Jajce

Jajce is built where the Pliva meets the Vrbas, and the Pliva ends its run by falling roughly twenty metres directly into the larger river at the edge of the old town, which is an unusual thing for a waterfall to do in the middle of a settlement. Above it the town climbs to a medieval fortress that was the seat of the last Bosnian kings before the Ottoman conquest in 1463. Underneath are catacombs cut into rock as a fifteenth-century family crypt, and the Ottoman period left a bell tower converted from a minaret and a preserved mosque. Just outside town, a set of small wooden watermills stands in a row on the Pliva lakes, one of the most photographed rural scenes in the country.

History

A temple of Mithras from the 2nd century AD, renovated in the 4th and among the best preserved in Europe, was found here by chance, and the town itself was founded by Hrvoje Vukčić Hrvatinić, who built a fortress on the site of an earlier fort and his own tomb, the catacombs; Jajce is first named in writing in 1396 and became the seat of the Kingdom of Bosnia. The last king, Stjepan Tomašević, received his crown here from Pope Pius II, and the Ottomans took the town and executed him in 1463 but held it only six months before Matthias Corvinus of Hungary took it and set up the Banate of Jajce later that year; before her death in 1478 Queen Catherine restored St Mary's Church, the oldest church in the town (Wikipedia, Jajce).

What's there

• Pliva waterfall - the twenty-metre drop into the Vrbas at the town's edge.
• The fortress - the walls above town, seat of the last Bosnian kings.
• The catacombs - a rock-cut fifteenth-century crypt beneath the old town.
• Pliva watermills - a row of small wooden mills on the lakes outside town.

When to go

May to October, with the fall at its strongest in spring melt. Autumn colour around the mills is superb. Winter freezes parts of the falls, which is spectacular but access to the lower viewpoint may close.

Things to know

The lower waterfall viewpoint is ticketed and involves steps down and back, which is a hard climb in heat. The town has suffered from underinvestment and parts look tired next to the setting. The mills are small and briefly visited, best combined with a walk round the lakes rather than driven to and photographed in five minutes.

Nearby

Travnik's Ottoman old town lies southeast; Banja Luka is north.