Banja Luka (Serbian Cyrillic: Бања Лука, pronounced [bǎɲa lǔːka] ⓘ) or Banjaluka (Serbian Cyrillic: Бањалука, pronounced [baɲalǔːka]) is the second-largest city in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and the most populous in Republika Srpska. It is Republika Srpska's main economic, political, and administrative centre. Banja Luka is the traditional centre of the densely forested Bosanska Krajina region of northwestern Bosnia and Herzegovina. According to the 2013 census, the city proper has a population of 138,963, while its administrative area comprises a total of 185,042 inhabitants. The City Day of Banja Luka is celebrated on 22 April, commemorating the liberation of the city at the end of World War II.
The city is home to the University of Banja Luka and the University Clinical Center of the Republika Srpska, as well as numerous entity- and state-level institutions of Republika Srpska and Bosnia and Herzegovina, respectively. The city is located on the Vrbas river. Banja Luka was declared a European City of Sport in 2018 and designated a UNESCO City of Music in 2023.
Name
The name Banja Luka was first mentioned in a document dated 6 February 1494 by Ladislaus II of Hungary. The name is interpreted as the 'Ban's meadow', from the words ban (a medieval noble title), and luka ('valley' or 'meadow'). The identity of the ban and the meadow in question remains uncertain, and popular etymology combines the modern words banja ('bath' or 'spa'), or bajna ('marvelous'), and luka ('port'). A different interpretation is suggested by the Hungarian name Lukácsbánya, in English 'Luke's Mine'. In modern usage, the name is pronounced and occasionally written as one word (Banjaluka).
Geography
Overview
Banja Luka covers some 96.2 km2 (37.1 sq mi) of land in Bosnia and Herzegovina and is situated on both banks of the Vrbas in the Banja Luka valley, which is characteristically flat within the otherwise hilly region. Banja Luka's centre lies 163 m (534.78 ft) above sea level.
The source of the Vrbas River is about 90 km (56 mi) to the south at the Vranica mountain. Its tributaries — the Suturlija, the Crkvena, and the Vrbanja — flow into the Vrbas at various points in the city. Numerous springs can be found nearby.
The area around Banja Luka consists mostly of woodland and arable fields, although there are many mountains further from the city, especially south of the city. The most notable of these mountains are Ponir (743 m), Osmača (950 m), Manjača (1,214 m), Čemernica (1,338 m), and Tisovac (1,173 m). These are all part of the Dinaric Alps mountain range.
Banja Luka is particularly exposed to the risk of earthquakes. The first recorded major earthquake struck the city in 1888 with a magnitude of 5.5; a quake of similar strength followed in 1935. The most severe earthquake in the city's history struck in 1969 with a magnitude of 6.4; the latest major earthquake struck in 1981 with a magnitude of 5.4.
Settlements
The city of Banja Luka (aside from the city proper) includes the following settlements:
Climate
Banja Luka has a moderate humid subtropical climate with mild winters, infrequent frosts, and warm summers. The warmest month of the year is July, with an average temperature of 22.5 °C (72.5 °F). The coldest month of the year is January, when temperatures average around 1.3 °C (34.3 °F).
The annual precipitation for the city is about 1,047.5 mm (41 in). Banja Luka has an average of 104 rainy days a year. Due to the city's relatively high latitude and inland location, it snows in Banja Luka almost every year during the winter period. Strong winds can come from the north and northeast. Sometimes, southern winds bring hot air from the Adriatic Sea. On average the city sees 81 freezing nights per year.
Highest recorded temperature: 41.8 °C (107.2 °F) on 10 August 2017
Lowest recorded temperature: −26.4 °C (−15.5 °F) on 23 January 1963
History
Prehistory and Roman period
Archaeological sites in the city and its surroundings testify to prehistoric human habitation of the area around the Vrbas. Within the Kastel fortress, in the present-day centre of the city, a substantial assemblage of stone tools and weapons was discovered, believed to have been used in the late Paleolithic. At the same site, the remains of a settlement of the Baden culture from the somewhat later period of the Eneolithic (between 2000 and 1800 BC) were identified. Besides the remains of timber-framed houses plastered with clay, ceramic objects typical of that period were found, such as bowls with tall cylindrical necks and ornamentation, as well as conical clay weights, which could have served in fishing or in primitive weaving technology.
The Roman commander Germanicus brought the area of present-day Banja Luka under Roman control at the beginning of the 1st century AD, following the suppression of the Great Illyrian Revolt. A Roman military camp, the fort of Castra (Latin: Castrum Castra), existed at the site of the Kastel fortress beside which a civilian settlement grew. Publius Cornelius Dolabella, governor under emperor Tiberius in the provinces of Illyricum and Dalmatia, built the Salt Road connecting Salona with Servitium near present-day Gradiška around 20 AD. Castra became an important urban settlement on that route. This can be inferred from findings of coinage, ceramics, stone, remains of brick kilns, buildings and tombs from late antiquity in the city and nearby villages. An altar dedicated to Jupiter from the second century was found near the fortress, and is kept in the National Museum of Bosnia and Herzegovina in Sarajevo. The Romans recognised and used the medicinal properties of the thermo-mineral waters at present-day Srpske Toplice, as well as at the springs in the vicinity of the city — Slatina and Laktaši.
