Prijedor (Serbian Cyrillic: Приједор, pronounced [prijɛ̌ːdɔr]) is a city and municipality in the north-western part of Bosnia and Herzegovina with an estimated population of 110,000 people within its administrative limits.[1] Prijedor is part of the Republika Srpska entity and is situated in the Bosanska Krajina region.
Prijedor is the second largest municipality in the Republika Srpska entity and the sixth largest in Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is an economically prosperous municipality hosting a wide range of industries, services and educational institutions. The city's geographical location close to major European capitals has made it an important industrial and commercial hub nationally.
Prijedor is known for its Catholic, Orthodox Christian and Islamic heritage. Historic buildings from the Ottoman and Austrian-Hungarian periods are a feature of the urban landscape. The city underwent extensive renovation between 2006-2009.
Prijedor acquired notoriety during the Bosnian War of 1992-1995 as a result of the violent ethnic cleansing of the non-Serb population of the town and municipality and the establishment of a concentration camp system under the auspices of the local Crisis Staff Committee.[2]
Surprisingly, Prijedor is also the city and municipality in the Republika Srpska with the highest number of Bosniak returnees according to the official municipality report.[3]
The town of Prijedor, within the municipality of Prijedor, is located in the north-western part of Bosnia and Herzegovina, on the banks of the Sana and Gomjenica rivers, and at the south-western hills of the Kozara mountain. The area of the municipality is 833 km2 (322 sq mi). The town is situated at 44°58'39" N and 16°42'29" E, at an altitude of 133 m (436 feet).
It is traditionally a part of the historical and cultural region of Bosanska Krajina in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The terrain ascends to the north-east of Prijedor in waves and gradually becomes the mountain range of the Kozara mountain, which is famous from the peoples' uprisings in the previous centuries and battles against fascism during the Second World War.
The city lies on the alluvial terrain created by the Sana river and its tributaries on the south-western hillsides of the Kozara mountain.
Prijedor's history as a fortified centre of population can be traced back to the end of the 17th century, but the history of the colonization and culture of the surrounding area is much older, predating the emergence of the town. Numerous prehistoric, ancient and mediaeval archeological sites are evidence of the presence of a variety of different cultures. There are numerous settlements from the prehistoric period, dating back to 2100 B.C., usually associated with burial sites. In the pre-Roman and Roman times the area was settled by a large Illyrian tribe Maezaei, a sub-tribe of the Pannonians, renowned for their mining skills. In Ljubija near Prijedor, many Roman age monuments have been found that provide evidence of iron production. In Zecovi there is an Illyrian necropolis from the Iron Age. A legend says that the river Sana was named by the Romans.
These regions were under the Ottoman Empire dominion until 1878. About 200 years ago in this part of Bosnia a large number of fortifications developed which served to protect restless borders with Austria. That was happening during the Austro-Ottoman War and great Ottoman defeats when the borders moved towards the east in favor of Austria. The first mention of the town, which refers to it as “Palanka Praedor” in a Latin written report of an Austrian field marshal about burnt fortified settlements, occurs between 1693 and 1696. The term “Palanka” indicates a wooden fortification built on an artificially created island on the river Sana. It's not clear how Prijedor got its name, but in present there are two theories. One of them refers to the term in “prodor”, i.e. penetration, penetration of Sana river, which flooded entire area. The second concerning race between man and horse (a horse is commonly known as “Doro”). As man won, it is said that man came to the goal before horse, in local “Prije Dore”. At the same place in the middle of the 18th century, a new fortress will appear, this time built with the stone walls with three towers and two clay causeways for the cannons. An archived information from Istanbul dated 1745 tells about two town guards crossing over to the newly built Palanka Pridorska Ada (island). It is the first mention of the fortress on the river Sana where the town will develop later.
With the emergence of the fortification, the settlement outside of the walls began to develop at the same time. The settlers are probably Christian population who lived in the vicinity and who will rapidly merge with the town which was expanding to the north. There is a testimony of an Austrian secret agent about the existence of the town for the purposes of the Austrian army, where he described the town in detail and especially emphasized the suburb in the vicinity.
The town was developing rapidly thanks to the navigable river Sana, the development of commerce and craft, and later construction of the first railway through Prijedor. The first railroad in Bosnia and Herzegovina was built in 1873 next to Prijedor and went from Dobrljina to Banja Luka. The fortress existed as a military spot until 1851 when the army left and the walls are demolished by local population for purpose of using the walls to build their own houses. A huge fire in 1882 destroyed 119 houses, 56 big commercial stores, schools, an orthodox church, and 140 families lost roofs over their heads. The next year the Austrian authorities opened a large sawmill at the foot of the mountain Kozara, which is the first industrial object in the history of Prijedor.
