Goražde

Goražde, town, southeastern Bosnia and Herzegovina, on the Drina River. It is an industrial town surrounded by fruit-producing farmlands. The site of a munitions factory, it also was of strategic importance in 1995 during the war between Muslims and Bosnian Serbs.

Goražde developed as a stop on a bustling medieval trading route along the Drina. It served as military outpost for the Austrians in the early 15th century. When Ottoman Turks took control later in the 1400s, the region, which had been largely Roman Catholic, was converted to Islam. Goražde had one of the first Serbian printing presses, established in the 16th century. The town was annexed to Serbia in 1918 and was part of Yugoslavia from 1946 until the declaration of Bosnian independence in 1992. Goražde, predominantly Muslim throughout the 20th century, also had a large Serbian minority. With the outbreak of fighting between Muslims and Bosnian Serbs in 1993, the town and surrounding region was declared one of the “safe areas” for Muslims by the United Nations. Pop. (2005 est.) 18,200.