Travel Guide Jablanica

Jablanica/Јабланица (pronounced "yablanista") has a population of about 4,000, of which 89% are Bosniaks and 7% are Bosnian Croats. It is the capital of the municipality of Jablanica (10,000 inhabitants), within the Herzegovina-Neretva canton. The town is located 22 km west of Konjic, 25 km east of the Blidinje nature park (see Livno region, in Tropolje), 31 km southeast of Prozor-Rama and 48 km north of Mostar. Frequent bus connections to Mostar, Konjic and Sarajevo, some trains to Ploče (Croatia, in summer), Mostar, Konjic and Sarajevo.Jablanica enjoys an enchanting setting. It is located between the Čvrsnica (west) and Prenj (east) mountains, above beautiful meanders of the Neretva River, at the confluence of the Dolijanka and Dobrinja rivers. The small town is famous for its large artificial lake and the quality of its marble, which was used for the construction of the United Nations headquarters in New York. It is best known for being the scene of the Battle of the Neretva in 1943 and the location of the most expensive film in the history of Yugoslav cinema, The Battle of the Neretva, in 1968, with Yul Brynner and Orson Welles in the lead roles. What is less known, however, is that in 1993, Bosnian army troops carried out a vast "ethnic cleansing" here: the Bosnian-Croat inhabitants were driven out, imprisoned and for some tortured and executed. This spoils the visit, especially in the big museum of the Battle of Neretva, where most of the exactions took place.