Ljubinje

Town and municipality, Bosnia and Herzegovina

Ljubinje is a town and municipality in Republika Srpska, Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is situated in southeastern part of Herzegovina. As of 2013, the town has a population of 2,744 inhabitants, while the municipality has 3,511 inhabitants.

In antiquity, a road ran from Narona (near Metković) to Epidaurum (Cavtat) via Pardua, in the present day village of Gradac near Ljubinje. The remains of a Roman settlement have been identified near Ljubinje. No systematic expert investigations have been conducted in the area (since 1973).

In the early medieval period the area of the present day Ljubinje municipality belonged to the large župa (county) of Popovo, constituting the northernmost part of the Popovo county, bordering the counties of Dubrave and Dabar. Politically, the area belonged to Zahumlje ("Hum"), ruled between the 12th and early 14th century with minor interruptions by the Nemanjić dynasty. After the War of Hum (1326–1329), this part of Hum was occupied by the Bosnian Ban Stjepan II Kotromanić, whose heir Tvrtko I had by 1373 extended the Bosnian borders southwards to include all of Hum. Tvrtko's reign saw the rise of the Kosača family, of whom Vlatko Vuković had already by that time begun to rule much of Hum. Hum was governed by the family through Sandalj Hranić (1392–1435), Stjepan Vukčić Kosača (1435–1466), and the latter's sons, until 1482.

The Ottoman Empire occupied the area around Ljubinje between 1465 and 1467, and the defter (tax registry) of the Bosnian sanjak for 1468/69 already included the nahiya of Ljubinje.

Under article 29 of the Treaty of Berlin of 1878, Austria Hungary received special rights in the Ottoman Empire's provinces of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Sanjak of Novi Pazar. On 14 August 1878, the Austro Hungarian army marched into Ljubinje, ending Ottoman rule in the region. On 6 October 1908, Emperor Franz Joseph announced to the people of Bosnia and Herzegovina his intention to give them an autonomous and constitutional regime. The provinces were then annexed. The annexation of Bosnia and Herzegovina was not countenanced by the Treaty of Berlin and set off a flurry of diplomatic protests and discussions. Ljubinje remained part of the Austro Hungarian Empire until the liberation at the end of World War I, when the Serbian army marched into Ljubinje.

In June 1941 Ustaše soldiers killed 36 locals by throwing them alive into a mass grave, which was part of the wider Genocide of Serbs in the Independent State of Croatia.

The Serbian Orthodox Church of the Nativity of the Virgin in Ljubinje, was built in 1867 (as recorded by the inscription engraved on a plaque above the entrance to the church). The church belongs to a type of Herzegovinian single nave stone built church with an apse and a stone belltower — a type known as "na preslicu", perched over the main entrance facade. A belltower na preslicu with three bells, made of finely finished limestone blocks, tops the left wall of the church. Belltowers of this form are one of the main characteristics of churches of this type in Herzegovina. The church is roofed with industrial tiles. Only the ends of the roof panes (of the belltower and apse respectively) are covered with sheet copper. The apse is also covered with sheet copper. The nave is separated from the altar space by an iconostasis partition. The iconostasis of the church of the Nativity of the Most Holy Virgin in Ljubinje was installed in the early 20th century. The artist who painted the icons remains unidentified. The frame of the iconostasis is wooden, and icons are attached to it, with various scenes painted on canvases. The church contains a copy of the Gospels dating from 1793, in a metal cover with two metal clasps to the side, donated from Russia along with a double sided processional icon, made of copper, by Zorka Radonjić (1901). The centre of one side of the processional icon is occupied by an embossed and engraved scene of the Nativity of Christ, and the other by the Evangelist Luke, also embossed and engraved. To the north, east and west, the church is surrounded by an Orthodox cemetery in active use, and a necropolis with stećak tombstones. About 20 metres to the north of the church is a mausoleum in memory of World War II victims of fascist terror. The Commission to Preserve National Monuments in 2005 issued a decision to add the architectural ensemble of the Church of the Nativity of the Virgin in Ljubinje to the List of National Monuments.