Prijedor (Serbian Cyrillic: Приједор, pronounced [prijěːdor] ⓘ) is a city in the entity of Republika Srpska, Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Prijedor is known for its mixed religious heritage comprising Eastern Orthodox Christianity, Roman Catholicism and Islam.

The city lies on the alluvial terrain created by the Sana river and its tributaries on the southwestern hillsides of the Kozara mountain.

In the pre-Roman and Roman times the area was settled by a large Illyrian tribe, the Maezaei,[5] a sub-tribe of the Pannonians, renowned for their mining skills.

Prijedor is mentioned for the first time as a small wooden fort in the list of those places in the Ottoman Empire that were devastated by Croatian troops between 1693 and 1696.

[6] In this part of Bosnia a large number of fortifications were constructed in order to protect often contested borders with Austria.

The first mention of the city, being referred to as “Palanka Praedor”, was in a Latin written report of an Austrian field marshal about fortified settlements that were burnt between 1693 and 1696.

At the same place in the middle of the 18th century, a new fortress appeared, this time built with stone walls, three towers and two clay causeways for the cannons.

Archives from Istanbul dating back to 1745 tells about two town guards crossing over to the newly built Palanka Pridorska Ada (island).

A huge fire in 1882 destroyed 119 houses, 56 big commercial stores, schools, an Eastern Orthodox church, and 140 families lost roofs over their heads.

The next year the Austrian authorities opened a large sawmill at the bottom of the mountain Kozara, which is the first industrial object in the history of Prijedor.

The wood was replaced with modern building materials, the streets were designed at the right angles and the first town plan was created.

The end of the First World War created a fledgling state—the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes—with Bosnia and Herzegovina as a part of it.

The memorial centre Mrakovica at Kozara, the work of the academic artist Dušan Džamonja, is dedicated to this region's Yugoslav Partisans and predominantly Serb civilians killed or deported to Ustaše concentration camps during the German-Ustaše-Hungarian Kozara Offensive from June to July 1942, during World War II.

[citation needed] During the Bosnian War (1992–1995), the area near Prijedor housed the Omarska, Keraterm, and Trnopolje camps established in 1992 for the Bosniak and Croat population.

[15] Prijedor is a large service and industrial centre and hosts some of the largest companies in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The following table gives a preview of total number of registered people employed in professional per their core activity (as of 2018):[16] The city today hosts the Bosnian headquarters of the ArcelorMittal Steel Company, which is the world's largest steel company, with over 320,000 employees in more than 60 countries.

Prijedor also contains companies specialized in the chemical industry such as Ferrox A.D., producing iron oxides and pigments.

Prijedor has a various number of galleries, religious sights, libraries, statues, fountains, national monuments, cinemas and a city theater.

Due to this Prijedor has a large number of mosques in the city centre, one of the oldest dating back to the 16th and 17th century.

A trade and tourist event where local honey producers from the Prijedor area and beyond gather at the square in the main street to sell and demonstrate their products.

International Chorus Festival – Zlatna Vila: This cultural event is held in The National Theatre of Prijedor every May and it represents a competition in choral singing.

Parachutists from different countries take part in this event, and competitions are organised in various categories: women, men, juniors and teams.

[21] The local football club, FK Rudar Prijedor, plays in the second tier of Bosnia and Hercegovina, The First League of the Republika Srpska.

[22] Every summer since 1967 the Club organizes tennis tournaments in memory of Dr. Mladen Stojanovic (previously Memorijal, now called Prijedor Open).

Una-Sana  Central Bosnia Posavina  Herzegovina-Neretva Tuzla  West Herzegovina Zenica-Doboj  Sarajevo Bosnian Podrinje Canton 10