnia and Herzegovina has produced many athletes. Many of
them were famous in the Yugoslav national teams before
Bosnia and Herzegovina's independence.
The most important international sporting event in the history of
Bosnia and Herzegovina was the hosting of the 14th Winter
Olympics, held in Sarajevo from the 7th to 19 February 1984.
Some notable local Olympians were:

Rome, 1960: Tomislav Knez and Velimir

Sombolac(football),

Tokyo, 1964: Mirsad Fazlagi (football),

Munich, 1972: Abaz Arslanagi, Milorad Karali, Neboja

Popovi, ore Lavrini, Dobrivoje Sele (handball)

Moscow, 1980: Mirza Delibai and Ratko Radovanovi

(basketball)

Los Angeles, 1984: Zdravko Raenovi, Zlatan

Arnautovi(handball) and Anton Josipovi (boxing).

The Borac handball club has won seven Yugoslav Handball

Championships, as well as the European Championship Cup in
1976 and the International Handball Federation Cup in 1991.

The Bosna basketball club from Sarajevo were European

Champions in 1979. The Yugoslav national basketball team,
which medaled in every world championship from 1963 through
1990, included Bosnian players such as Draen
Dalipagi andMirza Delibai. Bosnia and Herzegovina regularly
qualifies for the European Championship in
Basketball. Jedinstvo Aidawomen's basketball club, based in
Tuzla, has won the 1989 European Championships in Florence.
The Tuzla-Sinalco karate club from Tuzla has won the most
Yugoslav championships, as well as four European
Championships and one World Championship.
The Bosnian chess team has been Champion of
Yugoslaviaseven times, in addition to club K Bosna Sarajevo
winning four Chess Club Cup : 1994 in Lyon, 1999 in Bugojno,
2000 in Neum, and 2001 in Kallithea Elassonos. Chess
grandmaster Borki Predojevi has also won two European
Championships: Under-12 years Litochoro (Greece) in 1999,
and Under-14 yearsKallithea Elassonos (Greece) in 2001, and
in 2003 won World Championship Under-16
years Halkidiki (Greece). The most impressive success of
Bosnian Chess was his runner-up position in Mens Olympiads
of 1994 in Moscow, featuring GrandmastersPredrag
Nikoli, Ivan Sokolov, Bojan Kurajica and Emir Dizdarevi.
Middle-weight boxer Marijan Bene has won several
Championships of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Yugoslav
Championships and the European Championship. [83] In 1978 he
won the World Title against Elisha Obed from the Bahamas.
Another middle-weight boxer, Anton Josipovi won the Olympic
Gold in Los Angeles, 1984. He also won Yugoslav
Championship in 1982, the Championship of the Balkans in
1983, and the Belgrade Trophy in 1985.
Association football is the most popular sport in Bosnia and
Herzegovina. It dates from 1903, but its popularity grew
significantly after World War I. At the local level, FK
Sarajevo(1967 and 1984), eljezniar (1972) have both won the
Yugoslav Championship. The former Yugoslav national football
team has included a number of Bosnian players, such as Josip
Katalinski,Duan Bajevi, Miroslav Blaevi, Ivica Osim, Safet
Sui, Idriz Hoi and Mirsad Fazlagi.
Today, the team of Bosnia and Herzegovina has modern
footballers like Edin Deko, Zvjezdan Misimovi, Vedad
Ibievi,Emir Spahi, Asmir Begovi, Miralem Pjani, Sejad
Salihoviand others. The independent Bosnia and Herzegovina
national football team has not qualified for a European or World

