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About Maglaj | ||
| In
English: ABOUT ME OTHER |
More information on Maglaj: History (adapted from the text of Elza Sremcevic) The vicinity of Maglaj was inhabited during the Stone Age, fact confirmed by the archaeological excavations. During the Roman empire, Maglaj area was also very transited, as the Roman road passed nearby, following the natural valley of the river Bosna. The real expansion of Maglaj comes in the Middle Age. The hill which dominates the actual area of Maglaj was soon fortified. The fortress, finished in the 14th century, was the base of the town defense. Maglaj was one of the most fortified towns in the medieval Bosnia. The origins of the name are confuse, but it is widely accepted that Maglaj's former name was Straza (Guard), as it was the south-eastern approach to the town of Tesanj, which was the capital of the duchy. As it was very small, the people from Tesanj often said that Maglaj's only richness is fog ("magla" in Bosnian). So, people say that the name of Maglaj comes from the fog. Indeed, the winter in Maglaj is a foggy one. During the Bosnian kingdom, there's one mention of Maglaj in the royal correspondence, noticing that it had a castle. In the beginning of the 15th century, Bosnia fought a war with Hungary, which was lost. Maglaj was taken by the Hungarians in 1408, and hundreds of Bosnian noblemen were executed. The Ottoman Empire appears around 1415, appearantly in alliance with Bosnians against the Hungarians. They come back as conquerors in 1426, but they are able to take Maglaj only fifty years later. The first notice of Maglaj as Turkish town is from 1485. Together with the medieval fortress, one of Maglaj's symbols is the Kursumlija mosque ("kursum"="lead" in Turkish). It was built in 1560, with the local stone, excavated in the nearby villages. The Turkish expansion favoured Maglaj, and it kept growing. Among many buildings from the Turkish period, we can point out Konak ("the inn") and Sahat kula ("clocktower"). After 1878, Ottoman Empire surrenders Bosnia to the Austria-Hungary. The Dual monarchy occupied Bosnia, but the Bosnians gave stiff resistence. Near Maglaj, an Austrian huszar patrol was ambushed and 46 soldiers were killed. The railroad reaches Maglaj in 1879, as part of the Austria-Hungarian effort to efficiently explote Bosnian soil. Maglaj begins to expand towards the left shore of Bosna. A wooden bridge was built in the last part of the 19th century, but in 1909 a solid stone bridge was constructed. It was demolished by the German army retreating from Yugoslavia in 1945, rebuilt in 1948 and again demolished in 1978, when a new bridge was built instead. However, there were signs that Maglaj could have had a bridge even in the 16th century, but the Maglaj people were not interested, as they mistrusted the foreign voyagers. During the Austrian period, Maglaj is enriched by a Catholic and Orthodox church, built in 1919 and 1906, respectively, even if the Orthodox pilgrims were given a small church during the Ottoman rule. After Austria-Hungary, Maglaj is integrated in the Serb-Croat-Slovene Kingdom (SHS), later in the Yugoslav Kingdom, then occupied by the Germans and administrated by the Croat puppet regime. After the World War I, it begins to expand massively towards the left shore of Bosna, especially after the completion of the cellulose factory "Natron", huge factory that covered entire Yugoslav and parts of Austrian and Italian needs for industrial paper products. The town was in constant growth until the newest war, in 1992. The Serbs initiated a siege around the city, which was later cut by the Bosnian army. The famine and constant bombardments were daily appearance. But, the town itself resisted the suffering, even with lot of victims, military and non-combatant. The postwar Maglaj is marked by the unemployment, as the Natron factory was severely crippled during the war. You can find pictures of Maglaj in my Yahoo! Photo Album. http://pages.whowhere.com/sports/uzunovic/ - A cute page about Maglaj (in Bosnian) |
