Neum ( cyrl, Неум, ) is a town and municipality in

Bosnia and Herzegovina Bosnia and Herzegovina ( sh, / , ), abbreviated BiH () or B&H, sometimes called Bosnia–Herzegovina and often known informally as Bosnia, is a country at the crossroads of south and southeast Europe, located in the Balkans. Bosnia and H ...

, located in

Herzegovina-Neretva Canton The Herzegovina-Neretva Canton ( hr, Hercegovačko-neretvanska županija; bs, Hercegovačko-neretvanski kanton) is one of 10 cantons of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The canton mainly comprises the Neretva ...

of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is the only town on the Bosnia and Herzegovina coastline, making it the country's only access to the

Adriatic Sea The Adriatic Sea () is a body of water separating the Italian Peninsula from the Balkan Peninsula. The Adriatic is the northernmost arm of the Mediterranean Sea, extending from the Strait of Otranto (where it connects to the Ionian Sea) to t ...

. As of 2013, Neum municipality has a population of 4,653 inhabitants, while the town of Neum has a population of 3,013 inhabitants.

Geography

Neum is the only town situated along Bosnia and Herzegovina's coastline, making it the country's only access to the

.Bosnia-and-Herzegovina Neum britannica.com
''britannica.com'', 2015-09-09 Neum is northwest of

Dubrovnik Dubrovnik (), historically known as Ragusa (; see notes on naming), is a city on the Adriatic Sea in the region of Dalmatia, in the southeastern semi-exclave of Croatia. It is one of the most prominent tourist destinations in the Mediterran ...

, south of

Mostar , settlement_type = City , image_skyline = Mostar (collage image).jpg , image_caption = From top, left to right: A panoramic view of the heritage town site and the Neretva river from Lučki Bridge, Koski Mehmed Pasha ...

, and southwest of

Sarajevo Sarajevo ( ; cyrl, Сарајево, ; ''see names in other languages'') is the capital and largest city of Bosnia and Herzegovina, with a population of 275,524 in its administrative limits. The Sarajevo metropolitan area including Sarajevo ...

, the country's capital. The Bosnia and Herzegovina coastal strip of Neum cuts off the southernmost Croatian exclave from the rest of

Croatia , image_flag = Flag of Croatia.svg , image_coat = Coat of arms of Croatia.svg , anthem = "Lijepa naša domovino"("Our Beautiful Homeland") , image_map = , map_caption = , capit ...

. This is a result of the

Treaty of Karlowitz The Treaty of Karlowitz was signed in Karlowitz, Military Frontier of Archduchy of Austria (present-day Sremski Karlovci, Serbia), on 26 January 1699, concluding the Great Turkish War of 1683–1697 in which the Ottoman Empire was defeated by th ...

of 1699. Since 1991 and the breakup of Yugoslavia, the border between Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina in the Neum region have been international borders. File:R0000460 Neum.jpg, Neum File:AdriaticWar.jpg, Promenade along Neum's shoreline File:Water polo court in Neum.jpg, Waterpolo court in Neum File:Neum02450.JPG, Zenička beach in Neum File:Neum-Bosnia.Herzegovina.jpg, Residential Neum File:Lighthouse in Neum.jpg, Neum Lighthouse

Subdivision

The municipality includes the town of Neum (municipal seat) and several villages: Babin Do, Borut,

Brestica Brestica is a village in the municipality of Neum, Bosnia and Herzegovina. Demographics According to the 2013 census, its population was 8, all Croats The Croats (; hr, Hrvati ) are a South Slavic ethnic group who share a common Croati ...

, Broćanac,

Brštanica Brštanica is a village in the municipality of Neum, Bosnia and Herzegovina. Demographics According to the 2013 census, its population was 65, all Croats The Croats (; hr, Hrvati ) are a South Slavic ethnic group who share a common Cro ...

, Cerovica, Cerovo,

Crnoglav Crnoglav is a village in the municipality of Neum, Bosnia and Herzegovina. Demographics According to the 2013 census, its population was 24, all Croats The Croats (; hr, Hrvati ) are a South Slavic ethnic group who share a common Croa ...

, Dobri Do,

Dobrovo Dobrovo (; it, Castel Dobra) is a settlement the Littoral region of Slovenia, close to the border with Italy. It is the administrative centre of the Municipality of Brda. It lies on the road that connects the Friuli Plain and the Soča Valley. ...

, Donji Drijen, Donji Zelenikovac, Dubravica, Duži, Glumina, Gornje Hrasno, Gradac, Hotanj Hutovski, Hutovo, Kiševo, Moševići,

Prapratnica Prapratnica is a village in the Municipalities of Bosnia and Herzegovina, municipality of Neum, Bosnia and Herzegovina. Demographics According to the 2013 census, its population was 52, all Croats of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croats. References

, Previš, Rabrani, Vinine and Žukovica.

