Not far from the falls stands the one museum in town I was interested in visiting. Like most of Europe during World War II, Yugoslavia was overrun by Nazis. The Nazis always struggled to maintain complete control of the area, as guerrilla forces offered constant resistance. There is a famous photo of Stjepan Filipovic, an early resistance fighter who was captured and executed by the Nazis, raising his fists in defiance as his final act before facing the gallows. Yugoslavia’s royalists had fled the country. It was the communist anti-fascist groups who remained. Unlike most of the rest of Europe, these communist Yugos self-liberated, thus not falling behind an iron curtain like the rest of Eastern Europe.

In late November 1943, a group of these anti-fascists called AVNOJ met at an all-age gymnastics association building in Jajce. The site of this AVNOJ meeting is now a museum commemorating Yugoslav resistance to the Nazis and celebrating the establishment of post-war non-aligned Yugoslavia. There are, of course, a lot of items on display venerating Tito. There are also displays featuring the fathers of communism. Even more prominently featured are the heads of state of the Western allies who recognized the fight the Yugoslav partisans were putting up, which in turn led to their acceptance of Tito’s government and the discrediting of the King of Yugoslavia and his government in exile. The latter were not allowed to return to power and were no longer recognized as holding the right to speak for the country. It was a well put together museum with enough information in English as to be useful and interesting to me. While being favorable toward the anti-fascist movement in Yugoslavia, I found it to be fair and generally accurate, as far as I knew, anyway. I’m not an expert in Yugoslav history. I will say that I found it pretty interesting to contrast the people calling themselves “Antifa” today with these guys who were clearly the original anti-fascists.

I walked next toward the Jajce Fortress, which in truth was the main reason I wanted to come to Jajce in the first place. Bosnia was an independent kingdom in the medieval period. The complexities of feudal governance leave a good deal of murkiness around Bosnia’s period of sovereignty. From at least the middle of the 1100s, Bosnia was a “banate,” an area claimed by the Hungarian crown with a subordinate ruler. Neither the Hungarians nor the Byzantine Empire could truly exert control over this remote, mountainous region. It was as a de facto independent state for much of this time, operating with near complete autonomy.

Bosnia was unquestionably a sovereign kingdom from the mid 14th to the mid 15th century. It became one of the most powerful nations in the Balkans during that century of independence, but Bosnia’s timing was terrible. The Ottoman Empire was on the rise, having just conquered Constantinople in 1453, obliterating the last vesitges of the Eastern Roman Empire for good. The Turks eventually conquered Bosnia, capturing and killing Stjepan Tomasevic, the last king of Bosnia in 1463. A few cities held out, but the death of Stjepan II was the end of Bosnian sovereignty. During its period as a sovereign kingdom, Bosnia had a few different fortified seats of government. Jajce was the last of these. It was in fleeing from this castle that Stjepan II was captured. The Bosnian kingdom was falling apart around him and disintegrated quickly after his death. Morale was apparently low as most Bosnians figured conquest was inevitable either way, whether it was at the hands of the Ottomans or the Hungarians. Many felt they might have more tolerance and lower taxes under the Ottomans. In any case, resistance wasn’t too stiff.

On the way up to the castle, I found a small catacomb. This was noted as one of the things you should look at in the old city, so I paid a few CM and walked in. It was nice and cool below the surface, but there wasn’t really all that much to see inside. The place is billed as an underground church. It is really a very small chapel built by a duke in the 14th century who intended to bury some family members there. No one was ever interred in it. There isn’t much designating it as a chapel. There are a few amateurish carvings near the entry. The general shape of the carved out underground space seems like it could have been used as a chapel, but no one was conducting regular worship services down there. I came away with the impression that it was mostly over-billed and good primarily as an escape from the afternoon heat.

The Jajce Fortress overlooks the city, with a mostly intact ¾ mile set of walls on top of a set of hilltop ridges. You pass through some guard and bell towers as well as some church ruins on the 15 minute climb up the hill. There is not any historical interpretation to speak of in the fortress itself, or on the ascent. You have to know why it was there ahead of time, or just go up to enjoy the views of the city and surrounding landscape. Nothing on site explains it. There was a small admission fee, but it only amounted to a few dollars. As I was entering, I met an Austrian tourist named Nina. She didn’t have correct change for admission. The amount was so small, I just paid for both and we chatted a bit as we walked the walls and shot photos.

There were a few huts in the interior portion of the walls, but they weren’t open, so it was unclear what their purpose was. Most of the area within the walls was either deserted or in ruins. I am nearly certain that this must have been the core of the medieval town. Nothing of what was inside the walls in the 15th century remains. I walked the walls, enjoyed the scenery, and the visit with my friend Nina. It’s a very pretty place, and would have been worth visiting even had it not been the last capital of the medieval Kingdom of Bosnia.

(Continued)