Tuzla, Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bosnia and Herzegovina

Early history | Middle Ages to 20th century | Bosnian War | Post-war independence | Geography | Salt deposits | Pannonian Lakes | Education | Transport

🇧🇦 Tuzla is the third-largest city of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the administrative centre of Tuzla Canton of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Tuzla is the economic, cultural, educational, health and tourist centre of north-east Bosnia. It is an educational centre and is home to two universities. It is also the main industrial machine and one of the leading economic strongholds of Bosnia with a wide and varied industrial sector including an expanding service sector thanks to its salt lake tourism.

The city of Tuzla is home to Europe's only salt lake as part of its central park and has more than 350,000 people visiting its shores every year. The history of the city goes back to the 9th century; modern Tuzla dates back to 1510 when it became an important garrison town in the Ottoman Empire.

In Bosnia and Herzegovina, Tuzla is also regarded as one of the most multicultural cities in the country and has managed to keep the pluralist character of the city throughout the Bosnian War and after, with Bosniaks, Serbs, Croats and a small minority of Bosnian Jews residing in Tuzla.

Early history Archaeological evidence suggests that Tuzla was a rich Neolithic settlement. Being inhabited continuously for more than 6,000 years, Tuzla is one of the oldest European sustained settlements. During the period of the Roman Republic (before the area was conquered by Rome), Tuzla (or Salines as it was called at the time) was ruled by the Illyrian tribe Breuci.

Middle Ages to 20th century The city was first mentioned in 950 by Constantine Porphyrogenitus in his De Administrando Imperio as a fort named Salines (Σαλήνες). The name Soli was used in the Middle Ages. It means "salts" in Bosnian and the city's present name means "place of salt" in Ottoman Turkish. During the Middle Ages it belonged mostly to the medieval Kingdom of Bosnia. After the fall of the kingdom to the Ottoman Empire in 1463, the region was controlled by the House of Berislavić before the Ottomans occupied the villages of "Gornje Soli" and "Donje Soli" around 1512, and took control of the entire Usora in the 1530s.

It remained under Ottoman rule for nearly 400 years, where it was administered as part of the Sanjak of Zvornik. In 1878 it was occupied by Austria-Hungary. After the dissolution of the monarchy it became the part of the newly formed Kingdom of Yugoslavia. The Husino uprising took place in 1920.

During the Second World War, Tuzla was included in the puppet Independent State of Croatia and controlled by the mainly Muslim Hadžiefendić Legion of the Croatian Home Guard. Tuzla was among the first areas in Europe to be liberated, when Tito's Yugoslav Partisans freed it from the German occupiers on 2 October 1943. Many members of the Legion deserted to the Partisans at this time. In December 1944, the city was unsuccessfully attacked by Chetnik forces of Draža Mihailović along with the Serbian State Guard. After the war it developed into a major industrial and cultural centre during the Communist period in the former Yugoslavia.

Bosnian War In the 1990 elections the Reformists won control of the municipality being the only municipality in Bosnia where non-nationalists won. During the Bosnian War of Independence between 1992 and 1995 the town was the only municipality not governed by the SDA party-led authorities. After Bosnia and Herzegovina declared independence and was recognised by the United Nations the city was besieged by Serbian forces. A few days later Serbian forces attacked Tuzla. The town was not spared the atrocities of the Bosnian War.

Early in the war, troops, of the 92nd Motorised Brigade of the Yugoslav National Army, were ambushed by units of Bosnia's Territorial Defence Force, while attempting to withdraw from the city. During the incident, an estimated 92-200 Yugoslav troops were killed, and 33 wounded. It was regarded as a war crime.

On 25 May 1995, an attack on Tuzla killed 71 people and injured 200 persons in what is referred to as the Tuzla massacre, when a shell fired from Serb's positions on the Ozren mountain (130 mm towed field gun M-46) hit the central street and its promenade. The youngest civilian who died in that massacre was only two years old.

Following the Dayton Peace Accords, Tuzla was the headquarters of the U.S. forces for the Multinational Division (MND) during Operation Joint Endeavour IFOR and subsequent SFOR.

Post-war independence In February 2014 the city was the scene of the beginning of the 2014 unrest in Bosnia and Herzegovina, which quickly spread to dozens of cities and towns throughout Bosnia and Herzegovina. After couple of days of calm protests, people lost patience and started burning cars in front of the canton government building, and later building itself. The building has yet to be repaired.

Geography Tuzla is located in the north-eastern part of Bosnia, settled just underneath the Majevica mountain range, on the Jala River. The central zone lies in an east–west oriented plain, with residential areas in the north and south of the city located on the Ilinčica, Kicelj and Gradina Hills. It is 237 metres (778 feet) above sea level. The climate is moderate continental. There are abundant coal deposits in the region around Tuzla. 6 coal mines continue to operate around the city. Much of the coal mined in the area is used to power the Tuzla Power Plant, which is the largest power plant in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Salt deposits Extractions of the city's salt deposits, particularly in the 20th century, have caused sections of the city centre to sink. Structures in the "sinking area" either collapsed or were demolished, and there are few structures in the city that predate the 20th century, despite the fact that the city was founded over 1000 years ago. In the north-eastern part of the town is an area known as Solina, named after the salt deposits.

