“Privjesak” evropskog urbaniteta: gradovi srednjovjekovne Bosne kao integralni dio urbaniteta istočno-centralne Evrope
“Appendage” of European Urbanity: The Cities of Medieval Bosnia as the Integral Part of the Urbanity of East-Central Europe

Summary/Abstract: The author of this paper applies the comparative method to observe medieval Bosnian cities within the system of urban centres of east-central Europe. Researching Bosnian cities we come to the conclusion that the development of Bosnian urbanity occurs in two stages. The first stage lasted until the 14th century while the second and more progressive stage started during the reign of Bosnian rulers Stjepan II and Tvrtko I Kotromanić. It is the period when the urban areas of Bosnian territory started to gain more and more features of European cities. The analysis shows that Bosnian cities in nomenclature, or in the gradation of urbanity, had great similarities with the cities of a wider Slavic region. Observing the Latin nomenclature as well, we also see the similarities in terms of fortress, city or suburb names. As it is the case with other countries within the region, the combination of Saxons as experienced miners and agile traders in the medieval Bosnia considerably influenced the urbanisation of the country. The wealth of Bosnian cities conditioned the arrival of foreigners further causing ethnic diversity in the cities of the region. The analysis conducted herein shows that there were no free royal cities in Bosnia, at least not in the form recognised by Europe of that time. In medieval Bosnia, ethnic rights were given to Saxons and Ragusans regardless of the city they were located in. Taking into account everything presented herein, we can conclude that the current historiography unjustly assigned the Bosnian urbanity the epitaph ‘the periphery of periphery’.

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