Gradiška, Bosnia and Herzegovina

In the Roman period this town was of strategic importance; a port of the Roman fleet was situated here. Among notable archaeological findings are a viaduct.

Gradiški Brod is mentioned for the first time as a town in c. 1330. It had a major importance as the location where the Sava river used to be crossed. By 1537, the town and its surroundings came under Ottoman rule.

The Ottoman built a fortress, which served as the Bosnia Eyalet's northern defense line. The town was also called Berbir because of the fortress.

Following the outbreak of the First Serbian Uprising (1804), in the Sanjak of Smederevo (modern Central Serbia), the Jančić's Revolt broke out in the Gradiška region against the Ottoman government in the Bosnia Eyalet, following the erosion of the economic, national and religious rights of Serbs. Hajduks also arrived from Serbia, and were especially active on the Kozara. Jovan Jančić Sarajlija organized the uprising with help from Metropolitan Benedikt Kraljević. The peasants took up arms on 23 September 1809, in the region of Gradiška, beginning from Mašići. The fighting began on 25 September, and on the same night, the Ottomans captured and executed Jančić. The rebels retreated to their villages, except those in Kozara and Motajica who continued, and offered strong resistance until their defeat in mid-October, after extensive looting and burning of villages by the Ottomans.^[1] Another revolt broke out in 1834, in Mašići.^[2]

Ottoman rule ended with the Austro-Hungarian occupation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (1878), following the Herzegovina Uprising (1875–77). Austro-Hungarian rule in Bosnia and Herzegovina ended in 1918, when the South Slavic Austro-Hungarian territories proclaimed the State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs, which subsequently joined the Kingdom of Serbia into the Kingdom of Yugoslavia.

From 1929 to 1941 Gradiška was part of the Vrbas Banovina of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia.

During Yugoslavia, the town was known as Bosanska Gradiška (Босанска Градишка). During the Bosnian War, the town was incorporated into Republika Srpska (RS). After the war, the RS National Assembly changed the name, omitting bosanska ("Bosnian"), as was done with many other towns (Kostajnica, Dubica, Novi Grad, Petrovo, Šamac).

In the night of 18 November 2004, Catholic priest and parson Kazimir Višaticki was murdered in the clergy house of the St. Roch parish in Gradiška.^[3]

Aside from the town of Gradiška, the municipality includes total of 74 other settlements:

The town has a Serbian Orthodox cathedral dedicated to the Mother of God. There is also a mosque called the Džamija Begluk.

Local football club Kozara have played in the top tier of the Bosnia and Herzegovina football pyramid but spent most seasons in the country's second level First League of the Republika Srpska.

The following table gives a preview of total number of registered people employed in legal entities per their core activity (as of 2018):^[4]

• Alojzije Mišić, Roman Catholic bishop
• Amar Hrnjić Bosnian footballer
• Atif Dudaković, Bosnian war-time army general
• Branko Grahovac, football goalkeeper
• Dženan Čišija, Swedish politician
• Goran Zakarić, Bosnian footballer
• Kristajan Zelonka Serbian footballer
• Marko Marin, German footballer
• Milan Janković, footballer
• Miloš Stanišljević Serbian local resident from Turjak
• Miodrag Latinović, retired footballer
• Nazif Hajdarović, footballer
• Nordin Gerzić, Swedish footballer
• Ognjen Ožegović, Serbian footballer, European U-19 champion
• Ozren Perić, footballer
• Ratko Varda, basketball player
• Safet Halilović, politician
• Sergej "Mandarina" Milinovic, a final boss of Gradiska
• Tatjana Pašalić, poker presenter
• Vaso Čubrilović, politician and historian, member of Black Hand organisation and participant in the conspiracy to kill Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria.
• Veljko Čubrilović, member of Black Hand organisation
• Vinko Marinović, former Serbian footballer, now manager
• Vlado Jagodić, former footballer, now manager
• Zlatko Janjić, footballer
• Zvjezdan Misimović, Bosnian footballer

Gradiška is twinned with:^[5]

Gradiška also cooperates with:^[6]

• Municipalities of Republika Srpska
• Subdivisions of Bosnia and Herzegovina

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Gradiška.

• Official website