Travnik Fortress

The fortress was built in the medieval period, when the Lašva valley was a contested frontier between the Hungarian-backed Bosnian state and the advancing Ottomans. After the Ottoman conquest of Bosnia in the 15th century the castle was repaired, enlarged and given a new role: Travnik became, in the 16th and especially the 17th to 19th centuries, the seat of the Ottoman viziers of Bosnia — the administrative capital of the province — and the fortress served as the military and official anchor of that seat. It kept its function through the Ottoman centuries and was later used under Austro-Hungarian and Yugoslav rule. In the modern period it was restored, cleared of later military additions and opened to the public with a museum inside, and it is today a protected national monument.