The city of

St. Louis St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the bi-state metropolitan area, which e ...

Missouri Missouri is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking 21st in land area, it is bordered by eight states (tied for the most with Tennessee): Iowa to the north, Illinois, Kentucky and Tennessee to the east, Arkansas t ...

, and metropolitan area includes the largest

Bosnian American Bosnian Americans are Americans whose ancestry can be traced to Bosnia and Herzegovina. The vast majority of Bosnian Americans immigrated to the United States during and after the Bosnian War which lasted from 1992–95. Nevertheless, many Bosnia ...

population and largest Bosnian population outside of Europe. The highest concentration of Bosnians in St. Louis is in the "Little Bosnia" neighborhood of Bevo Mill. The Bosnian cultural imprint can be seen in the numerous Bosnian restaurants, bakeries, and cafes, as well as several Bosnian mosques and religious organizations.

History

Bosnian Chamber of Commerce (8643554297)

The first wave of Bosnians arrived in the 1990s, refugees of the Bosnian War. According to the refugee organization International Institute of St. Louis, the metropolitan area had about 70,000 people of Bosnian origins circa the late 1990s and early 2000s, the highest recorded number as of date. On September 29, 2013, the Bosnian community donated a replica of

Sebilj The Sebilj is an Ottoman-style wooden fountain (sebil) in the centre of Baščaršija Square in Sarajevo built by Mehmed Pasha Kukavica in 1753. It was relocated by Austrian architect Alexander Wittek in 1891. According to a local legend, visito ...

(''kiosk-shaped public fountain'') to the city of St. Louis for its 250th birthday. It was modeled after the famous 18th century one in

Sarajevo Sarajevo ( ; cyrl, Сарајево, ; ''see names in other languages'') is the capital and largest city of Bosnia and Herzegovina, with a population of 275,524 in its administrative limits. The Sarajevo metropolitan area including Sarajevo ...

, to mark the center of their community. In 2014, a Bosniak-American named Zamir Begic was beaten to death with hammers. The murder caused shock in the Bosnian community of St. Louis and protests were held against violent crime. Because Begic was white and his suspected assailants were black and Latino, some claimed that the murder of Begic was an example of "black-on-white" crime while others claimed it was a "a targeted attack on Bosnians". While the belief that Begic was targeted due to his ethnicity or race contributed to racial tensions between the Black community and white Muslims of Bosnian descent, St. Louis police did not believe the attack had any ethnic or racial basis. By 2019, according to the International Institute of St. Louis, the number of people of Bosnian ancestry in the metropolitan area had declined to 50,000, with an outflow of ethnic Bosnians from the St. Louis city limits and with some going to other states. A decline in the St. Louis economy and criminal activity were factors behind ethnic Bosnians leaving the city.

Demographics

As of 2013 there were 70,000 Bosnians in St. Louis. This is the largest population of Bosnians in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

and the largest Bosnian population outside of

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located entirel ...

. Most are Bosniak and practice Islam, but a minority practice other religions including Roman Catholicism and

Eastern Orthodoxy Eastern Orthodoxy, also known as Eastern Orthodox Christianity, is one of the three main branches of Chalcedonian Christianity, alongside Catholicism and Protestantism. Like the Pentarchy of the first millennium, the mainstream (or "canonical") ...

. the highest concentrations of Bosnians are in the neighborhood of Bevo Mill.

References

External links

St. Louis Bosnian history/archive project
{{Bosnian Americans by location Bosniak diaspora Bosnian-American culture in Missouri Bosnian-American history Croatian-American history Ethnic groups in St. Louis Islam in Missouri

History

Demographics

See also

References

Further reading

External links