The years after the fire brought an intensive development of the town, private and state-owned structures. The wood was replaced with modern building materials, the streets were designed at a right angle and the first town plan was created. New buildings were built – the Serbian elementary school, the Catholic Church, the Orthodox Church, and a hotel. First cultural associations appeared in the town as well as the libraries, reading rooms and a printing house. The end of the First World War will bring a new state – the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, with Bosnia-Herzegovina as a part of it. Prijedor will have an important place as the trade and craft center of the whole region. The opening of the iron ore mine in Ljubija near Prijedor in 1916, which employed about 4,000 workers, will strengthen the economy of the town. During that period, the mine was one of the biggest and most modern iron ore mines in Europe.
Mrakovica memorial of the Yugoslav partisan resistance during WWII
During the Second World War, numerous civilians and children, mostly Serbs, were murdered by the Croatian Ustashas and the German Wehrmacht.[4]
The memorial center Mrakovica at Kozara, the work of the academic artist Dušan Džamonja, is dedicated to this region's Yugoslav partisans resistance victims during WWII.
During the Bosnian war (1992–1995), the area near Prijedor housed the infamous Omarska camp, Keraterm camp, and Trnopolje camp established in 1992 by Radovan Karadzic's Serb authorities for Bosniak and Croat population.[2][5][6] According to the testimony of Enes Kapetanovic before the Court of BiH at the trial for crimes committed in Keraterm and Omarska detention camps, "at the end of April 1992, after the Serbs overran Prijedor, we were informed on a daily basis that we should wear white bands around our arms if we were loyal to the new authorities. We all wore those bands - children and grown ups alike."[7]
The Prijedor massacre, also known as the Prijedor ethnic cleansing or the Prijedor genocide,[8] refers to numerous war crimes committed during the Bosnian war by the Serb political and military leadership mostly on Bosniak civilians in the Prijedor region of Bosnia-Herzegovina. After the Srebrenica genocide, it is the second largest massacre committed during the Bosnian war in 1992. According to the Research and Documentation Center (IDC), around 5,200 Bosniaks and Croats from Prijedor are missing or were killed during the massacre period, and around 14,000 people in the wider region of Prijedor (Pounje).[9]
Prijedor was also a place where mass war rape and executions of Bosniaks, Bosnian Croats and non-cooperative Bosnian Serbs were carried out by Radovan Karadzic's Bosnian Serb army. A high-ranking Bosnian Serb politician, Milomir Stakić, was found guilty by the ICTY and sentenced to 40 years for war crimes conducted by Serb authorities in Prijedor in 1992.[10]
On 21 December 2010 Zoran Babić, Milorad Škrbić, Dušan Janković and Željko Stojnić, all employed as public security officers in Prijedor during the war, were found guilty and sentenced to 86 years imprisonment on charges of war crimes against 150 Bosniak and Croat civilians at the Korićani Cliffs massacre during the war.[11][12] [13]
About the failure of Bosnian government forces to capture Prijedor during the closing stages of the war and the town's inclusion in the Republika Srpska, Richard Holbrooke wrote:
The fighting in western Bosnia intensified as the cease-fire approached. [...] Facing the end of the fighting, the
Croats and the
Bosnians finally buried their differences, if only momentarily, and took
Sanski Most and several other smaller towns. But Prijedor still eluded them. For reasons we never fully understood, they did not capture this important town, a famous symbol of ethnic cleansing. (In March 1997, I attended a showing at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York of a powerful documentary film,
Calling the ghosts, that recounted the brutal treatment two Bosnian women from Prijedor had suffered during their incarceration at the notorious
Omarska prison camp. Following the film, the two women angrily asked me why they were still unable to return to their hometown. I told them we'd repeatedly encouraged an assault on Prijedor. They were astonished; they said General Dudaković, the Bosnian commander, had told them personally that "Holbrooke would not let us capture Prijedor and
Bosanski Novi". I subsequently learned that this story was widely believed in the region. This revisionism was not surprising; it absolved Dudakovic and his associates of responsibility for the failure to take Prijedor. I suspect the truth is that after the disaster at the
Una River the Croatians did not want to fight for a town they would have to turn over to the Muslims - and the Bosnians could not capture it unaided).
