Urgent urban interventions by Ottoman authorities in Western Bosnia and the question of the foundation of the settlement of Bosanski Petrovac

Abstract

The text deals with the time and the ways in which the settlement of Bosanski Petrovac was founded in West Bosnia. The material is placed within the wider framework of events in the 17th and 18th centuries and the territorial and settlement losses experienced by the Ottoman Empire in its wars against Venice and the Austrian Empire. Bosanski Petrovac is seen as a new settlement which, according to prevailing views, emerged as a result of urgent urban policy interventions by the Ottoman authorities in the wake of the Treaty of Karlowitz in 1699. The author analyses the spatial location of Bosanski Petrovac and communication routes which traversed Petrovačko polje before drawing certain conclusions. According to the author’s findings, Bosanski Petrovac grew from a road station, which may have been established before 1699, to a palanka-type fortification, to a small settlement around the palanka, to the later urban settlement of the kasaba type. Its establishment and development was considerably influenced by its geographical location and the course of events from the early 17th till the 19th century.