Kozara

Kozara National Park was established in 1967 in north-western Bosnia and Herzegovina, in Republika Srpska, and protects some 34 km² of the massif of the same name. It was the country's first national park.

Kozara is a mountain of modest altitude that rises above the Posavina plain, between the rivers Una, Sava, Sana and Vrbas, covered by dense woods of beech, oak, hornbeam and planted conifers, with meadows and springs. Its traditional nickname is the Green Lung of the Bosnian Krajina.

Its historical weight is central to the country. In the summer of 1942, during the Second World War, the forces of the Axis and of the Independent State of Croatia launched what became known as the Kozara Offensive against the Yugoslav Partisans and the civilian population sheltering on the massif, with thousands of deaths and mass deportations to the Jasenovac camp, many of them children. On the summit of Mrakovica a large memorial monument was raised in 1972 by the sculptor Dušan Džamonja, one of the best known in Yugoslav memorial architecture, alongside a museum. The park thus combines its recreational and forestry role with that of a place of remembrance.