Border crossings

Neum has two border crossing checkpoints with Croatia on the

European route E65 European route E65 is a north-south Class-A European route that begins in Malmö, Sweden and ends in Chania, Greece. The road is about in length. Route * **: Malmö ( ) – Ystad *Gap (Baltic Sea) ** Ystad - Świnoujście * **: Świnou ...

Adriatic Highway The Adriatic Highway ( hr, Jadranska magistrala) is a road that stretches along the eastern coast of the Adriatic Sea and is part of the European route E65. The road passes through Croatia, with smaller stretches through Bosnia and Herzegovin ...

which connects the two parts of Croatia's Dalmatian coast. Neum 1 is located to the northwest of the city, with the Klek border checkpoint on the Croatian side. Neum 2 is located to the southeast, with the Croatian border checkpoint at

Zaton Doli Zaton Doli is a village in Croatia, on the border with Neum, Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is connected by the D8 (Croatia), D8 highway. Demographics According to the 2021 census, its population was 56.Treaty of Karlowitz The Treaty of Karlowitz was signed in Karlowitz, Military Frontier of Archduchy of Austria (present-day Sremski Karlovci, Serbia), on 26 January 1699, concluding the Great Turkish War of 1683–1697 in which the Ottoman Empire was defeated by th ...

of 1699, whereby the

Republic of Ragusa hr, Sloboda se ne prodaje za sve zlato svijeta it, La libertà non si vende nemmeno per tutto l'oro del mondo"Liberty is not sold for all the gold in the world" , population_estimate = 90 000 in the XVI Century , currency = ...

was separated from the Dalmatian possessions of its rival

Venice Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 bridges. The isla ...

by two buffer zones ceded by Ragusa to the

Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire, * ; is an archaic version. The definite article forms and were synonymous * and el, Оθωμανική Αυτοκρατορία, Othōmanikē Avtokratoria, label=none * info page on book at Martin Luther University) ...

to prevent the possibility of Venice invading via land: north of its territory is Neum and the bay of Klek, and south of its territory is Sutorina with the port of

Herceg Novi Herceg Novi ( cyrl, Херцег Нови, ) is a coastal town in Montenegro located at the Western entrance to the Bay of Kotor and at the foot of Mount Orjen. It is the administrative center of the Herceg Novi Municipality with around 33,000 ...

on the

Bay of Kotor The Bay of Kotor ( Montenegrin and Serbian: , Italian: ), also known as the Boka, is a winding bay of the Adriatic Sea in southwestern Montenegro and the region of Montenegro concentrated around the bay. It is also the southernmost part of the hi ...

, part of

Montenegro ) , image_map = Europe-Montenegro.svg , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Podgorica , coordinates = , largest_city = capital , official_languages = M ...

since 1947 (later the topic of the now-resolved Sutorina dispute). The Karlowitz borders were reaffirmed in 1718 by the

Treaty of Passarowitz The Treaty of Passarowitz, or Treaty of Požarevac, was the peace treaty signed in Požarevac ( sr-cyr, Пожаревац, german: Passarowitz), a town that was in the Ottoman Empire but is now in Serbia, on 21 July 1718 between the Ottoman ...

, but then the Ottomans, tired of negotiating in vain with

for a widening of their maritime access, simply usurped the territory of Gornji Klek and most of Klek from Ragusa, which it had bought from

King King is the title given to a male monarch in a variety of contexts. The female equivalent is queen, which title is also given to the consort of a king. *In the context of prehistory, antiquity and contemporary indigenous peoples, the tit ...

Dabiša of Bosnia at the end of the 14th century. After the

fall of the Republic of Venice The fall of the Republic of Venice was a series of events that culminated on 12 May 1797 in the dissolution and dismemberment of the Republic of Venice at the hands of Napoleon Bonaparte and Habsburg Austria. In 1796, the young general Napoleo ...

in 1797, and the

Congress of Vienna The Congress of Vienna (, ) of 1814–1815 was a series of international diplomatic meetings to discuss and agree upon a possible new layout of the European political and constitutional order after the downfall of the French Emperor Napoleon B ...

in 1815, the

Austrian Empire The Austrian Empire (german: link=no, Kaiserthum Oesterreich, modern spelling , ) was a Central-Eastern European multinational great power from 1804 to 1867, created by proclamation out of the realms of the Habsburgs. During its existence ...