[14]
In 2010, a memorial was opened in Kozarac in remembrance of the Bosniak civilian victims who died in the concentration camps run by Serbian authorities during the war.[15]
According to the data from the 1910 Austro-Hungarian population census the Prijedor district had a 59.08% Orthodox Serb majority. A large portion of the Bosniak population left during the Austria-Hungarian anexation, which made the Serb population a majority.
According to data from the census, the municipality of Prijedor had:
| Year |
total |
Bosniaks |
Serbs |
Croats |
Yugoslavs |
others |
| ~1971~ |
97.921 |
39.190 (40,02%) |
46.487 (47,47%) |
8.845 (9,03%) |
1.458 (1,48%) |
1.941 (2,00%) |
| ~1981~ |
108.868 |
42.129 (38,69%) |
45.279 (41,59%) |
7.297 (6,70%) |
10.556 (9,69%) |
3.607 (3,33%) |
| ~1991~ |
112.543 |
49.351 (43,85%) |
47.581 (42,27%) |
6.316 (5,61%) |
6.459 (5,73%) |
2.836 (2,54%) |
Prijedor was the sixth largest municipality in Bosnia and Herzegovina with 112.543 inhabitants in 1991.
The city centre of Prijedor itself in 1991 had a population of 34,635, including:
- 13,927 (40,21%) Serbs
- 13,388 (38,65%) Bosniaks
- 4,282 (12,36%) Yugoslavs
- 1,757 (5,07%) Croats
- 1,281 (3,69%) others
Note: Muslims by nationality are today called Bosniaks.
According to the official strategy rapport made for 2008-2013 by the Prijedor assembly the municipality hosted around 100.000 innhabitants. Prijedor municipality falls into one of the municipalities with the largest number of returnees. Namely, the total number of returnees in Prijedor municipality is 25,000 (24,997), of which 22,809 Bosniaks and 2188 Croats according to the assembly rapport.[16]
According to this data there are over 100.000 inhabitants of which 48% belong to the urban population while 52% to the rural population.
This gives the estimated numbers:[16]
Some sources claim that the current population of Prijedor is higher than estimated, they claim that the number is close to 130.000 with almost 70% belonging to the urban population. Because of increased economical activity, large scale building and educational offers, both Bosniaks and Serbs are moving to the city to find themselves opportunities. Prijedor has around 1300 enrolled students and many of them come from other municipalities in Bosnia and Herzegovina.[17] Also a slightly increase of Bosniaks moving back to Prijedor contributes to the population growth.
The first forms of organized education can be tracked back in the first half of the 19th century. In 1834 Prijedor had the "Serbian elementary school" that later with so-called "Communal school" was transformed into "State school" in 1919. One of the first most important school institutions was the Prijedor Gymnasium founded in 1923.[18]
Elementary and High schools
Nowadays, there are 11 elementary schools with circa 8,000 students and 6 high schools attended by 4,000 students. A music school and a special school for mentally dysfunctioned persons are also part of the municipal educational system.
Colleges and Universities
Over the last several years, important steps were taken, aimed at establishing colleges. As a result, Prijedor now has a University college of Economics and Informatics,[19] a University College of Medicine,[20] and a Mining Geology branch department of the University of Banja Luka. In the north-western part of the city in the neighborhood of Pećani a Law and Economics faculty is under construction, this are the first steps to establish an independent University center in Prijedor. Today Prijedor has around 1300 enrolled students.[17]
Prijedor is a large service and industrial center and host some of the largest companies in Bosnia and Hercegovina.
It has a developed financial sector, 11 international banks are represented, 5 microcredit organizations and a foundation for development. The city's huge economic potential is in the strategic geographical location being close to Zagreb, Belgrade, Budapest and Vienna. Giving it one of the best climates for economic expansion in Bosnia-Herzegovina.
The agricultural land around the city, raw minerals in the municipality and growth of high educated population in the city proper gives it a unique combination of both being able to produce sophisticated industrial products, food and service branches.
