PLAVA VODA DISTRICT

Nestled between the fortress and the foothills of Mount Kotol (1,008 meters above sea level), this neighborhood is appreciated for its idyllic setting and coolness in summer. It owes its name to a tributary of the Lašva, the Plava Voda ("blue water"). This stream was developed into a series of small waterfalls in the 18th century to accommodate fulling mills and paddle wheels. Most of them have now disappeared, but old stone houses remain along the straight banks. It is a pleasant place to walk: lush vegetation, a path running along the white water, small wooden footbridges and, above all, restaurants and cafes, and the very famous Plava Voda tavern. The neighborhood is dominated on the eastern side by a large cemetery located halfway up the slope. This cemetery, used by Muslims and Catholics, is in fact a former Jewish cemetery. Founded in 1762, it houses about 250 graves of Jewish families, with inscriptions in Hebrew or Ladino, as well as a monument to the victims of the Shoah (1979) in a sorry state. Abundantly described in Ivo Andrić's The Chronicle of Travnik, the town's small Jewish community numbered 375 people before World War II. None of the few survivors of the massacres returned to settle here. On the other side of the Lašva River, notice the large Moorish-style Islamic teaching building: the Elči Ibrahim Pasha Medersa. Dating from 1895, it is the heir to the three Koranic schools that existed in the city in the 18th century.