Doboj Fortress

About this place

Doboj Fortress, also called Gradina, is a stone fortress on a hill above the city of Doboj in northern Bosnia and Herzegovina, about 52 km west of Tuzla in a straight line. It was one of the most important defences of the medieval banate of Usora and a royal property of the Kotromanić family. The stone fortress was built in the early 13th century on the site of an earlier clay and timber structure from the 10th or 11th century, and in its first phase it was Romanesque. In spring 1415 it was rebuilt: it kept some Romanesque features but took on a Gothic structure, its great keep was strengthened with walls about a metre thick, and the captain's tower became a commanding five-storey keep on a perfectly square base. White-grey stone walls run along the hilltop above grassy slopes around a restored tower with a timber roof, and from the high walkways the view opens over the city and the Bosna river valley. A small amphitheatre inside hosts summer events. Visitors climb to the fortress, walk the walkways along the walls, visit the small exhibition inside and look out over the city. It is lovely at sunset.