Travnik

Travnik, the capital of a department of the same name in Bosnia; situated on the Lasva, a left-hand tributary of the Bosna, 44 m. by rail N.W. of Serajevo. Pop. (1895) about 6000. Travnik is mainly built round a steep mass of rock, crowned by an ancient citadel. Several mosques, palaces, arcades and a fine bazaar, left among its narrow lanes and wooden huts, bear witness to its former prosperity, and there are some good modern barracks and public buildings.

The old name of Travnik, Lava, was last used in the 18th century. It is likely, from the number of Roman remains, that Travnik stands near the site of a Roman colony. It was a stronghold of the Bogomili during the 15th century, but its period of greatness dated from 1686, when the downfall of the Turks in Hungary caused the removal of the Bosnian government from Banjaluka, which was dangerously near the Hungarian frontier, and the Turkish governors, officially styled "valis of Hungary," ruled in Travnik from 1686 to 1850.

Several interesting villages, none containing more than a few hundred inhabitants, are grouped together, near Travnik. Prozor, with its ruined citadel, which withstood the Turkish advance until the beginning of the 16th century, when almost the whole of Bosnia had been enslaved, was then the capital of the princes of Rama, a district lying north-west of the Narenta. The thermal station of Kiseljak, where the Fojnica and Lepenica rivers meet, is a cluster of oldfashioned Turkish villas, with a casino, baths, barracks, hotels and park. In 1396, Tvrtko I. of Bosnia granted the privilege of silver-mining here to the Ragusans. Remains of old workings may still be seen. Kresevo, 5 m. N.N.E., is likewise rich in iron, cinnabar, quicksilver and the argentiferous load which was worked by the Saxons in the middle ages. The citadel of Zahor, or Gradina, now a ruin, guarded the mines. Bugojno, on the Vrbas, is a picturesque place, with a large cattle and horse trade. The Franciscan monastery of Fojnica, 18 m. east, is the largest and wealthiest foundation in Bosnia. Its Byzantine church is full of ancient ornaments and relics. The archives contain many valuable manuscripts, including a charter bestowed on the monks, in 1463 by the Sultan Mahomet II.