Ključ ( sr-Cyrl, Кључ) is a

village A village is a human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town with a population typically ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand. Although villages are often located in rural areas, the term urban v ...

in the

municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having municipal corporation, corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality' ...

Gacko Gacko ( sr-cyrl, Гацко) is a town and municipality in Republika Srpska, Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is situated in the region of East Herzegovina (Bosnia and Herzegovina), East Herzegovina. As of 2013, the town has a population of 5,784 inh ...

Republika Srpska Republika Srpska ( sr-Cyrl, Република Српска, ; also referred to as the Republic of Srpska or Serb Republic) is one of the two Political divisions of Bosnia and Herzegovina, entities within Bosnia and Herzegovina, the other bein ...

Bosnia and Herzegovina Bosnia and Herzegovina, sometimes known as Bosnia-Herzegovina and informally as Bosnia, is a country in Southeast Europe. Situated on the Balkans, Balkan Peninsula, it borders Serbia to the east, Montenegro to the southeast, and Croatia to th ...

Geography

The Village is located southwest of Gacko. It is separated from Gatačko polje by the Baba mountain (1,737 m). This mountain borders the Ključ-Cernik valley from the north, and Kamno brdo from the south. Considering that the mentioned hills protect the valley, the climate here is milder than in other areas in

Gatačko polje Gatačko polje (, sr-Cyrl, Гатачко поље) is a '' polje'' (karst field) within the Gacko municipality in Bosnia and Herzegovina, spanning 57–60 km2, being ca. 24 km long and ca. 3,6 km wide, in the northwest–southeast ...

and around Gacko. There are also several springs in Kljuc.

History

Middle Ages

The settlement has a historical area - the Old Town of Ključ and the Ključ Mosque (Ajnebeg-dede Mosque, the Mosque of Ključ Captains or Starica) with a harem in Ključ, which has been declared a national monument of Bosnia and Herzegovina. In 1373, the Serbian prince Lazar Hrebeljanović and the Bosnian ban Tvrtko divided the lands of Nikola Altomanović. In that division, the area of Gacko belonged to the Bosnian ban Tvrtko. The first written document in which the town of Ključ is mentioned in the charter of

Sandalj Hranić Sandalj Hranić Kosača ( cyrl, Сандаљ Хранић Косача; 1370 – 15 March 1435) was a powerful Bosnian nobleman whose primary possessions consisted of Hum, land areas between Adriatic coast, the Neretva and the Drina rivers ...

from 28 December 1410. In a broader sense, the suburb of Ključ was Cernica, which developed from a caravan station into a square with a customs house.

Ottoman period

It came under Turkish rule in 1468. After the peace was signed in Sremski KarlovciIn 1699, Ključ became the seat of the captaincy, which occupied the largest parts of the territory of today's municipalities of

and

Bileća Bileća ( sr-cyrl, Билећа) is a town and municipality in Republika Srpska, Bosnia and Herzegovina. As of 2013, the town has a population of 7,476 inhabitants, while the municipality has 10,807 inhabitants. History The first traces of ci ...

, and coincided with the territory of the Cernički kadiluk.

Modern history

The fortification in Ključ was abandoned before the Austro-Hungarian occupation. Ključ, and wider Bosnia was annexed by

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

1878, when Austrian troops entered this area, however, the region had been under habsburg spare of influence for some time. Following World War I, Bosnia and Herzegovina joined the South Slav

Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes The Kingdom of Yugoslavia was a country in Southeast and Central Europe that existed from 1918 until 1941. From 1918 to 1929, it was officially called the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes, but the term "Yugoslavia" () has been its colloq ...

(soon renamed Yugoslavia).Once the Kingdom of Yugoslavia was conquered by German forces in

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, all of Bosnia was ceded to the Nazi puppet regime, the

Independent State of Croatia The Independent State of Croatia (, NDH) was a World War II–era puppet state of Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy (1922–1943), Fascist Italy. It was established in parts of Axis occupation of Yugoslavia, occupied Yugoslavia on 10 April 1941, ...

(NDH) led by the

Ustaše The Ustaše (), also known by anglicised versions Ustasha or Ustashe, was a Croats, Croatian fascist and ultranationalist organization active, as one organization, between 1929 and 1945, formally known as the Ustaša – Croatian Revolutionar ...

. the Region surrounding Ključ come under Hum. At the end of the war, the establishment of the

Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia The Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (commonly abbreviated as SFRY or SFR Yugoslavia), known from 1945 to 1963 as the Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia, commonly referred to as Socialist Yugoslavia or simply Yugoslavia, was a country ...

, with the constitution of 1946, officially made Bosnia and Herzegovina one of six constituent republics in the new state. On 18 November 1990, multi-party parliamentary elections were held throughout Bosnia and Herzegovina. A second round followed on 25 November, resulting in a

national assembly In politics, a national assembly is either a unicameral legislature, the lower house of a bicameral legislature, or both houses of a bicameral legislature together. In the English language it generally means "an assembly composed of the repr ...

where communist power was replaced by a coalition of three ethnically-based parties. Following

Slovenia Slovenia, officially the Republic of Slovenia, is a country in Central Europe. It borders Italy to the west, Austria to the north, Hungary to the northeast, Croatia to the south and southeast, and a short (46.6 km) coastline within the Adriati ...

and

Croatia Croatia, officially the Republic of Croatia, is a country in Central Europe, Central and Southeast Europe, on the coast of the Adriatic Sea. It borders Slovenia to the northwest, Hungary to the northeast, Serbia to the east, Bosnia and Herze ...

's declarations of independence from Yugoslavia, a significant split developed among the residents of Bosnia and Herzegovina on the issue of whether to remain within Yugoslavia (overwhelmingly favored by Serbs) or seek independence (overwhelmingly favored by Bosniaks and Croats). A declaration of the sovereignty of Bosnia and Herzegovina on 15 October 1991 was followed by a referendum for independence on 29 February and 1 March 1992, which was boycotted by the great majority of Serbs. The region eastern Herzegovina found itself under the control

during the

war War is an armed conflict between the armed forces of states, or between governmental forces and armed groups that are organized under a certain command structure and have the capacity to sustain military operations, or between such organi ...

Ethnic composition

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kljuc (Gacko) Villages in Republika Srpska Populated places in Gacko