Old city Buzim: Mysterious Bosnian fortress attracts many visitors. The view from the top takes your breath away, and that't not all! (PHOTO) (VIDEO)

Old city Buzim is located near the village of the same name in Bosnia and Herzegovina, on around two kilometers south of the central part of municipality Buzim, and it represents great example of the old fortress, which presents continuity of life through different time eras in its long history. 

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Elevated to an altitude of 325 meters, old city Buzim is a ruin today of once powerful fortress whose creation is connected to the time of High Middle Ages. The city appears in historical documents under two names, at the beginning Cava, and later Buzim. Ruin of old town Buzim consists of upper or inner and lower or outer city, of total are of the entire complex 7.267 square meters.

It presents a fine example of the older fortress, built during the time of cold weapons, which was expanded and strengthened with new walls and towers. It was build from beautiful stone Ljutac. Towers stand out on this great medieval fortress, armories, chambers, dungeons, bastions and ramparts.

Printskrin: Youtube/OneMomentTuzla

Inner, older fortress, was once functioning as an smaller castle, with high circular towers at the corners. At the end of 15 century, the castle was surrounded with a new fortress. Walls and towers were quite lower, at the top they had positions for cannons.

Inner city has a shape of a regular four corner square, and traces of the pit are partially preserved today, and the walls of the mosque, built upon Ottomans arrived, on the old foundations of the church to St Clement. At the corners of the inner city, there are round towers, which are in very bad shape today.

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Entrance is on the west wall, near the north west bastion. There was a stone plaque above the arched entrance, written in Glagolitic script, until the Austro-Hungarian occupation, with the following inscription:

- This city was built from the ground, the elected prince Juraj Mikulicic. There was no better man at the time in Croatia. He was known at king Matijas by his great honesty. With Turkish emperor, he was known as a man who found peace in the entire Hungarian land. And Roman emperor called him a good man. Every chieftain gave him gifts, and Croats executed him on the command of Herzeg Ivanis. Who wants to be a man like that, let him build a city like that from the grounds...

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The inscription refers to the construction of the outer city that was built in 1484 by Juraj Mikulicic. During the occupation, an Austro-Hungarian took that plaque as an important monument of the culture, and moved it to the National Museum in Zagreb back then. Today, this plaque is in the Lapidarium  of the Historical Museum of Croatia.

According to building-architectural characteristics, the city presents a typical Renaissance castle, even though it has elements of the romantic and Gothic style. In the past it was multi functional and had the function of the city, the castle, the fortresses, mosques and fortress home. In the early 19th century, in the yard outside the city, there were 22 residential buildings of old Bosnian architecture.

With the arrival of Islam copying workshop was operating in the fortress which nurtured transcribing the Koran. People who worked there left many collections of manuscripts and the Koran in private possessions. Thus, in one document it is stated that in 1620 Hasan, son of Behram, who belonged to the crew of Buzim, transcribed one larger work at the end of which he signed as a leader of the Islamic Krajina.

Foto: wikipedia/Raffaello

In the Old Town of Buzim there was a medieval necropolis of stelae. Tombstones  were built into the walls of the city. At the entrance into outer city, walls were engraved with the following symbols: armored arm with a mace and battleaxe, a soldier with the flag, the crescent moon, several stars, spear and two birds. These symbols were probably part of heraldic representations of rulers of Buzim city.

Today, this medieval town is in a very bad condition and it has long been eroding to the ravages of time. It was placed under state protection in 1951, and it was inscribed into the Register of Immovable Cultural Monuments in 1961. Commission for preservation of national monuments declared the complex of old city Buzim a national treasure in 2003. In that way, the government of Bosnia and Herzegovina took responsibility for its protection, conservation and rehabilitation. Archaeological research started in the last few years and the development of technical documentation on restoration the inner city is on the way.

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Once central area for military and civilian authorities in Buzim, this dilapidated and abandoned medieval fortress eagerly expects early visitors, curious people, lovers of antiquities and cultural - historical heritage. Even though it is in bad shape, it still attracts great interest for visit. 

Watch how the old city looks like now:

(Telegraf.co.uk / klix.ba)