The royal chapel
A rebuilt building.
Mr.Strandman — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Badener — CC BY 3.0 · AnToni — CC BY-SA 4.0 · AnToni — CC BY-SA 4.0 · AnToni — CC BY-SA 4.0
Bobovac is the ruin of a medieval fortified royal town on a rocky ridge among wooded mountains near Vareš and Kraljeva Sutjeska. It was a seat of Bosnian rulers in the 14th and 15th centuries and today is a national monument and one of the country's most remote and beautiful historic sites. It was built under Stephen II, Ban of Bosnia, and first mentioned in a document of 1349. It shared the role of royal seat with the court at Kraljeva Sutjeska but was far better fortified. King Stephen Tomašević moved the seat to Jajce, and the Ottomans took Bobovac in 1463, hastening the conquest of Bosnia. The town held a residential quarter, a religious complex with a great church and a burial chapel for Bosnian kings, and Gothic-style palaces set on five rocky ridges. What remains today are walls and ramparts on a green summit, and the rebuilt chapel with its timber roof, the clearest standing building. From the top you see valleys and forests on every side. It is 27 km in a straight line from Zenica. Visitors arrive from Kraljeva Sutjeska through the Bukovica valley, then continue on foot along a forest trail. Bring walking shoes and water, as there are no services at the top. The way can be rough after rain, and autumn is lovely. Confirm directions first, as signs are limited.
A rebuilt building.
On a green summit.
Forest on every side.
Near Kraljeva Sutjeska and Vareš, central Bosnia
Yes, you reach the ruins by a forest trail, so bring walking shoes.
It was a seat of Bosnia's rulers, and its fall in 1463 hastened the Ottoman conquest.