The Franciscan Monastery – The Catholic Church in Mostar

We have proofs that already in 1533 there existed a Franciscan monastery at Zahum.

But the first real Catholic Church, shaped as a basilica, was built at Podhum in 1866. The first sermon was organized on March 6^th, the same year. The Catholic Church was called  The Church of Sts Peter and Paul, and was one of the last buildings constructed in the Ottoman period.

The diocese residence was opened at Vukodol in 1847, and from that time Mostar became the seat of the Catholic bishops.

The Catholics had to pretend and dress up so they did not get noticeable, so there existed periods when they wore clothes like the Turks, and sometimes also a “fes” (national hat of Ottomans).

A Franciscan library was founded next to the church, which possesses a great number of works. There is also the Franciscan collection of archives, consisting of 536 handwritings in various languages, from Oriental languages, to Latin, Croatian and Serbo-Croatian.

A new monastery was also built in 1894, and was called “the most solid building in Mostar”. The Catholic Church was entirely destroyed during the recent war, but is now completely restored.