Prusac

Prusac is a small settlement on a hill in central Bosnia with the ruins of a fortress, an Ottoman townscape of stone and timber houses, the Handanija mosque of the early seventeenth century, and the grave of Hasan Kafi Pruscak, a sixteenth-century scholar. Its significance is the Ajvatovica: tradition holds that Ajvaz-dedo prayed forty days for water for the village and a rock split to release a spring, and the pilgrimage that commemorates it, held in late June with a procession on foot and horseback to the cleft rock followed by prayer, has grown into the largest annual Muslim gathering in Europe, drawing tens of thousands. Outside those days the village is very quiet.

History

Prusac is first recorded under its present name around 1478, in a letter of Skender Pasha to Dubrovnik; in the Middle Ages it was part of the Uskoplje area with the fortresses of Susid and Vesela Straža, and under Ottoman rule it was known as Akhisar, white castle. Its castle, Biograd, stands on a rock above the valley of Donji Vakuf, with walls up to two and a half metres thick and a six-metre ditch crossed by a drawbridge, and the Handanija Mosque in the centre is a fine example of 17th-century Bosnian Islamic architecture (Wikipedia, Prusac).

What you'll find

• The cleft rock - the split formation the pilgrimage goes to.
• Handanija mosque - the early seventeenth-century mosque in the village.
• The fortress ruins - the walls on the hill above the settlement.
• The Ajvatovica - the June procession and gathering.

When to go

Late June for the Ajvatovica, when the village and the surrounding area fill; the dates shift and are announced each year. May to September otherwise, when the village is quiet and the walk to the rock is easy.

Good to know

During the Ajvatovica the area is overwhelmed with no accommodation and improvised facilities. Outside it there is little in the village and no visitor provision. The walk to the rock is a few kilometres. Modest dress is expected.

Nearby

Donji Vakuf lies north; Travnik is northeast.

Key facts