Introducing Banja Luka

There’s little to attract visitors to the Republika Srpska capital. The only reasons for stopping are to take a breather en route to Belgrade, Zagreb or Sarajevo, or for the rafting.

Banja Luka was never much of a tourist centre. A 1969 earthquake destroyed about 80% of the town and in 1993 local Serbs updated the damage by blowing up the city’s mosques, including the famous 1580 Ferhadija. In 2001 a bussed-in nationalist mob stoned an attempt to lay a new foundation stone