Championship but has played twice in the play-off stages. For

all time matches: Bosnia and Herzegovina national football
team results (1995-2011).
Bosnian national teams have struggled to draft the best national
players. Many players born in Bosnia and Herzegovina choose
to play for other countries because of their ethnic identification
and because of higher salaries offered by other teams. For
exampleMario Stani and Mile Miti were both born in Bosnia
and Herzegovina, but play for Croatia and Serbia respectively.
Other internationally famous players from Bosnia and
Herzegovina, who have made similar choices, are: Darijo
Srna, Mladen Petri,Neven Suboti, Vedran orluka, Zlatan
Ibrahimovi (born and raised in Sweden, his mother a Croat, his
father a Bosnian),Marko Marin, Zoran Savi, Vladimir
Radmanovi, Zlatko Junuzovi, Aleksandar Nikoli, Savo
Miloevi, and Zdravko Kuzmanovi.
Bosnia and Herzegovina was the world champion of volleyball
at the 2004 Summer Paralympics. Many among those on the
team lost their legs in the Bosnian War.
Cuisine
Main article: Cuisine of Bosnia and Herzegovina
Bosnian cuisine uses many spices, in moderate quantities. Most
dishes are light, as they are cooked in lots of water; the sauces
are fully natural, consisting of little more than the natural juices
of the vegetables in the dish. Typical ingredients include
tomatoes, potatoes, onions, garlic, peppers, cucumbers,
carrots, cabbage,mushrooms, spinach, zucchini, dried beans,
fresh beans, plums, milk, paprika and cream called Pavlaka.
Bosnian cuisine is balanced
between Western and Eastern influences. As a result of
the Ottoman administration for almost 500 years, Bosnian food
is closely related to Turkish, Greek, and other
former Ottoman andMediterranean cuisines. However, because
of years of Austrian rule, there are many influences from Central
Europe. Typical meat dishes include primarily beef and lamb.
Some local specialties
are evapi, burek, dolma, sarma, pilaf, goulash, ajvar and a
whole range of Eastern sweets. Local wines come
from Herzegovinawhere the climate is suitable for growing
grapes. Herzegovinian loza (similar to Italian Grappa but less
sweet) is very popular. Plum (rakija) or apple (jabukovaa)
alcohol beverages are produced in the north. In the south,
distilleries used to produce vast quantities of brandy and supply
all of ex-Yugoslavian alcohol factories (brandy is the base of
most alcoholic drinks).

Leisure activities
Coffeehouses, where Bosnian coffee is served
in dezva withrahat lokum and sugar cubes, proliferate Sarajevo
and every city in the country. Coffee drinking is a favorite
Bosnian pastime and part of the culture. Bosnians are believed
to be some of the heaviest coffee drinkers in the world.
BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA JEWISH LINKS:

Synagogues and Cemeteries in Sarajevo (including pictures of many synagogues)

Bosnia admit Nazi past by Matthew Dorf

Jewish Responses to Ethnic Cleansing in Bosnia

Jewish BosNet

American Jewish Congress on Abandonment of Bosnia

Jewish aid to Bosnia continues as NATO troops arrive

U.S Commission Urges Sarajevo Cemetery Restoration - By Samuel Gruber - 7000 Jews from
the area who fell victim to the Nazis.

Remembering Sarajevo in Pesach

Serbs demand their 'share' of rare Sarajevo Haggadah By Douglas Davis

Picture of the Jewish Synagogue, Velika Avlija (The Old Temple Synagogue) in Sarajevo and
the Jewish Haggadah. The Synagogue is the also the location of the Jewish Museum in
Sarajevo. (Please check if open).

Soros Media Center

The Jewish community of Bosnia and Herzegovina has a rich and varied history,
surviving World War II and the Yugoslav Wars, after having been born as a result of
the Spanish Inquisition, and having been almost destroyed by the Holocaust.
The Jewish Community of Bosnia and Herzegovina now numbers some 500 people,
spread in Sarajevo, Banja Luka,Mostar, Tuzla, Doboj, and Zenica.
Ottoman rule
See also: History of the Jews in Turkey
The first Jews arrived in the regions of Bosnia andHerzegovina in the 1575.

