Travel Guide Donji Vakuf

Donji Vakuf/Доњи Вакуф (pronounced "dogni vakouf") has a population of about 6,500, 95% of whom are Bosniaks. It is the capital of the municipality of Donji Vakuf (population 13,000), in the canton of Central Bosnia. The town is located 13 km northwest of Bugojno, 31 km southwest of Travnik and 35 km southeast of Jajce. Bus connections to Sarajevo, Tuzla, Banja Luka, Bihać, Livno and neighboring towns.Located near Ajvatovica, the most important Muslim pilgrimage site in Europe, this small town has a beautiful setting that is well worth a stop on the way to the Bosnian Krajina. Dominated on the west by Mount Komar (1,510 m above sea level), Donji Vakuf is located at the entrance of the narrow valley of the Vrbas which leads to Jajce, then to Banja Luka further north. Its name, which means "bottom foundation," refers to its establishment in 1572 by Malkoçoğlu İbrahim, leader of the dreaded Ottoman irregular cavalry unit of akıncılar. The original Turkish name, Aşağı Vakıf, was later translated into the South Slavic language. Alas, Donji Vakuf suffered significant damage during the last war. It was occupied by Bosnian-Serb forces for four years, before being liberated by the Bosnian army in 1994, losing almost its entire Bosnian-Serb population (35% in 1991). But in the center, along the Vrbas remains the Serbian Orthodox Church of the Dormition of the Mother of God (1888) which faces the Baš mosque with blue dome built in 2000 on the site of a sixteenth century mosque destroyed in 1992.