, which had annexed both the Dalmatian possessions of Venice and the territory of Ragusa, tried to buy back the Neum and Sutorina enclaves from the Ottomans, but in vain. Instead, it stationed a warship to block access to the port of Neum until the Treaty of Berlin, which gave the whole of

Austria-Hungary Austria-Hungary, often referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire,, the Dual Monarchy, or Austria, was a constitutional monarchy and great power in Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. It was formed with the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of ...

in 1878. Neum had been under Ottoman control for 179 years. Consideration was given to a plan to build a new advanced naval base at Neum-Klek by the Austro-Hungarian Navy. General

Franz Conrad von Hötzendorf Franz Xaver Josef Conrad von Hötzendorf (after 1919 Franz Conrad; 11 November 1852 – 25 August 1925), sometimes anglicised as Hoetzendorf, was an Austrian general who played a central role in World War I. He served as '' K.u.k. Feldmarschall ...

considered fortifying Neum with coastal batteries and torpedo craft to supplement seafront defenses (in order to prevent

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional Ita ...

raids, or worse a large scale Italian landing). The project never got past the planning stage prior to the

outbreak In epidemiology, an outbreak is a sudden increase in occurrences of a disease when cases are in excess of normal expectancy for the location or season. It may affect a small and localized group or impact upon thousands of people across an entire ...

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

in 1914. In 1918, as a consequence of Austro-Hungarian defeat, Neum joined the

Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes Kingdom commonly refers to: * A monarchy ruled by a king or queen * Kingdom (biology), a category in biological taxonomy Kingdom may also refer to: Arts and media Television * ''Kingdom'' (British TV series), a 2007 British television drama s ...

which would become the Kingdom of Yugoslavia in 1929. Under the

Karađorđević dynasty The Karađorđević dynasty ( sr-Cyrl, Динасија Карађорђевић, Dinasija Karađorđević, Карађорђевићи / Karađorđevići, ) or House of Karađorđević ( sr-Cyrl, Кућа Карађорђевић, Kuća Karađ ...

, the Yugoslav Government ignored the borders inherited from history twice: in 1929, when the Neum area was included in the

Littoral Banovina The Littoral Banovina or Littoral Banate ( hr, Primorska banovina; sr, Приморска бановина, italics=no / ''Primorska banovina''), was a province ( banovina) of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia between 1929 and 1939. This province consis ...

, and in 1939 when, following the

Cvetković–Maček Agreement The Cvetković–Maček Agreement ( sh-Latn-Cyrl, Sporazum Cvetković-Maček, Споразум Цветковић-Мачек), also known simply as the Sporazum in English-language histories, was a political compromise on internal divisions in the ...

, it was included in the Banovina of Croatia. Josip Broz Tito's federal Yugoslavia was founded on the principle, declared at the 1943 AVNOJ session in Jajce and comparatively well-respected by the ''Đilas commission'' in 1945, of establishing the federative republics in their borders of 1878, which is why the Neum enclave is now part of independent Bosnia and Herzegovina, including most of Klek (Ponta Kleka, Rep Kleka), the two islets Veliki and Mali Školj and the rock of Lopata in the Bay of Klek. Since the 1990s, Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina have been in negotiations on how to handle traffic across the Neum region, including signing a Neum Agreement. When Croatia was admitted to the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been de ...

in 2013, the border crossings in the Neum region became governed as external borders of the EU. The construction and opening in 2022 of the

Pelješac Bridge The Pelješac Bridge ( hr, Pelješki most, ) is a cable-stayed bridge in Dubrovnik-Neretva County, Croatia. The bridge provides a fixed link from the southeastern Croatian semi-exclave to the rest of the country while bypassing Bosnia and Herzeg ...

, which bypasses Neum entirely, has significance for Croatia's integrity and also for its future Schengen Area membership and the EU as a whole. It significantly improves traffic flow and the traffic connection of

to the rest of mainland Croatia, avoiding negotiating long, costly queues at Neum, and strict customs checks twice within the space of . Encouraged by the recent developments in

Croatia–Slovenia border disputes Following the breakup of Yugoslavia in 1991, Slovenia and Croatia became independent countries. As the border between the countries had not been determined in detail prior to independence, several parts of the border were disputed, both on land ...

(June 2017), the ruling Bosniak

Party of Democratic Action The Party of Democratic Action ( bs, Stranka demokratske akcije; abbr. SDA) is a Bosniak nationalist, conservative political party in Bosnia and Herzegovina. History The Party of Democratic Action (SDA) was founded on 26 May 1990 in Sarajevo, ...

