According to the written
documents, Gradiska was first mentioned a little more than 700
years ago under the name of Gradiski Brod. However, the life in
the area of the present town, its immediate and wider environs,
dates back to the prehistoric times.
In the Roman times, there was a settlement called
Municipium Servicium in the area of the present town, which was
an important crossroad between the east and the south of the Balkans,
i.e. a port for the Roman river fleet, which speaks for itself
about the strategic importance of the settlement at the time.
Around 1330. Gradiska was mentioned as a free town.
In the Middle Ages, Gradiska had a major importance as the place
where the Sava river used to be crossed. In 1537, this place fell
under the rule of the Ottomans who stayed in these regions until
the annexation of Bosnia and Herzegovina by Austria-Hungary in
1878. In these regions the Serbian people have never reconciled
themselves to the violence and injustice. They organized uprisings
against the Ottomans and other conquerors, successfully resisted
the enemy and came out of all the wars as the victors.
The people of this region who lived
to see the end of the Second World War found themselves in looted
places and deserted hearths. At battlefields and the death camps
in Jasenovac, Stara Gradiska, Jastrebarsko, and other places of
torture, some 13,000 Serbs lost their lives among them about 4,500
children below fifteen years of age.
In the last War for the Fatherland
the Serbian people have managed to protect their territories in
this region and to preserve the material resources. Defending
their people, their national interests, and identity, 300 fighters
from the territory of this Municipality built their lives into
the foundations of the Republic Srpska.
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