Kozograd or Old town of Kozograd (Lat.: ''Chossao'' or ''Cosao'') is the name of a medieval fortress whose remains are located in the municipality of

Fojnica Fojnica ( sr-cyrl, Фојница) is a town and municipality located in Central Bosnia Canton of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, an entity of Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is located west of the capital Sarajevo, in the valley of the Foj ...

Bosnia and Herzegovina Bosnia and Herzegovina, sometimes known as Bosnia-Herzegovina and informally as Bosnia, is a country in Southeast Europe. Situated on the Balkans, Balkan Peninsula, it borders Serbia to the east, Montenegro to the southeast, and Croatia to th ...

. It is an

archeological site An archaeological site is a place (or group of physical sites) in which evidence of past activity is preserved (either prehistoric or historic or contemporary), and which has been, or may be, investigated using the discipline of archaeology an ...

of significant historical value. Although it is one of the least explored fortresses in Bosnia and Herzegovina, it is known that in 1444 it temporarily housed the official

chancery Chancery may refer to: Offices and administration * Court of Chancery, the chief court of equity in England and Wales until 1873 ** Equity (law), also called chancery, the body of jurisprudence originating in the Court of Chancery ** Courts of e ...

King Tomaš Stephen Thomas ( sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=/, Stefan Tomaš, Стефан Томаш, sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=/, label=none, Stjepan Tomaš, Стјепан Томаш; 1411 – 10 July 1461), a member of the House of Kotromanić, reigned from 1 ...

, and that in 1463, after the arrival of the Ottomans, the Bosnian queen Katarina (wife of King Tomaš) stayed there before moving on to

Rome Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...

. It was declared a

National Monument of Bosnia and Herzegovina The National Monuments of Bosnia and Herzegovina include: *sites, places, immovable and movable heritage of historical and cultural importance, as designated by the Commission to preserve national monuments of Bosnia and Herzegovina on the basis o ...

at a session held from November 4 to 6, 2015. The National Monument is an unexplored archeological site and consists of the remains of medieval ramparts, towers, wells and ditches in the southern portion of the fortress.

Location

Archaeological site, the Old Town of Kozograd, is located at a distance,

as the crow flies The expression ''as the crow flies'' is an idiom for the most direct path between two points. Etymology The meaning of the expression is attested from the early 19th century, and appeared in the Charles Dickens novel ''Oliver Twist'' (1838): ...

, of about 3,000 meters south of Fojnica, in the area of Matorac, on Zec mountain, and about 1000 meters east of the peak of ''Gruda'' (elevation 1645 m), at an altitude of 1431 meters.

History

Kozograd is mentioned in

Dubrovnik Dubrovnik, historically known as Ragusa, is a city in southern Dalmatia, Croatia, by the Adriatic Sea. It is one of the most prominent tourist destinations in the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean, a Port, seaport and the centre of the Dubrovni ...

sources in 1434, and its

castle town A castle town is a settlement built adjacent to or surrounding a castle. Castle towns were common in Medieval Europe. Some examples include small towns like Alnwick and Arundel, which are still dominated by their castles. In Western Europe, ...

, called Varoš, developed towards Fojnica, in 1449. In times of danger, the merchants from Dubrovnik residing in Fojnica would take a refuge there with their valuables. The proximity of Fojnica and the occasional visits of Dubrovnik merchants had a favorable effect on its development. The ruins of the

Varoš, are located under the city walls, today overgrown with forest of Zec mountain. The official

of King Tomaš was temporarily located in Kozograd, and the king himself would reside there from time to time. An accidental find from July 1972 confirmed the assumption that the fortress was a summer residence of Bosnian rulers, a "summer resort", and was decorated with ornamented plastic, as a fragment of Gothic stone sculpture was found, probably from inside the fortress hall. As part of the preparations for the war with the

Ottomans Ottoman may refer to: * Osman I, historically known in English as "Ottoman I", founder of the Ottoman Empire * Osman II, historically known in English as "Ottoman II" * Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire (), also called the Turkish Empir ...

, King Tomas, with his office and the entire court, stayed in Kozograd in August 1444. He was accompanied by Dubrovnik ambassadors. Before the Ottoman threat, the king had to retreat towards

Bobovac Bobovac ( sh-Cyrl, Бобовац) a historic site, was a fortified royal capital city of medieval Bosnia and Herzegovina, and as such a seat of Bosnian rulers during 14th and 15th century. It is located near today's Vareš and the village of Bo ...

, and on that occasion there was a riot in the king's office, so the Dubrovnik ambassadors, who also participated in the relocation, asked their government "to send a new copy of the charter issued by the king ”, because it could have happened that they lost the first one in those events. In 1463, the Bosnian queen Katarina moved from Kozograd to Dubrovnik, immediately after which town fell to the Ottomans.

Description

The surroundings of the fortress are waterless, so Kozograd was supplied with water from the Bistrica river spring. Traces of ditches, aqueducts, with reservoirs, wells, located behind Kozograd's ''Branić Kula'' tower and a parallel cobblestone road that connected Kozograd with the western parts of Bosnia, are still noticeable in some places. To the north, lower than Kozograd, was Varoš or Varošište castle town. It can be assumed that the castle town was first developed and settled by miners who mined and smelted ore in the mining districts below Kozograd, along the Trošnik and Pijukovac streams. Kozograd is a characteristic town for its Bosnian medieval architecture, in terms of free floor plan and very skilful use of terrain configuration. It is built of crushed and sometimes processed limestone. The remains of Kozograd and the settlements below can be seen on the south from modern-day

. It is approached from the south, through a deep ditch that has been preserved for about 60 meters. It belongs to the type of fort with an irregularly shaped barn and two keeps. The

inner bailey The inner bailey or inner ward of a castle is the strongly fortified enclosure at the heart of a medieval castle.Friar, Stephen (2003). ''The Sutton Companion to Castles'', Sutton Publishing, Stroud, 2003, p. 22. It is protected by the outer ...

or inner ward (barn) had the shape of an irregular triangle whose hypotenuse is 50 meters long.

Literature

Pavao Anđelić Pavao Anđelić (1920-1985) was a Bosnian Croat and Yugoslav lawyer, archaeologist and historian. He mainly studied the history of medieval Bosnia and is noted for archeological work done at Mile and historically rich areal surrounding modern t ...

, ''Studija o teritorijalno-političkoj organizaciji srednjovjekovne Bosne''. Sarajevo, 1982. * Vlajko Palavestra, Odjeljak – ''Opsada Kozograda.'' ''Historijska usmena predanja iz Bosne i Hercegovine.'' Zbornik predavanja i komentari. Sarajevo: Buybook, 2004.

References

{{Castles in Bosnia and Herzegovina

External links

Zvanična stranica komisije nacionalnih spomenika Bosne i Hercegovine
National Monuments of Bosnia and Herzegovina Castles in Bosnia and Herzegovina