As tens of thousands of Jews fled

the Spanish andPortuguese Inquisitions, Sultan Bayezid II of the Ottoman Empire
welcomed Jews who were able to reach his territories. Jews fleeing Spain and
Portugal were welcomed in and found their way to Bosnia and
Herzegovina,Macedonia, Thrace and other areas of Europe under Ottoman control.
Jews began to arrive in Bosnia and Herzegovina in numbers in the 16th century, with
Jews arriving from the Ottoman Empire, and settling mainly inSarajevo. The
first Ashkenazi Jews arrived from Hungary in 1686, when the Ottoman Turks were
expelled from Hungary Jewish community prospered in Bosnia, living side by side
with their Bosnian Muslim neighbors, as one of the largest European centres for
Sephardi Jewry outside of Spain.
Jews in the Ottoman Empire were generally well-treated and were recognized under
the law as non-Muslims. Despite some restrictions, the Jewish communities of the
Empire prospered. They were granted significant autonomy, with various rights
including the right to buy real estate, to build synagogues and to conduct trade
throughout the Ottoman Empire.Jews, along with the other non-Muslim subjects of
the Empire, were granted full equality under Ottoman law by 1856.
Habsburg rule
The Austro-Hungarian Empire conquered Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1878, and
brought with them an injection of European capital, companies and methods. Many
professional, educated Ashkenazi Jews arrived with theAustro-Hungarians.
The Sephardi Jews continued to engage in their traditional areas, mainly foreign
trade and crafts.
World War I saw the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and after the
war Bosnia and Herzegovina was incorporated into the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. In the
census of 1921, Ladino was the mother language of 10,000 out of 70,000 inhabitants
of Sarajevo. By 1926, there were 13,000 Jews in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The Holocaust
Background
In 1940, there were approximately 14,000 Jews in Bosnia and Herzegovina, with
10,000 in Sarajevo.
With the invasion of Yugoslavia in April 1941 by the Nazisand their Allies, Bosnia and
Herzegovina came under the control of the Independent State of Croatia,
a Nazi puppet-state. The Independent State of Croatia was headed by the
notoriously anti-Semitic Ustae, and they wasted little time in persecuting nonCroats such as Serbs, Jews and Gypsies.
Deportation and murder
On July 22, 1941, Mile Budak a senior Minister in the Croatian government and one
of the chief ideologists of theUstae movement declared that the goal of the
Ustae was the extermination of "foreign elements" from theIndependent State of

Croatia. His message was simple: "The basis for the Ustasha movement is religion.
For minorities such as Serbs, Jews, and Gypsies, we have three million bullets." In
1941, Ante Paveli leader of the Ustae movement declared that "the Jews will
be liquidated in a very short time".
In September 1941 deportations of Jews began, with most Bosnian Jews being
deported to Auschwitz or toconcentration camps in Croatia. The Ustae set
upconcentration camps at Kerestinac, Jadovna, Metajna andSlana. The most
notorious, where cruelty of unimaginable proportions was perpetrated against Jewish
and Serbianprisoners were at Pag and Jasenovac. At Jasenovac alone, hundreds of
thousands of people were murdered (mostlySerbs), including 20,000 Jews.
By War's end, the Ustae had murdered more than 500,000Serbs, approximately
40,000 Roma (Gypsies) and 32,000 Jews.Among Bosnian Jews, 10,000 of the preWar Jewish population of 14,000 had been murdered. Most of the 4,000 who had
survived did so by fighting with the Yugoslav, Jewishor Soviet Partisans or by
escaping to the Italian controlled zone (approximately 1,600 had escaped to the
Italian controlled zone on the Dalmatian coast .
Jewish members of the Yugoslav Army became German prisoners of war and
survived the war. They returned toSarajevo after the war.
The Sarajevo Haggadah
The Sarajevo Haggadah has survived many close calls with destruction. Historians
believe that it was taken out of Spain by Spanish Jews who were expelled by
the Inquisition in 1492. Notes in the margins of the Haggadah indicate that it surfaced
in Italy in the 16th century. It was sold to the national museum in Sarajevo in 1894 by
a man named Joseph Kohen.
During World War II, the manuscript was hidden from the Nazis by Dr. Jozo
Petrovic, the director of the city museum and by Dervi Korkut, the chief librarian,
who smuggled theHaggadah out to a Muslim cleric in a mountain village near
Treskavica there it was hidden in the mosque among Korans and other Islamic
texts. During the Bosnian War of 1992-1995, when Sarajevo was under constant
siege by Bosnian Serb forces, the manuscript survived in an underground bank vault.
Afterwards, the manuscript was restored through a special campaign financed by the
United Nations and the Bosnian Jewish community in 2001, and went on permanent
display at the museum in December 2002.
Post-war community
The Jewish Community of Bosnia and Herzegovina was reconstituted after
the Holocaust, but most survivors chose to emigrate to Israel. The community came
under the auspices of the Federation of Jewish Communities in Yugoslavia, based in
the capital, Belgrade.

