Banja Luka Audio Tours

Banja Luka stands on the Vrbas River in the northwest of Bosnia and Herzegovina and serves as the administrative capital of Republika Srpska, the Bosnian Serb entity created by the 1995 Dayton Agreement. The city has a compact historic core anchored by Kastel, a medieval fortress whose walls follow the limestone cliffs above the river bend, and the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour, whose twin white spires became the defining silhouette of the city's postwar reconstruction.

The Vrbas below the Kastel canyon is known among kayakers as one of the better whitewater rivers in the Balkans, and in summer the riverside cafes and rapids draw visitors from across the region.

Banja Luka's most historically significant mosque, the Ferhadija, was deliberately destroyed in 1993 and rebuilt stone by stone after the war, its reopening in 2016 attended by dignitaries from across the Islamic world. The city's green market on the main boulevard and the Serbian Orthodox churches that punctuate the older neighborhoods give Banja Luka a texture that rewards several hours of unhurried walking.