Tuzla - Town with open doors

Tuzla is located on the mountain slopes of Majevica. It extends westward from both sides of the river Jala, the surrounding hills Ilinčica and Trnovci offering beautiful viewpoints, especially for photo enthusiasts, artists and all those who in a few minutes want to go out from the city crowds in the world of silence, beautiful and relaxed atmosphere.

Southwest of this city is a mountain Konjuh with beautiful places to visit, trails for hiking and ski resort, known as a paradise for lovers of eco-tourism. As a regional center with about 650,000 people, Tuzla is an attractive place for tourists because in the radius of fifty kilometers visitors are offered swimming lakes Hazna and Vidara in Gradačac, Snježnica in Teočak, Modrac near Lukavac and the Pannonian Lake, the only saltwater lake in Europe, which is located in the center of Tuzla.

Surrounding municipalities offers a variety of hunting and fishing, from small to large game animals, and all who spend several days in Tuzla have the opportunity to visit historical sites in the city, such as Soni trg, Trg slobode (Freedom Square), Museum of Salt production and the Museum of Northeast Bosnia and old towns Srebrenik, Old Teočak, Soko-grad in Gračanica, and the Dragon Tower of Bosnia Gradačac and tower-town of Zvornik. All  these locations can be reached by car from Tuzla in less than one hour.

Driving to Srebrenica takes less than an hour and a half. From the very foundation of the village of Tuzla, which is measured by thousands of years and dates back to the Neolithic, this area was connected to the exploitation of salt. Here are the most vivid remains of the Pannonian Sea, and numerous exhibits that are kept in the Museum of the Northeast Bosnia testify about that, chronologically showing the development of civilization in this region. In the area of Tuzla, Pannonian Sea, after withdrawing, left salt deposits. Archaeologists claim that in the heart of the city, the salt is exploited even seven thousand years ago. They came to these findings with decades of research.

At Soni trg preserved remains of the vessel in which it originally evaporated salt water and salt was sold in the whole region. It created Tuzla as sort of center where caravan routes intersected and where traders were sure to coming. Salt deposits defined the development of this city, that was in the last century one of the most important industrial centers, with developed chemical industry, and additionally, deposits of coal gave Tuzla primacy in energy production.

At the end of the last century, Tuzla, abandoning the development of basic chemical industry, focused its development on new technologies and the development of tourism. It raised quality of life and air and water cleanliness to a high level. Tuzla has a population of 200,000, with daily migration of about 100,000 people.

Tuzla is the city with the largest park areas in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Complex Slana Banja (Salt Spa) which can be reached by slow walk for ten minutes from two city hotels and three boarding houses, where tourists can spend the night, offers visitors a wealth of content.

Trails for hiking with beautiful views from landscaped gazebo “Bosanski ćilim”, zoo, restaurants with Bosnian national cuisine, beach and promenade around the Pannonian lakes and salty waterfalls, give Tuzla primacy in the tourist industry in the region.

In this complex are superb sculptures of great sculptor from Tuzla, Franjo Leder, and not far from here is the International Portrait Gallery, which has a priceless image of the greatest BH painters. In October each year is organized INTERBIFEP, biennial of portrait in which participating artists from around the world. At the “Slana banja” are also tennis courts, landscaped areas for basketball and football, and Kuća plamena mira (Peace Flame House) where can be organized the most demanding cultural events.

Gourmets, who remember the cities and regions by the food, its taste and manner of serving, in Tuzla will be delighted with traditional Bosnian dishes of national cuisine. Definitely, dish that should not be omitted is 'ćevapi', which you can get served in special rolls 'lepine' or in earthenware with cream. For gourmets there is ‘sogan-dolma’, one of the best local dishes, which are prepared so that the bulbs are filled with special stuffing, whose recipe jealously keep in Bosnia and Herzegovina for hundreds of years.

However, Bosnians are proud of their indigenous dish, bosanski lonac (the Bosnian pot), which in any case should taste, because taste a dozen kinds of vegetables and several kinds of meat, along with the atmosphere of cooking and serving in earthen vessels, visitors always return to Bosnia and its cuisine.

Of course, indispensable are also cabbage rolls, various kinds of pie, ‘prebranac’ (types of beans), stew, and for dessert certainly you should serve yourself with attractive ‘tufahija’ or ‘baklava’. A large number of restaurants offer a complete range of these foods, so stay in Tuzla certainly will be memorable. Herzegovinian and Mediterranean wines in restaurants in Tuzla are highly ranked, but the favorite drink is homemade brandy made from plum or pear, which can be served as an excellent aperitifs. In addition, the region of northeastern Bosnia, whose center is Tuzla, abounds with large plantations of fruits and vegetables, which are often grown by environmental standards and meets strict criteria, so at the markets in this city you can find numerous types of indigenous varieties of fruits and vegetables grown by local traditional principles without the use of chemicals.

Tuzla is recognizable as a city of the novel. Since 2001, in the first week of September in the city of Salt, are maintained literary meetings "Cum grano salis", within which the prize "Mesa Selimovic" is awarded for the best novel published in the past year in the South Slavic-speaking world. In those days, in honor of the famous writer of Tuzla, Meša Selimović, the author of masterpieces "Derviš i Smrt" and "Tvrđava", writers and literary critics from the Serbia, Croatia, Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina gather here. Literary readings and theatrical performances, book presentations and exhibitions are just some of the facilities offered to visitors of encounter "Cum grano salis".

National and University Library with its departments: American, Iranian, Turkish and Austrian corner, and a long tradition of maintaining high-quality conferences and rich library, in collaboration with the Youth Centre and the National Theatre Tuzla, organized every year all the better show of the novel, which has already become a reference in the Balkans.

National Theatre Tuzla was first theater established in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Under the name " Prvo bosanskohercegovačko pozorište “ (Bosnia and Herzegovina's First Theater) began to work 1898th year. Today, the National Theatre Tuzla has a rich repertoire and quality ensemble cast, and diversity of offers is achieved by frequent visiting by directors and actors from Sarajevo, Zagreb, Belgrade, Podgorica ... traditionally, each year in November here are held "Theatre Days", and in two weeks of the event, to audience is represented theaters from across the region.

In the first week of June are organized Days of monodrama, who also made ​​an exceptional offer to lovers of theater. Private Theatre ‘Teatar Kabare’ its scene has at Hotel Tuzla, and in addition to regular performances every year in the last week of March, organize TKT Fest, which hosts a dozen theater groups from the Balkans.

Excellent theater performances occasionally can be watched in the Bosnian Cultural Center, which, in addition to that, offers in its galleries photo and art exhibitions, book presentations and round tables, where visitors may attend.

Worker’s Club "Moša Pijade" was opened 1954th for anniversary celebration for Husinska buna (Husino uprising). Space of the club “Moša Pijade” since its founding, the fifties, to before the war, was one of the iconic places of culture and social life in general in our city, and with its closure is created vacuum by a couple of years. The formation of Public institutions Bosnian Cultural Center Tuzla 1997th, this area has again been revived.

Bosnian Cultural Center Tuzla, in many years of work, has gained the image of public institutions with international credibility, achieving successful cooperation with many countries of Europe and the world (France, Netherlands, Germany, Austria, Italy, Egypt, Bulgaria, Serbia, Croatia, Montenegro, China, Japan, USA, etc.)

Public institution Bosnian Cultural Center Tuzla is a very important institution in Tuzla Canton and the leading cultural institutions in the city of Tuzla, which is confirmed by data that only in one fiscal year at BKC is realized between 240-300 events and  according to invitees data, visit was over 100,000 guests annually.

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