Jajce Fortress

The fortress was built in the 13th and 14th centuries as the stronghold of the medieval Bosnian state, and Jajce became one of its most important towns — a royal seat where, in the final decades before the Ottoman conquest, the last Bosnian kings were crowned. After the fall of the kingdom in 1463 the town passed back and forth between the Ottomans and the Hungarians, and the fortress was enlarged and reinforced as a frontier stronghold. Under long Ottoman rule it kept its military role, and later the Austro-Hungarians and the Yugoslav state maintained the walls. The Bear Tower, with the royal coat of arms carved above it, survives from the medieval phase, and the walls and gates that stand today record the layers of each period.