To all our guests and other visitors to the city of Banja Luka, we can recommend some of the sights that you can visit in the city on Vrbas.
Fortress Kastel is the oldest historical monument in the city of Banja Luka. The oldest traces of settlements in the area of Banja Luka are the remains of a Neolithic castle settlement that were just found in the area of the city fortress Kastel. It is located in the central part of the city, which dominates the left bank of Vrbas. In the past, Kastel was a strong military fortress and protected the Vrbas basin from enemy raids. […]
The construction of the Saoborn Church of the Holy Trinity in the center of the city was the first major construction project in Banja Luka after the First World War. It was built in 1925 on the empty space in front of the former "Balkan" tavern. It was designed by Dusan Zivanovic, an architect from Belgrade. The church was built in the Serbian-Byzantine style, which appeared in our architectural practice at the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century. […]
The monument to the fallen Krajišniki, in the People's Liberation War (1941-1945) against fascism, is located on the top of Banj hill (431m above sea level), which dominates Banja Luka. It is about 5 km from the city, and the road between Banjaluka and the monument on Banj brdo is asphalted in its entire length. […]
The monument to writer and public tribune Petar Kočić (1877-1916) is located in the City Park (across from the main square), and represents another work by Antun Augustinci in Banja Luka and Vanja Radauš. The monument was completed in 1929, and was installed and ceremonially unveiled on November 6, 1932.
At the end of the 19th century, a series of one-story Neo-Renaissance buildings were built in Gospodska Street (Veselina Masleše Street), and later buildings with Art Nouveau style elements, intended for trade and housing. A large number of these buildings have been preserved to this day, with rich decoration on cornices, around windows and balconies and with decorative towers at the corners, forming a representative pedestrian zone in the center of the city. Today, in these buildings along Gospodska Street, there are many shops that offer goods from domestic and international manufacturers.
Krupa na Vrbas is located on the M-16 highway, about 25 km south of Banja Luka. It is located at the place where Vrbas leaves the canyon and enters the Krupsko polje, and the Krupa river flows in from its left side. A place with exceptional natural and cultural values such as Krupa waterfalls, mills and springs, Strika's cave, monastery of St. Ilija (1289), log cabin church (XVI century) and the medieval town of Greben (1192), favors the development of excursion, religious, sports-recreational, scientific, rural and fishing tourism. An art colony is traditionally held in Krupa, where artists from various parts of the world are motivated by the miraculous power of nature to create life's works.
The Church of St. Elijah is located on the E661 road that leads from Banja Luka towards Jajce and Mrkonjić Grad. The church is located on a necropolis with stećci, among which two are decorated with crosses, rosettes and a crescent, carved in high relief. Above the church, on the rock above the Vrbas canyon, there are the remains of the medieval fortress Greben grada. […]
The remains of the medieval fortified town of Zvečaj are located ten kilometers south of Banja Luka, on the southern slopes of the rock above the left bank of Vrbas. Zvečaj was mentioned for the first time in 1404, when Duke Hrvoje Vukčić signed a contract with the people of Dubrovnik against the Bosnian king Ostoja. It is assumed that the fort is older than this time. The Bosnian king Stjepan Ostojić confirmed privileges to the people of Dubrovnik in 1419 in Zvečaj. In 1463, the Turks occupied the fort, and at the end of the same year, it was taken over by the Hungarian army of Matija Kovin, and until 1527, when it was handed over to the Turks by captain Andrija Dresneki, it served as a fort of Jajačka banovina. The city consisted of a citadel, ramparts that descend towards Vrbas and towers, one of which has been preserved up to a height of about ten meters.
The most famous Banja Luka picnic spot, Trešnjik, is located on the southern side of the city, and is 431 m above sea level, offering a panoramic view of the city. The resort is rich in forest, walking and hiking trails, sources of drinking water, as well as organized places for rest and leisure.
There is also a memorial monument to the fallen Krajišniki in NOB, the work of the famous Yugoslav sculptor Antun Augustinčić. On the monument, there is a relief that in a series of pictures shows the struggle and suffering of the people of Krajišnik in World War II, and the monument itself symbolically resembles a bullet fired in the direction of Krajina.