Tuzla

The city of Tuzla is home to Europe's only salt lake as part of its central park...

By Nick Last updated Nov 5, 2022

Tuzla

Bosnia’s third-largest city is a postindustrial sprawl with ancient history of salt production that has left it with some curious heritage and now that tiny Tuzla Airport has become Bosnia’s WizzAir budget airline hub, you might find yourself arriving in this refreshingly un-touristic place.

The cityscape is predominantly Yugo-era apartment towers but the old-town area has a certain modest charm that’s most pronounced on summer weekends when the street cafes are crammed and the ‘beaches’ of the Pannonica salt lakes are full of merry sunbathers.

The city of Tuzla is home to Europe’s only salt lake as part of its central park and has more than 100,000 people visiting its shores every year. It was a part of the ancient Pannonian Sea dried up around 10 million years ago, but work by researchers and scientists has now enabled a level of saline water to be kept stable at the surface, and in 2003 the Pannonian Lake was opened.

Being inhabited continuously for more than 6,000 years, Tuzla is one of the oldest European sustained settlements. The recorded history of the city goes back to the 9th century, but modern Tuzla dates back to 1510 when it became an important garrison town in the Ottoman Empire.

The name “Tuzla” is the Ottoman Turkish word for salt mine, tuzla, and refers to the extensive salt deposits found underneath the city. Extractions of the city’s salt deposits, particularly in the 20th century, have caused sections of the city center to sink. Structures in the “sinking area” either collapsed or were demolished, the reason why there are few structures in the city that predate the 20th century.

Lake Modrac is an artificial lake located in municipality of Lukavac, just outside Tuzla. The lake is an attractive fishing destination. It is a major tourist attraction for the locals.

There are eight granite stone balls in the Teocak village in northeastern Bosnia, near Tuzla. They are likely millions of years old and their origins are unknown. Some people claim they are of alien origin and there are multiple legends about them, while experts believe this is a naturally occurring spherical rock called a concretion.