Pannonian Lakes Tuzla is the only city in Europe that has a salt lake at its centre. The ancient Pannonian Sea dried up around 10 million years ago, but work by researchers and scientists has now enabled a level of saline water to be kept stable at the surface, and in 2003 the Pannonian Lake was opened.

A second lake that includes artificial waterfalls was inaugurated in 2008. An archaeological park and replica Neolithic lake dwellings were also incorporated into the scheme, providing information about the different cultures which left their material and spiritual mark here. The site has become an international tourist destination.

A third lake was completed in August 2012. Construction expenses for this were nearly 2 million Bosnian marks (ca. 1 million euros). This third lake also contains 2 water slides which are an attraction for the younger population.

The summer season of 2013 recorded approximately 5,000 visitors per day (c. 450,000 for 3 months).

Education Tuzla is home to the University of Tuzla, with 16,500 students, and also the American University in Bosnia and Herzegovina and the European University Kallos of Tuzla.

Transport Tuzla has an international airport located at Dubrave (IATA code: TZL), and an effective and well-developed public bus network. There are plans to introduce a trolleybus network in the city soon. The airport was opened and obtained ICAO certificate for civilian Air traffic in 2008. The airport had comprised a portion of "Eagle Base", an American military base that has been home to NATO troops serving in SFOR, Bosnia's stabilization force. Nowadays former Eagle Base become home of Bosnian Military Forces. In 2013. the airport became a base for Wizz Air. Tuzla International Airport nowadays has connection to 17+ European cities and expanding. More than 300000 passengers have been traveled via Tuzla International Airport in 2016.In 2017 Tuzla International Airport broke its own record for most passengers in one year with 535.596 passengers. While in 2018 that number again rose up to 584.471.

Tuzla has a railway station that has passenger services to Doboj, from where trains run to Sarajevo, Zagreb, and Belgrade. The services to Brčko were discontinued in 2012.

Tuzla is well connected with other major cities in Bosnia and Herzegovina and even with some European cities via its bus connections. Bus and taxi traffic is very well organised in Tuzla and is affordable to its citizens. Bus stations were built in 1970 and completely renovated and modernized in 2017.

Tuzla, Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bosnia and Herzegovina 

Tuzla has a population of over 110,979 people. Tuzla also forms the centre of the wider Tuzla Canton which has a population of over 445,025 people.

To set up a UBI Lab for Tuzla see: https://www.ubilabnetwork.org Twitter: https://twitter.com/UBILabNetwork

Twin Towns, Sister Cities Tuzla has links with:

🇲🇦 Al Hoceima, Morocco 🇮🇹 Bologna, Italy 🇳🇱 Delft, Netherlands 🇪🇸 L'Hospitalet de Llobregat, Spain 🇦🇹 Linz, Austria 🇲🇪 Nikšić, Montenegro 🇭🇷 Osijek, Croatia 🇭🇺 Pécs, Hungary 🇫🇷 Saint-Denis, France 🇷🇸 Sombor, Serbia 🇭🇺 Székesfehérvár, Hungary
Text Atribution: Wikipedia Text under CC-BY-SA license

Antipodal to Tuzla is: -161.328,-44.538

Locations Near: Tuzla 18.6722,44.538

🇧🇦 Živinice 18.65,44.45 d: 9.9  

🇧🇦 Brčko 18.8,44.867 d: 37.9  

🇧🇦 Gradačac 18.429,44.875 d: 42.1  

🇧🇦 Zvornik 19.106,44.392 d: 38  

🇷🇸 Loznica 19.217,44.533 d: 43.2  

🇧🇦 Bijeljina 19.225,44.762 d: 50.3  

🇧🇦 Doboj 18.083,44.717 d: 50.7  

🇧🇦 Centar 18.4,43.867 d: 77.7  

🇧🇦 Sarajevo 18.379,43.852 d: 79.8  

🇭🇷 Vinkovci 18.807,45.289 d: 84.2  

Antipodal to: Tuzla -161.328,-44.538

🇹🇴 Nuku'alofa -175.216,-21.136 d: 17116.9  

🇵🇫 Papeete -149.566,-17.537 d: 16818.3  

🇦🇸 Pago Pago -170.701,-14.279 d: 16535.6  

🇼🇸 Apia -171.76,-13.833 d: 16460.7  

🇺🇸 Hilo -155.089,19.725 d: 12841.3  

🇺🇸 Maui -156.446,20.72 d: 12741.8  

🇺🇸 Maui County -156.617,20.868 d: 12726.5  

🇺🇸 Wailuku -156.505,20.894 d: 12722.9  

🇺🇸 Kahului -156.466,20.891 d: 12722.9  

🇺🇸 Honolulu -157.85,21.3 d: 12685.7  

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