Banja Luka
[key], city in NE Bosnia and Herzegovina, on the Vrbas River. The capital
of Bosnia's semiautonomous Serb region, it is a government and financial
center with food processing and the manufacture of machinery, paper, and
appliances. Banja Luka was captured by the Turks in 1528 and was
(1583–1638) the seat of the pashas of Bosnia. Later
(1878–1918) a part of Austria-Hungary, it passed to Yugoslavia after
World War I. Bosnia and Herzegovina splintered along ethnic lines in 1992
and erupted in civil war, Banja Luka fell under Serb control and much of the
minority population was driven out. The city has Roman ruins and the
16th-century Ferhat Pasha Mosque (rebuilt after being razed in 1993 by
Bosnian Serb forces); the Arnaudija Mosque (1594) was also razed.
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