Companies
The city host today the Bosnian headquarter of ArcelorMittal Steel Company, worlds largest steel company with over 320,000 employees in more than 60 countries. It also has companies specialized in the chemical industry such as Ferrox a.d., producing iron oxides-pigments. BosnaMontaza AD., one of Bosnias most specialized steel manufacturers, manufacturing: steel construction, pipelines, reservoirs, technological equipment, cranes and energy plants. Other companies such as the Croatian food company Kraš has one of its biggest fascilites in Bosnia and Hercegovina in Prijedor, producing confectionery products under the brand names MIRA and Kraš. Brand names such as "Prijedorčanka" is one of the leading producers of the alcoholic beverage Rakija in Bosnia, placing its products inn Bosnia, Serbia and Croatia. Celpak Prijedor is also a big enterprise producing cellulose and paper for export.
Agricultural sector
Among this Prijedor has a fruit growing production, gardening production, crop farming production, mill and bakery industries, stock farming production, processing industries and a milk industry.
Lake Saničani, near Prijedor, is one of the biggest commercial fish farming lakes in the southern Europe.
Prijedor municipality takes up 834.06 hectares (58.450, 00 private property and 24.956,00 state property). Plowed fields and gardens take up 34.026,00 hectares, orchards 2.386 hectares and vineyards 5 hectares. All cultivate soil takes up 40.206,00 hectares .
Service sector
The service sector in Prijedor is growing rapidly and this reflects in the growth of hotels, stores, roads, educational facilities and shoppings centers that are being built in the city. Making it a growing commercial hub in Bosnia and Hercegovina.
Prijedor has a high standard of roads thanks to the Prijedor putevi Company and is planning a highway connection to Banja Luka in the east and Sisak to west to short down the distance to Zagreb from the Bosanska Krajina region. A so called "brzi put" a semi highway is being prepared to connect Prijedor to the Zagreb-Belgrade highway via Bos./Koz. Dubica i the north.
The city is also connected to the rail system in Bosnia and located on the Zagreb-Sarajevo-Ploče line.
The city has a public transport system with 3 bus lines serving 60 stations in and around the city.
Prijedor also has an airfield in the north-eastern part of the city in the area of Urije. The airfield has a fleet of light aircraft and sailplanes. The airfield also serves as the home of the city's renomated Parachuting club.
- Dr Mladen Stojanović, legendary national hero and one of the key persons of Tito’s partisan movement in western Bosnia
- Mira Cikota, national hero, prewar communist and secretary of the local Party Committee during World War II
- Sreten Stojanović, one of the most prominent sculptors in this region
- Halid Muslimović, Bosnian folk singer
- Idriz Hošić, football player, played for Partizan Belgrade, Kaiserslautern and Yugoslav national team
- Josip Iličić, football player, plays currently for the Serie A club U.S. Città di Palermo and the Slovenian national team
- Eldin Jakupović, football player, Part of the Swiss national team, currently goal keeper for Olimpiakos Volos F.C.
- Nebojša Grahovac, professional handballer. Plays in Bosnia for RK Bosna Sarajevo and Bosnia and Herzegovina national handball team.
- Zlatan Arnautović, former Yugoslav handball player who competed in the 1980 Summer Olympics and in the 1984 Summer Olympics. He played all matches as goalkeeper for Yugoslavia which won the gold medal in 1984 Los Angeles.
- Edis Elkasević, shot putter for the Croatian national team. He won the 2002 World Junior Championships.
- Todor Švrakić, famous painter, born 1882 went to art academy in Vienna and Prague before returning to Bosnia and continuing his work. Died in Sarajevo in 1931.
- Vehid Gunić, Bosnian journalist and writer. Published over twenty books of historical studies, travel writings, interviews, documentary prose and literature about Sevdalinka.
- Živko Radišić, politician and former chairman of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Major of Banja Luka 1977 to 1982.
- Branko Miljuš, famous printmaker and painter, born 1936. Works as a professor at Academy of Fine Arts in Belgrade and at Academy of Arts in Banjaluka.
- Nasko Budimlić, musician, drummer in the Bosnian hard rock band Divlje Jagode
- Nermin Alukić Cerkez, musician, vocal and guitarist in the well-known Bosnian Sevdalinka band, "Mostar Sevdah Reunion"
- Fikret Hodžić, professional bodybuilder. Champion of Yugoslavia for 15 consecutive years spanning 1976-1991. He won the „Ben Weider Trophy for the Most Improved Bodybuilder of the year and 3rd place in the world championship 1981 in Egypt.
- Dr Eso Sadiković, was a well-known doctor of medicine in Prijedor. A talented ENT surgeon who also worked for the United Nations as a doctor in Samoa and Libya. There are written books and poems about dr. Eso. Every year a literature price named in his honor is awarded to writers by the Dr. Eso Sadiković foundation.
