Bosnia's Croatian heartland — a karst lake, medieval castle, and the cheese that every local knows but the world has barely discovered
Livno is the main town of the Canton 10 region of the Herzegovinian karst plateau in western Bosnia, a predominantly Croatian-populated area where the landscape is open limestone high country rather than the forested mountains of central Bosnia. The town sits at 720m in the Livno field — a vast flat karst polje ringed by mountains — with a medieval Ottoman fortress above and Lake Buško Jezero (one of Europe's largest man-made lakes) stretching for 55km to the southwest. Livno is known throughout the former Yugoslavia for Livanjski sir (Livno cheese) — a semi-hard sheep's milk cheese made in t…
Livno's recorded history begins in the Roman period — the archaeological site of Golubić nearby shows Roman settlement in the Livno field. Medieval Bosnia's western reaches were contested between Croatian, Hungarian, and Bosnian rulers; Livno was part of the Kingdom of Bosnia before the Ottoman conquest in 1463, after which it became a significant market town and administrative centre. The Ottoman fortress above the town (Stari Grad) dates primarily from this period. The 19th-century Austro-Hungarian administration built the current town grid and several significant public buildings. Livno ha…