Jajce

Template:Bosnia and Herzegovina municipalities Jajce (Cyrillic: Јајце) is a town and municipality in central Bosnia and Herzegovina, located in the Central Bosnia Canton of the Federation. It is on the crossroads between Banja Luka, Mrkonjić Grad and Donji Vakuf, on the confluence of the rivers Pliva and Vrbas.

History

Jajce is a town that was first built in the 14th century and which served as the capital of the independent Bosnian kingdom during its time. The town has gates as fortifications, as well as a castle which has walls which lead to the various gates around the town, to protect the castle. When the Bosnian kingdom fell to the Ottoman Empire in 1463, Jajce was taken by the Ottomans but was retaken the same year.

During this period, the last Bosnian queen Katarina Velika (Catherine the Great) restored the Church of Saint Luke in Jajce, today the oldest church in town. Eventually, in 1525, Jajce became the last Bosnian town to fall to Ottoman rule. There are several churches and mosques built in different times during different rules, making Jajce a rather diverse town in this aspect.

Jajce gained prominence during the Second World War because it hosted the second convention of the Anti-Fascist Council of National Liberation of Yugoslavia on November 29 1943, a meeting that set the foundation for the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia after WWII.

In the census of 1991, the municipality of Jajce was inhabited by 45,007 people: 17,380 (38.75%) Bosniaks, 15,811 (35.13%) Croats, 8,663 (19.25%) Serbs, 2,490 (5.53%) Yugoslavs, and 657 (1.23%) others. The town of Jajce itself had 15,454 (with Carevo Polje wich is the part of the town) residents, of which 36.10% Bosniaks, 24,60% Serbs, 22,10% Croats, 14,58% Yugoslavs and 2.62% others. Town itself had;

Settlement: Bos Srbs Croats Yugos Others Sum B% S% C% Y% O%
Basceluci 983 334 379 280 54 2030 48% 16% 19% 14% 3%
Kozluk 1035 46 159 116 23 1379 75% 3% 12% 8% 2%
Pijavice 237 505 229 139 32 1142 21% 44% 20% 12% 3%
Skela 499 412 616 75 15 1617 31% 25% 38% 5% 1%

In Basceluci and Kozluk Bosniaks were majority, and in Pijavice Serbs, and in Skela Croats. Source[1].

At the beginning of the Bosnian war, Jajce was inhabited by people from all ethnic groups, and was situated at a junction between areas of Serb majority to the north, Bosnian Muslim majority areas to the south-east and Croatian majority areas to the south-west.

At the end of April and the beginning of May 1992, almost all Serbs left the city and fled to territory under Bosnian Serb control Republika Srpska. In the summer of 1992, the Bosnian Serb army started heavy bombardment of the city. Serb forces entered Jajce in October 1992, apparently due to lack of cooperation between Bosnian Muslim and Croatian forces. The Bosniak and Croat population escaped through Divicani into Travnik. In the Croat counteroffensives of August-September 1995 the town was taken by Croatian forces with most of the Serb population fleeing. Jajce became part of the Muslim-Croat Federation according to the Dayton Agreement.

Renovation and the current look of Jajce

Jajce was heavily bombed by the JNA during the Bosnian war 1992-1995. Most of the houses and government building were totally ruined as the serbs bombed the city in 1992. The city was under serb controll then until the Croatian army retook the city in the summer of 1995.

After the war, renovations of the city has begun, and most of the houses now are renovated or under renovation. Sadly, because of the current situation in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the economy of the Jajce municipality is bad and the renovations have taken a long time.

On recent day, UNESCO have started to renovate the historical parts of the city together with a swedish company named "Kulturarv utan gränser", "Cultural heritage without borders" on english.

The main project of the Swedish company is to renovate the old traditional Bosnian houses which symbolisted the panoramic view of the city and the waterfall. As of 2006, most of the houses are rebuilt but there are still work to do.

UNESCO have just started on their work on Jajce, and their aim is to fix up the waterfall on the way that it was before the war. UNESCO also have started a project together with the Bosnians, to clean up in the fortress on the top of Jajce.

As of summer 2006, works are ungoing in the fortress where the grass and trees in the fortress are going to be cleaned up and the aim is to fix up the fortress as it was before.

There are currently some tourist project in the city where it is open for visitors to visit the Catacombe in Jajce, where the Bosnian kings used to be and it is open for visitors to visit the fortress where you not only can look at the whole city of Jajce and the surrounding, you can also walk in the prison chambers where it used to be a prison in the fortress where there were prisoners.

A hotel and supermarket have also being built in the city after the war but the fact is that the economy is very bad.

Surroundings

The town is also famous for its beautiful waterfall where the lake Pliva meets the river Vrbas. It was 30 meters high, but during the Bosnian war, the area was flooded and the waterfall is now 20 meters high. The flooding may have been due to an earthquake and/or attacks on the hydroelectric power plant further up the river.

The roads and other infrastructure that connect Jajce to the villages surrounding it (part of the Jajce municipality) are in bad shape due to the wartime devastation.

Jajce also lies near Pliva lake (Plivsko jezero) and the rivers Pliva and Vrbas flow through the city. Jajce has a rich history and many remains of old times like the St Luke church and the fortress. Jajce was always known for its rich history but it was in the year 2006 that the city was first nominated to be listed as a UNESCO heritage site. It may take some years or many years, but this is evidence that even UNESCO are looking at Jajce in their future plans, and maybe the city will be a UNESCO heritage site in a couple of years.

Jajce is situated in the mountains, there is very beautiful countryside near the city of forested mountains, rivers like Vrbas and Pliva, lakes like Pliva lake and also a popular destination for the local people and perhaps some tourists, which is called Brana in the local language. When you travel through the mountain roads to the city, you may not feel very comfortable because the roads are in bad shape, but the scenery is just fantastic.

You can see forested mountains, lakes like Pliva lake, rivers and high mountains. Not far from Jajce there are mountains that are over 2000 meters high like Vlasic near the city of Travnik.

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