Middle Ages
Slavs settled in the Balkans in the 6th century. Mediaeval fortresses in the vicinity of Banja Luka include Vrbas (1224), Župa Zemljanik (1287), Kotor Varoš (1323), Zvečaj (1404), and Bočac (1446). In one document written by King Vladislav II on 6 February 1494, Juraj Mikulasić was mentioned as castellan of Banja Luka. Below the town was a smaller settlement with one Catholic monastery.
Ottoman rule
Banja Luka fell to the Ottomans in 1528. It became the seat of the Sanjak of Bosnia sometime before 1554, until 1580 when the Bosnia Eyalet was established. Bosnian beylerbeys were seated in Banja Luka until 1639. The city developed more rapidly from 1553 onwards; the first sanjak-bey seated in Banja Luka, Sofi Mehmed Pasha, oversaw a sharp increase in commercial activity and had bridges built across the Vrbas and a caravanserai erected. Between 1579 and 1587, Ferhad Pasha Sokolović, a relative of Grand Vizier Sokollu Mehmed Pasha, built a commercial district on land ideally suited for the development of the town, at the mouth of the Crkvena river into the Vrbas. Some 216 public buildings were built at that time, some of which were the Ferhadija and Arnaudija mosques, about 200 artisan and sales shops, and wheat warehouses. During their construction plumbing infrastructure was laid out, which served the surrounding residential areas. This stimulated the economic and urban development of Banja Luka, which soon became one of the leading commercial and political centres in Bosnia. It was also the central sanjak in the Bosnia Eyalet. In 1688, the city was burned down by the Austrian army, but it quickly recovered. Later periodic intrusions by the Austrian army stimulated military developments in Banja Luka, which made it into a strategic military centre.
During the Austro-Turkish wars, Banja Luka was repeatedly devastated and its population killed or dispersed. Of particular significance was the Battle of Banja Luka fought around the town's fortress in 1737, in which both sides suffered heavy losses. Besides military campaigns, the town was ravaged by major epidemics of plague — the largest one coinciding with the 1812–1819 Ottoman plague epidemic — as well as by frequent destructive earthquakes. The period was also marked by Vaso Pelagić, the first headmaster of the Orthodox seminary established in 1866; for the school's needs he printed a guidebook for Serb teachers in Belgrade in 1867, taking holy vows as an archimandrite to shield the seminary from opponents of his progressive curriculum. A Muslim secondary school began operating in 1862. Banja Luka received a telegraph in 1866. The railway line to Banja Luka was ceremonially opened on 14 December 1872 according to some sources, or on 17 January 1873 according to others, when the city also gained a railway station.
In the 19th century, Sephardic Jews and Trappists migrated to the city and contributed to the early industrialization of the region by building mills, breweries, brick factories, textile factories, and other important structures. The Mariastern Abbey built in the 19th century lent its name to the neighbourhood of Trapisti and has left a significant legacy in the area through its Trappist cheese and its beer production. In 1835 and 1836, during Ottoman administration, numerous people from Banja Luka emigrated to Lešnica, Lipnica, and Loznica, the villages around Loznica, and to Šabac.
Austro-Hungarian rule
In 1878, Banja Luka was occupied by Austria-Hungary. Despite its leading position in the region, Banja Luka as a city was not modernised until the Austro-Hungarian occupation in the late 19th century. Under the new administration the city advanced considerably, gaining new roads, a water supply, sewers and electric lighting. The first electric bulb was lit in 1899, and from 1902 the city itself was supplied with electricity, while industry and trade developed. The first hospital was opened in 1879, the Serbian Reading Room in the former post office building in the same year, a trade school in 1885, a tobacco factory in 1888, a railway station with a direct line to Vienna and Budapest in 1891, the first city savings bank in 1894, the Gymnasium (the "Velika realka") in 1895, and the wood-processing enterprise "Bosna Holz". The first automobile arrived in Banja Luka in 1908, and the city's first cinema, the "Elektro-bioskop", was opened in 1911 by Moritz Gottlieb, a watchmaker and jeweller. The Austro-Hungarian general Alfred von Jelzon initiated a tree-planting campaign in which 4,714 trees had been planted by 1885, giving Banja Luka its recognisable avenues, whose total length then amounted to 17 km (11 mi). One of the most notable citizens of Banja Luka from that period was the writer and popular tribune Petar Kočić, born in nearby Stričići on Mount Manjača, who left a deep and lasting imprint on the cultural and political life of the region and on Serbian literature in general.
World War I
The outbreak of World War I in Banja Luka was marked by the Banja Luka treason trial of 1915–1916. Following the declaration of war on Serbia, Austro-Hungarian authorities in the city arrested 156 prominent Serbs and charged them with high treason. In the final verdict handed down in 1916, 16 men were sentenced to death and 87 received prison terms. The death sentences were commuted following the intervention of Alfonso XIII of Spain, who acted through the intercession of his mother, Maria Christina of Austria, who had close ties to the Viennese imperial court. Banja Luka still has a street in the city centre named after him.
Austro-Hungarian rule in Banja Luka ended with the entry of the Serbian army into the city on 21 November 1918.