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History
The evidence of the remotest past of the settlements
which has existed in the area of the present-day Tuzla are the remains
of archeologically found and investigated cultural layers. The found
remains of oldest material culture provide evidence that Tuzla with its
close surroundings is one of the oldest settlements in
Bosnia-Herzegovina, and that the area of Tuzla's
salt water
springs has uninterruptedly been inhabited from earliest
times - the younger neolithic age to the present day. Starting from the
neolithic age to the present day, settlement of Tuzla was always related
to its salt resources. The oldest written records behind by the Greeks
Aristotle and Strabo say so, also providing that the Ancient Greeks new
the region of Tuzla. In his historic writings, the Byzantine historian
and cezar Constantine Porfirogenet, around the year 950 mentions the
existence of Tuzla's salt water springs and settlements surrounding
them.
Tuzla was named after its natural resource - SALT.
The present day name is derived from the Turkish word TUZ meaning salt.
For several many rulers from Byzantinium, Austra-Hungary,
Middle Age Bosnia changed in this area. The region was first occupied by
the Turks in 1460, and somewhat later - in 1474 the occupation was
definite. Within the Bosnian vilayet, Tuzla was under the administrative
government of the Zvornik sanjak and it was granted a status of quadiluk
with a domicile first in Gornja Tuzla, which was moved to Tuzla proper
around the middle of XVII century.
Under the Turkish rule, the importance of the
settlement is increasing. In the early XVIII century Tuzla becomes the
domicile of the captain. due to the reform of the Turkish
administration, a freer development of the town economy and the
introduction of modern crafts, Tuzla developed into the administrative
center of the Zvornik sanjak, and had become an important traffic,
millitary and cultural center of
north - east
Bosnia.Towards the end of the Turkish rule, Tuzla had
approximately 5000 inhabitants and it was on of the bigger towns in
Bosnia.
The first document recording the exploitation of
Tuzla's salt water springs dates from 1548. Salt was produced the whole
year. Salt wells were located on the present-day
Salt square.
In the close vicinity of the welles fires were burning which were built
on a lot of firewood. The daily salt production in Donja Tuzla was
approximately 250kg, and 300 kg in Gornja Tuzla.
In the early XVIII century a rectangular
fortification was built in the town, with high walls and with one
lookout on each wall, with the main tower inside the walls. The
settlement was surrounded by an outer wall with four gates. The
fortification was destroyed in 1870. Many buildings have remained in
Tuzla from the of the Turkish rule, built as memorials by prominent
Turks. Several mosques have been preserved to the present day.
Turalibeg's
mosque with a stone minaret, AK - mosque in Gornja Tuzla
(both dating from the XVI century), Haji-Hasan's Mosque and the Jalta
Mosque.
In 1826 the first schools were opened in Tuzla, the
first hospital "Hastahana" was opened in 1874, and six years before the
"Hastahana" was established, the first pharmacy began to operate.
After Austria-Hungary overtook the political control
and the economic development of Bosnia, Tuzla became an integral part of
its economy. As its administration was established, a more up-to-date
methods for salt and coal exploitation were introduced.
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