Kozara

A mountain in the western Bosnia and Herzegovina, the key landmark of the Bosnia Frontier. Bordered by the Sava, the Vrbas, the Sana and the Una rivers, its hieghest peak is Lisina (978m).

RELIGION AND TRADITION

At the foot of Kozarom there is the Moštanica Monastery. A legend says that it was a Dragutin Nemanjić’s endowment, and the sources about its first renovation after it was burnt down date from the 16th century.

ART

The Kozara Circle Dance; film Kozara, 1962, directed by Veljko Bulajić; on Mrakovica, one of its peaks, there is a monument to the Ustasha-Fascist’s terror victims.

GEOGRAPHY

A mountain of exquisite beauty, Kozara today is the centre of a national park, covering the area of about 35 km2. Its greater part is a game reserve for deer, pheasants and foxes.

HISTORY

The mountain was a place of many war and insurrection armed conflicts throughout the history of the Bosnian Frontier. So Kozara represents and is a symbol of suffering of the whole region. In 1942 one of the crucial battles took place here between the enemy and the Partisan anti-Fascists – the Third Offensive. A great number of Serbian victims executed in the Ustasha Jasenovac camp came from the area around Kozara.