Bosnia-Herzegovina

Written by Isa Belle

Banja Luka is the capital of Republika Srpska, one of the two entities of Bosnia-Herzegovina, the other being the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina. (Are you confused yet with one entity, the federation having “almost” the same name as the country?) As you can see in the name, the population of Republika Srpska consists of mainly Bosnian Serbs versus Bosniaks and Bosnian Croats from the Federation. Banja Luka has around 200,000 people, making it the second biggest city after Sarajevo.

In the last year I have visited a lot of places in the Federation, but I have never properly been in Republika Srpska. Thus I was curious to go there and see whether it would be any different from the Federation. I know that I should visit the entire entity to come to a clear conclusion, but I don’t have the opportunity to do that–and nobody ever will see something in it entirety–so I thought the capital was a good place to start.

There are of course obvious differences between the Republika and the Federation. Things that you can easily spot are ubiquitous Orthodox churches, brightly lit and painted standing next to road signs in Cyrillic (Latin is used here as well). In the Federation you also see Cyrillic, but often people spray graffiti over it to show how they feel about anything that has to do with Serb. Other than the churches and the Cyrillic alphabets, there is not much difference between the two entities, which makes sense because they are still in the same country sharing the same culture. In Banja Luka you can find excellent coffee bars, friendly people and interesting history, just like everywhere else in Bosnia.

Banja Luka, nonetheless, is a bit different than other Bosnian towns in a way that it reminds me of an European city: the setup of the city, bigger road, pavements especially made for disabled persons and no old-town like in Mostar and Sarajevo, etc. Perhaps it is also the fact that there is no sight of mosques lining one street block after another and things just seem slightly more modern though I can not exactly pinpoint how I come to this conclusion.

If you are going to Banja Luka I would recommend you to walk around a little bit and you’ll run into the Orthodox Cathedral at some point. It has special architecture and has been rebuilt recently after being destroyed in the Second World War. A new mosque is being built because sadly none of the sixteen mosques existed prior to the 1992-1995 war survived in the aftermath. What surprises me is the sight of many mosques in villages near Banja Luka given the percentage of Bosniaks living in the municipality is only 4%, against 92% of Serbs and 2% of Croats. In 1991 the statistic was very different. 55% of the population was Serbian, 15% was Bosniak, 15 % was Croat, and another 12% consisted of Yugoslavs, who didn’t identify themselves with any of the three main religions and ethnic groups. The main attraction of the city is the fortress used in the past to defend the city against invading Ottomans. Now instead of Turks and fights, one can sit and eat peacefully at the restaurant, and in the summer goes to various concerts held there. Below, the river Vrbas quietly flows guarding the fortress, contemplating the past and as many Bosnians and/or Bosnian-Serbs, wondering about its dubious future.

It is a pity that I was there for only a few days; I would have loved to dig deeper past the mere surface difference between the entity and the federation, to talk to more people and discover things that the eyes can not see.

How to get there?

Banja Luka is an important town in Bosnia, so it is not difficult to get there by public transport. The city has both a bus and train station, next to each other. You can easily reach Banja Luka from Zagreb in 2.5 hours or longer depend on how busy it is at the border. The scenic route passing by stunning landscape from Mostar takes about 5 hours.

There are also several buses a day from Sarajevo, leaving as early as 5:00. The last departure is at 16:30. The journey takes about 5 hours.