Mosque of Sultan Ahmed I
The Sultan Ahmed Mosque in Kulen Vakuf was built in the period 1603-1613. in the time of Sultan Ahmed I, after whom it was named. It is characterized by the fact that there are shops under it and passages on four sides, and the entrances to the mosque are via a stone staircase. The mosque was destroyed in the last war and was rebuilt in the second half of the 90s of the last century in its original shape and dimensions (12x17m), with the difference that instead of the earlier hewn stone, brick was used for its reconstruction. In official Turkish documents from the 18th century, Kulen Vakuf was called Jisr-i-kebir, which in translation means the Great Bridge, and belongs to a series of places that were created during the Turkish administration in Bosnia. The city was created on an artificially created island along the left bank of the Una river, so that the Una river and its artificially dug backwater flowed next to the city ramparts. One of the main city gates was on the big bridge, and the other was on the south side of the mosque. On both sides of the large bridge, houses and warehouses were raised above the water on poles. It is certainly worth mentioning that Kulen Vakuf is the birthplace of the first reis-ul-ulema for Bosnia and Herzegovina, Mehrum Mustafa Hilmi ef. Hadžiomerović. In the autumn of 1882, respecting the demands of the Muslim champions, the then Austro-Hungarian administration appointed Mustafa Hilmi Efendi Hadžiomerović as the first reis-ul-ulema of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which was decided by the Emperor on October 17, 1882. The ceremonial enthronement of the first reisu-l-ulema took place in the great hall in Konak on December 15, 1882. He performed this duty until 1893.
The mosque was built inside the walls of this medieval city and was made of wood, and it stood above the upper entrance to the courtyard of the fort. When it was demolished, it was built in the village of Ostrovica itself. This mosque was built in 1903. demolished and rebuilt 3 times. It burned down once in a fire that engulfed the entire Kulen Vakuf bazaar on June 16, 1903, and the other two times in the wars of 1941 and 1992. Since the creation of the mosque in this place, for every insan (man), it has been one of the most instructive points of interest, over the harbor in one of the passageways of the mosque, a carved sura of the oath from the Holy Qur’an:
“I’m really wasting my time, man,
just not those who believe and do good works,
and who recommend truth to each other and who recommend patience to each other.”
(Al’-Asr, 1-3, Qur’an p. 603.)
Bratija manastira Rmnja, nakon poslednjeg rata, vraća se 1998. godine u Martin Brod i obnavlja manastir u potpunosti. 2006. godine osveštan je novi manastirski konak (kuća) koji je podignut zalaganjem arhimandrita Serafima (Kužića) i igumana Sergija (Karanovića).
Rmanj Monastery
The first reliable information about the existence of the Rmnja monastery dates back to 1498, when dukes “Petar, Petrašin and Vukdrag” presented it with an expensive icon of the Virgin. The Serbian migrations originating from the area around the Serbs, Glamoč and the Unca valley, were led by voivodes, and they stopped in Žumberk, on the border of Carniola and Croatia. The Rmanj Monastery existed before the restoration of the Serbian Patriarchate in Peja in 1557, as evidenced by a seal with an engraved year (1553). After the above-mentioned renovation, the monastery becomes an important administrative center, since the seat of the Metropolitans of Dabro-Bosnia is moved to it. The most significant name of the metropolitan from that time is Teodor, who founded the theological college in the Dalmatian monastery of Krka in 1615.
Metropolitans who dined in Rmnje signed themselves as “Dabro-Bosnian, Klis and Lika”. At the turn of the 16th to the 17th century, the Rmanj monastery had up to a hundred monks, as there are reliable historical testimonies. In the first half of the 17th century, the Rmanj monastery was the focus of painting and copying work, in a word, the nursery of the spiritual and national elite. The first half of the 19th century finds the monastery deserted, without monks. The derelict Rmanj was renovated and trained for monastic life through the efforts and material support of Gavr Vučković, a merchant from Bosanski Grahov, in 1863. In 1875, the monastery was again devastated and its brotherhood tortured. Then Rmanj was visited by the famous English archaeologist John Arthur Evans, who in his Illyrian letters describes the Serbian leaders and chieftains, as well as their meeting next to the monastery temple. The collapse of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia was the prelude to the greatest suffering that Rmanj experienced on its historical path. Rmanj was destroyed to the ground in 1944 after the bombing of the Nazi Luftwaffe, since a partisan hospital was located there. Then his never-studied and described frescoes disappeared forever. For thirty years, the authorities of SFR Yugoslavia did not allow the resurrection of Rmnje. In 1974, the effort and persistence of the Dalmatian bishop Stefan (Boca) led to the restoration of the monastery church.
Church of St. Three
The Serbian Orthodox Church of the Holy Trinity is located in Bosanski Doljani, that is, in the central part of the Štrbački buk-Lohovo visitor zone. Apparently, the temple was built on the “ancient sanctuary”, i.e. the ruins of a late antique church, which the local people have always called the Church. According to the method of construction and findings, it is possible to date the earlier building to the Late Antiquity, i.e. the 5th and 6th centuries AD. Fragments of a Roman inscription and an urn of the Japodist type mentioning Aurelius Clementinus and Aurelius Maxsimus were discovered in the ruins. At the end of the 19th century, parish priest Stevan Kovačević built a small chapel on these ancient ruins during his ministry. The church was completed and consecrated in 1894 by Metropolitan Georgij Nikolajević of Dabro-Bosnia. The temple was destroyed during the last war, and its restoration was completed in 2012-2014.
Church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary
The existing Parish Church was built of hard material in 1890, on the site of the original wooden church, the exact date of which is unknown. There is information that the temple was renovated in 1788, and a hundred years later, in 1888, a belfry was added to that old and original temple in front of the western door, on which there is a stone tablet with the year 1888 carved in it. Apparently, the renovation of that original temple was determined on that occasion , which is stated in the First Schematism of the Orthodox Serbian Metropolitanate of Banja Luka-Bihać from 1901 as the year of construction of this temple, but in fact it is about the consecration of this present temple, which was performed by the Metropolitan of Banja Luka G. Evgenije (Letica). In the course of its centuries-long history, there have obviously been several renovations, some more and some less professional and high-quality. Thus, at the end of the 80s of the twentieth century, only a partial restoration was carried out, but very unprofessionally. The church was also destroyed in the last war, after which it was rebuilt, and the stolen bell was returned to the place where it belongs.