In the early 1990s, before the Yugoslav Wars, the Jewish population of Bosnia and
Herzegovina was over 2,000, and relations between Jews and their
Catholic, Orthodox andMuslim neighbors were good.
Yugoslav wars
When the Yugoslav Wars broke out in 1991, the American Jewish Joint Distribution
Committee evacuated 15,000 Bosnian Jews to Israel, and most chose to remain
there after the wars.
Today
Today, there are some 500 Jews living in Bosnia and Herzegovina. They enjoy
excellent relations with their non-Jewish neighbors and with the Bosnian government,
as it was throughout the history. As a result of the ethnic balancing act involved in the
UN-imposed Constitution of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Jews and other minorities are
forbidden in the Constitution of Bosnia from running for theposition of president.
[17]
Jakob Finci, a prominent Bosnian Jew and Bosnia's ambassador to Switzerland,
and Dervo Sejdi, a prominent Bosnian Roma and member of the member
of Bosnia's Roma Council, have launched an appeal to the European Court of
Human Rights on the basis that Bosnia's Constitution violates the European
Convention on Human Rights. A finding is expected in September 2009.
Prominent Bosnian Jews

Rav Moshe Danon, known as the Rabbi of Stolac

Ivan Ceresnjes, architect-researcher, former president of the Jewish

community of Bosnia and Herzegovina and vice-chairman of the Yugoslav
Federation of Jewish Communities from 19921996

Judah Alkalai, Rabbi, early member of the Zionist movement

Sven Alkalaj, Minister of foreign affairs of Bosnia and Herzegovina

Kalmi Baruh, writer and philosopher

Emerik Blum, businessman, founder of Energoinvest, former Mayor of

Sarajevo

Oskar Danon, composer and conductor

Jakob Finci, current spiritual leader of the Bosnian Jewish community.

David Elazar, Israeli general and Chief of Staff of Israel Defense Forces

Robert Rothbart, basketball player (Jewish father)

Isak Samokovlija, writer

Avraham Levi-Lazzaris (19052008), businessman, explorer of the first mines

of diamonds in Rondonia, Brazil, Holocaust survivor.

Moses Levi-Lazzaris (19441990), mechanical engineer, Trotskyist militant in

Brazil, Holocaust survivor.

Hilde Zaloscer (19031999) World renowned Art

Historian, Egyptologist and Coptologist.

Further reading

Sarajevo Rose: A Balkan Jewish Notebook, by Stephen Schwartz

The Righteous Among the Nations - Bosnian Muslim Rescuers in

Sarajevo: Mustafa and Zejneba Hardaga, Izet and Bachrija Hardaga, Ahmed
Sadik

The Righteous Among the Nations - Bosnian Rescuers:Roza Sober-Dragoje

and Zekira Besrevi

-----The Sarajevo Haggadah is handwritten on bleached calfskin and illuminated in

copper and gold. It opens with 34 pages of illustrations of key scenes in the Bible
from creation through the death of Moses. Its pages are stained with wine, evidence
that it was used at many Passover Seders.
The Sarajevo Haggadah has survived many close calls with destruction. Historians
believe that it was taken out of Spain by Spanish Jews who were expelled by
the Alhambra Decree in 1492. Notes in the margins of the Haggadah indicate that it
surfaced in Italy in the 16th century. It was sold to the National Museum in Sarajevo
in 1894 by a man named Joseph Kohen.
During World War II, the manuscript was hidden from the Nazisand Ustashe by the
Museum's chief librarian, Dervi Korkut, who at risk to his own life, smuggled the
Haggadah out of Sarajevo. Korkut gave it to a Muslim cleric in Zenica, where it was
hidden under the floorboards of either a mosque or a Muslim home. In 1957, a
facsimile of the Haggadah was published by Sndor Scheiber, director of
the Rabbinical Seminary in Budapest. In 1992 during the Bosnian War, the
Haggadah manuscript survived a museum break-in and it was discovered on the
floor during the police investigation by a local Inspector (Detective), Fahrudin ebo
(later nicknamed (Haggadah), with many other items thieves believed were not
valuable. It later survived in an underground bank vault when Sarajevo was under
constant siege by Bosnian Serb forces (Siege of Sarajevo the longest siege in the
history of modern warfare). To quell rumors that the government had sold the
Haggadah in order to buy weapons, the president of Bosnia presented the
manuscript at a community Seder in 1995.