(SDA) and other Bosniak political parties decided to obstruct the construction. The construction cost was €420 million, to which the EU contributed by allocating €357 million from Cohesion Policy funds. The bridge is among the largest infrastructures in Croatia currently and one of the most substantial EU infrastructural investment ever. The work was completed in mid 2022. The EU is also funding supporting infrastructure, such as the construction of access roads, including tunnels, bridges and viaducts, the building of an 8 km-long bypass near the town of Ston and upgrading works on the existing road D414. There are Bosniak plans to convert Neum to a freight port, contrary to the wishes of the local population and international laws and agreements concerning the ecologically significant and protected

Bay of Mali Ston A bay is a recessed, coastal body of water that directly connects to a larger main body of water, such as an ocean, a lake, or another bay. A large bay is usually called a gulf, sea, sound, or bight. A cove is a small, circular bay with a nar ...

, of which Bay of Neum is a part. There are plans to build a seaport, rail and a motorway and thus the Croatian bridge must have a high clearance according to the view of Bosnia and Herzegovina's Bosniak political parties. Due to the above, the Republic of Croatia has significantly increased the height of the bridge by adapting it to ships whose dimensions cannot enter the Bay of Neum at all. Today the main freight port for Bosnia and Herzegovina is

Ploče Ploče (; it, Porto Tolero) is a town and seaport in the Dubrovnik-Neretva County of Croatia. Geography Ploče is located on the Adriatic coast in Dalmatia just north of the Neretva Delta and is the natural seaside endpoint of most north-south ...

(in Croatia) further north, which has a

railway Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a pre ...

to Bosnia and Herzegovina. File:BiH Coast Guard.jpg, BiH coast guard / border police

Climate

The climate of the area is Mediterranean, characterized by mild winters and dry summers, with three times more rain in the rainier than in the drier months, during which the mean precipitation does not exceed . The mean yearly precipitation observed is of . The dominant winds come from the north, north-east and north-west. The average sea temperature (as observed in Neum) ranges from in January to in July and August. Vegetation is the evergreen Mediterranean type, and subtropical flora (

palm tree The Arecaceae is a family of perennial flowering plants in the monocot order Arecales. Their growth form can be climbers, shrubs, tree-like and stemless plants, all commonly known as palms. Those having a tree-like form are called palm ...

agave ''Agave'' (; ; ) is a genus of monocots native to the hot and arid regions of the Americas and the Caribbean, although some ''Agave'' species are also native to tropical areas of North America, such as Mexico. The genus is primarily known for ...

s, cacti) grow in Neum and its surroundings.

Demographics

All demographic data per Statistica.ba website:

Population

Ethnic composition

Culture and sport

The linđo is traditionally danced in the Neum region. Neum celebrates the feast of

Our Lady of Good Health Our Lady of Good Health ( ta, ஆரோக்கிய அன்னை ''Ārōkkiya annai''), also known as Our Lady of Vailankanni, is a title given to the Blessed Virgin Mary by devotees. She is said to have appeared twice in the town of Vela ...

as its municipal day. As part of the celebrations, Neum hosts the Music Festival Etnofest Neum. The town also hosts the Neum Animated Film Festival. Neum is home to local branches of the cultural organizations Matica hrvatska and

HKD Napredak HKD Napredak ( hr, Hrvatsko kulturno društvo Napredak, meaning "Croat Cultural Society Napredak") is a cultural society of Croats of Bosnia and Herzegovina. History Napredak was formed as the "Croatian aid society for the needs of students in mi ...

. Popular activities include

swimming Swimming is the self-propulsion of a person through water, or other liquid, usually for recreation, sport, exercise, or survival. Locomotion is achieved through coordinated movement of the limbs and the body to achieve hydrodynamic thrust that r ...

and sun bathing, beach-going, boating, and various other water-sports. Neum has a water polo club VK Jadran Neum, which is a member of the

Croatian Water Polo Federation The Croatian Water Polo Federation (HVS) ( hr, Hrvatski vaterpolski savez) is the governing body of water polo in Croatia. It is based in Zagreb. League system It also organizes the Croatian Cup of Water Polo as well as the Croatian national w ...

. There is also an association football club HNK Neum. File:Narodna nošnja iz Neuma.jpg, Folk costumes from Neum File:Nova crkva u Neumu i Hotel "Sunce".JPG, Roman Catholic church in Neum File:Hutovo, trosky.jpg, Hutovo fortress ruins File:Neum02465.JPG, Stećak from Neum

Tourism

Neum area has steep hills, stone-sandy beaches, and several large tourist hotels. Neum has about 5,000 beds for tourists, 1,810 in hotels with the remaining capacity in motels, villas, and private accommodation.

Tourism Tourism is travel for pleasure or business; also the theory and practice of touring, the business of attracting, accommodating, and entertaining tourists, and the business of operating tours. The World Tourism Organization defines tourism mor ...

in Neum is active only in the coastal region. Prices tend to be lower than in neighbouring