Bosnian Frontier

A geographical area in western Bosnia and Herzegovina, bordered by three rivers: the Sava, the Una and the Vrbas.

LANGUAGE

Turkish name for the frontier was serhat.

RELIGION AND TRADITION

This is the region with the greatest number of the Serbian population os the so-called Dinara mentality. Those men are of honourable, patriotic and warrior character. Such psychological traits may account for the turbulent history of the Bosnia Frontier, a great number of insurrections and uncompromising war conflicts the Serbs engage in out of their desire to be free.

ART

In Banja Luka there are monumental buildings of the Banja Palace and the Bosnian Frontier Museum.

One of the well-known Serbian authors, a satire writer and a political activist, Petar Kočić was born nearby Banja Luka. His best-known works are The Badger before the Court and The TrialsThe Badger before the Court is the best artistic account of the position of the Serbs in the Bosnian Frontier in the period when they were stateless.

GEOGRAPHY

The Bosnian Frontier towns: Banja Luka, Bihać, Prijedor, Bosanska Dubica, Velika Kladuša, Sanski Most, Mrkonjić Grad, Jajce.

HISTORY

The northern and western Bosnian regions became the border in the late 17th century, when the Ottoman Empire had to relinquish the areas of Slavonija and Hungary to Austro-Hungary. As opposed to the Habsburg military frontier, the Turks established the Bosnian Frontier. The majority of the population were the Serbs. Important battles of the 1875–1878 Serbian Bosnian-Herzegovinian insurrection took place in the region, when 15% of the population was killed. The Bosnian Frontier was one of the centres of the Second World War operations, as well as in the recent wars of the SFR Jugoslavia breakup.