Afterwards, the manuscript was restored through a special campaign financed by the
United Nations and the Bosnian Jewish community in 2001, and went on permanent
display at the museum in December 2002.
In 1985 a reproduction was printed in Ljubljana, 5,000 copies were made. More
recently, the museum has authorized the publication of a limited number of
reproductions of the Sarajevo Haggadah, each of which has become a collector's
item. In May 2006, the Sarajevo publishing house Rabic Ltd., announced the
forthcoming publication of 613 copies of the Haggadah on handmade parchment that
attempts to recreate the original appearance of the 14th century original, alluding to
the 613 Mitzvot.
There is a brief mention of the manuscript in the motion picture, "Welcome to
Sarajevo". The novel People of the Book, byGeraldine Brooks (2008), crafts a
fictionalised and highly imaginative history of the Haggadah from its origins in Spain
to the museum in Sarajevo. The Winter, 2002, issue of the literary journal Brick
published Ramona Koval's account of the disputes surrounding the
proposed UNESCO-funded display of the original codex in the context of the postDayton Agreement UN-supervised 1995 peace settlement.
The history of Dervi Korkut, who saved the book from the Nazis, was told in an
article by Geraldine Brooks in The New Yorkermagazine. The article also sets out the
story of the young Jewish girl, Mira Papo, whom Korkut and his wife hid from the
Nazis as they were acting to save the Haggadah. In a twist of fate, as an elderly
woman in Israel, Mira Papo secured the safety of Korkut's daughter during the
Bosnian war in the 1990s.
A copy of the Sarajevo Haggadah was gifted to former Prime Minister Tony Blair by
the Grand Mufti of Bosnia and Herzegovina Mustafa Ceric during the awards
ceremony for the Tony Blair Faith Foundation's Faith Shorts competition in December
2011. The Grand Mufti presented it as a symbol of interfaith cooperation and respect,
while recounting the protection of the Jewish book by Muslims on two occasions in
history.
Sarajevo Synagogue, (Bosnian: Sinagoga u Sarajevu), located on the south bank of
the river Miljacka, was constructed in 1902 and is the only functioning synagogue
in Sarajevo today.
History
A Sephardi synagogue (also known as Sijavu-paina daira orVelika Avlija) is known
to have been built in 1581 with the donation of Turskish beglerbeg Sijamu-paa to
help members of the Jewish community in Sarajevo who were poor. By the end of the
16th century, the space encompassing Velika Avlija was turned into the first
synagogue. The building burned down in both 1679 and 1778, and was rebuilt each
time. It now serves as a Jewish museum. Next door is the New Synagogue (Novi
Hram) serving as an art gallery owned by the Jewish community of Sarajevo. The
magnificent Sephardic synagogue of 1932 (Il Kal Grande) acknowledged as the
largest and most ornate synagogues in the Balkans, was destroyed by the Nazis in
1941.

Ashkenazi Jews arrived in Sarajevo with the Austro-Hungarian Empire in the late
nineteenth century. An Ashkenazi synagogue, seen in the photo to the right, was built
in 1902 in an elaborateMoorish Revival style. Designed by Karel Pak, its highly
decorated neo-Moorish style was a popular choice for synagogues in the AustroHungarian Empire.
The synagogue has enormous arches with richly-painted decorations. The high,
ornate ceiling was highlighted by a ten-pointed star. Today the synagogue is confined
to the women's galleries on the upper floor. At the entrance, a
stone menorahcommemorates the 400-year anniversary of the Jews in Bosnia and
Herzegovina.
The devastation wreaked by the Holocaust and the civil warduring the 1990s has left
fewer than 5,700 Jews in the formerYugoslavia. The Jewish community, like the
entire country, was once defined by its unique combination of eastern and western
traditions. Populations of Sephardi and Ashkenazi Jewspeacefully co-existed with
their Christian and Muslim neighbors in cities like Sarajevo.
-------