- Dr Rajko Srdic, born 1943.,doctor of medicine,poet and writer.
- Acad. Phd prof. Slavko Mentus (born 1945), Dean of Faculty of Physical Chemistry on University of Belgrade; member of Serbian Academy of Sciences and Art.
The local football club, FK Rudar Prijedor, plays in the highest ranked football league of Bosnia and Hercegovina The Premier League of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Among the oldest sporting clubs in Prijedor is the Tennis club founded in 1914 and the Football club OFK Prijedor founded in 1919.
On Mrakovica, Kozara skiing center is located. All ski lifts are functional and there is a ski path for children on Mrakovica as well. The skiing center is located inside the Kozara national park and there are several possibilities for mountain house rentals. A renovated hotel with various sport facilities lies close to the path.
Other popular sports in Prijedor are Basketball and Handball. The highest ranked teams are KK Prijedor (Basketball), and RK Prijedor (Handball).
Prijedor has a various number of galleries, religious sights, libraries, statues, fountains, national monuments, cinemas and a city theater.
Prijedor is home of the Museum of Kozara founded in 1953, which has a regional status.
It is also home of the local national hero, Dr. Mladen Stojanovic. His house is today converted into the Stojanovic Memorial House.
At Kozara National Park in the vicinity of Prijedor, there is the Mrakovica war museum. It includes the Second World War history photographs, guns and artillery used during the Battle of Kozara.
Pozoriste Prijedor was founded in 1953, dough the tradition of theatre in Prijedor can be dated back to the 19th century. The theatre hosts different plays during the year, starring actors from within and outside of Bosnia and Hercegovina. Beside theatrical plays the theatre also hosts local city choirs that perform regularly.
The day of honey. Locally called "Dani meda". Trade-tourist event where local honey producers from the Prijedor area and farer away gather at the square in the main street to sell and demonstrate their products.
Prijedor summer and river festival. "Ljeto na sani". Includes a wide music program, sport activities and other happenings along the city river beach.
Writers gathering. Each year in September, cultural gathering "Writers gathering in Kozara", where works of literal art by local authors are being presented is taking place.
Days of the winter. This tourist event is held at the beginning of February in the mountain Kozara. It lasts three days and its main aim is to promote tourist potentials of the Kozara mountain. Sporting and gastro competitions followed by a rich entertaining programme are an integral part of this event.
International Chorus Festival "Zlatna Vila". This cultural event is held in Prijedor People's Theathre every May and it represents a competition in choral singing. Participants to the festival are choruses from different countries both from ex-Yugoslavia and abroad.
St Peter’s Day Parachuting Cup. Each year, in the month of July, a sporting event, St Peter’s Day Parachuting Cup is held. Parachutists from different countries take part in this event, and competitions are organised in various categories, women, men, juniors and teams.
Prijedor is known for being a multi religious society including a Catholic church, Orthodox churches and Mosques. Due to this Prijedor has a large number of mosques in the city center, one of the oldest dating back to the 16th and 17th century.
The most known is the City mosque "Carsijska dzamija" built in 1750 located the main street. The mosque includes a library and a school. Mostly all of Prijedor municipality's 33 mosques and the catholic cathedral that were damaged and destroyed are now rebuilt and renovated.
Other sights is the orthodox church "Crkva Svete Trojice" built in 1891 which is surrounded with a wall including a small church park. The catholic cathedral "Sv. Josip" built in 1898 is located in the northern part of the city center close to the city theater.
Prijedor used to have a small Jewish population before WWII and the Bosnian war, but today there are no traces of the former Jewish population in the city.[21]
Evidence that Prijedor was settled dates from 2100 B.C., the traces of life are evident in numerous settlements in the region of the present-day town, with necropolises subjacent to the settlements, as a rule.
Prijedor was settled by the Illyrian tribe Maezaei, a sub-tribe of Pannonians, with a talent for mining. In Ljubija near Prijedor, there are evidence of iron production from the Roman period. In Zecovi close to Prijedor there is an Illyrian necropolis from the Iron Age.
Prijedor is twinned with:
Partner cities :
-
-
Austro Hungarian architecture.jpg
Austro-Hungarian architecture
-
-
Austro-Hungarian building
-
Prijedor main street buildings
-
Statue of national hero Dr.Mladen Stojanovic
-
Recreation and sports facilities
-
-
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Capital |
|
|
| Municipalities of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina |
|
|
| Municipalities of Republika Srpska |
|
|
|
