Travel Guide Bugojno

Bugojno/Бугојно (pronounced "bougono") has a population of about 15,000, of which 79% are Bosniaks and 16% are Bosnian-Croats. It is the capital of the municipality of Bugojno (population 30,000), in the canton of Central Bosnia. The city is 44 km southwest of Travnik, 46 km southeast of Jajce, 47 km northwest of Pozor-Rama and 67 km northeast of Livno(via Kupres). Bus connections to Sarajevo, Banja Luka, Mostar and neighboring towns.Bugojno was a city cherished by Tito, who had his favorite residence here, and had one of the highest per capita incomes in socialist Yugoslavia. This was thanks to its Slavko-Rodić factory, which, with 7,000 employees, produced anti-personnel mines that were exported all over the world. But in 1993, Bugojno found itself at the center of violent fighting between Bosnians and Bosnian-Croats, resulting in deaths, destruction of Islamic heritage and a mass exodus. The Catholic church of St. Anthony of Padua (1896) was preserved, the Sultan Ahmed II mosque (1694) was rebuilt, but the factory closed, plunging the population into disarray. Under the influence of an elegant, but very rigorous religious center financed by Saudi Arabia, some young people in Bugojno then turned to terrorism, causing one death here in 2010. Those responsible have since been convicted. Calm has returned. But Bugojno is not done with its past. Since 1993, the anti-personnel mines that once made Bugojno rich have been scattered in certain areas of the beautiful Koprivnica forest, south of the city.