Jajce: The Waterfall at the Heart of the City and Bosnia's Last Medieval Capital

The City With a Waterfall at Its Centre

Jajce is a place that defies expectations. You arrive in this small town in central Bosnia expecting little — and you find yourself facing a twenty-metre waterfall that plunges at the exact spot where the Pliva river meets the Vrbas, right in the heart of the town. Not a waterfall on the outskirts, not a waterfall you hike to reach: a waterfall you can see from the town square, hear from hotel windows, and whose roar sets the rhythm of the whole city.

But Jajce is not only the waterfall. It was the last capital of the medieval Kingdom of Bosnia, the city where Tito proclaimed the new Yugoslavia in 1943, and a layered historic centre that tells two thousand years of history in just a few hectares.

How to Get There

Jajce is two and a half hours by car from Sarajevo, one and a half hours from Banja Luka, and two hours from Mostar. Buses connect the city to all major Bosnian destinations. The road from Sarajevo crosses the Ivan Pass and the Vrbas valley — mountain scenery of great beauty.

The Waterfall and the Pliva Lakes

The Jajce Waterfall (Plivski vodopad) is twenty-one metres high and can be admired from several vantage points: from above (from the bridge over the Pliva), from the side (from a paid panoramic platform, 3 KM) and from below (descending to the level of the Vrbas). The best view is from below, where the water vapour creates rainbows on sunny days.

Upstream of the town, the Pliva Lakes (Plivska Jezera) are two lakes connected by a channel where the famous Jajce watermills stand: a row of small wooden mills built over the water that look like something out of a fairy tale. They are among the most celebrated photographic subjects in Bosnia and still work — locals use them to grind grain.

The Historic Centre

- The fortress: fourteenth-century medieval walls encircle the hill above the waterfall. The climb is steep but the view from the main tower is spectacular — you can see both rivers, the waterfall and the mountains all around.

- The catacombs: carved into the rock beneath the fortress, Jajce's catacombs date from the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries and contain tombs decorated with bas-reliefs. They are the only catacombs in Bosnia open to the public.

- Luke's Tower: a fifteenth-century Romanesque bell tower, one of the last monuments of the independent Bosnian kingdom.

- The Temple of Mithras: beneath the city, remains of a temple dedicated to the cult of Mithras dating from the third and fourth centuries. Small but significant.

- The AVNOJ Museum: in the building where, in 1943, the Anti-Fascist Council proclaimed the foundations of the future Yugoslavia. A piece of twentieth-century history.

What to Eat

Jajce has an authentic Bosnian cuisine, unadapted for tourists. The ćevapi of Jajce is made with a mixture of beef and lamb and served in somun with chopped onion and kajmak — try it at the Ćevabdžinica beneath the fortress. Bosanska lonac (Bosnian pot) is a rich stew of meat and vegetables slow-cooked in a wood-fired oven. The pite (savoury pies) — with meat (burek), cheese (sirnica), spinach (zeljanica) or potato (krompiruša) — are the quintessential street food.

For dessert: hurmasice (syrup-soaked biscuits) and ružice (fried rosettes). Bosnian coffee is drunk slowly, with three sugar cubes and a lokum. A full meal costs between five and ten euros.

When to Go

The waterfall is spectacular all year round, but the best months are from May to September. In spring the flow is at its peak after the snowmelt. In winter the waterfall can partially freeze — a rare and magnificent sight. Jajce has few but sufficient tourist accommodations: a couple of hotels and several guesthouses at unbeatable prices (25–40 euros for a double). The city can be seen in half a day, but spending a night allows you to enjoy the illuminated waterfall in the evening and the Pliva Lakes at dawn.