Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina, January 28, 2026
Photo: srpskanational.com
The Municipal Court in Mostar, has registered two Serbian Orthodox cemeteries, a chapel, and two churches as state-owned property, prompting shock and concern among the Serbian community in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
According to the Serbian news agency Srna, the court recorded the state as owner of the Serbian Orthodox cemetery in Vrapčići, known as Kraljevina, along with its chapel, and another cemetery in Gornji Vrapčići with its church. A church in the Čelebići settlement in Konjic was also nationalized.
Local residents say they learned about the registrations through media reports. Drago Antelj, a resident of Vrapčići, told Srna that his ancestors have been buried in the local cemetery for generations, with tombstones dating back 200 years. “Our people gave the land, and we have always considered it ours and the Church’s,” Antelj said.
Fr. Duško Kojić, head priest of the cathedral church in Mostar, said the Serbian Church parish learned of the situation through media reports and immediately engaged lawyers. “We didn’t know about this, not because we are negligent, but because no reasonable person could have expected something like this, as it has been owned by the Serbian Orthodox Church parish in Mostar for centuries,” Fr. Kojić said.
He noted that according to law, the court is obliged to notify any known person with a legal interest in the property, but the Church wasn’t informed. “Apparently in 2026 the parish is considered an unknown person in Mostar,” he said.
The Committee for the Protection of the Rights of Serbs in the Federation of BiH noted that the same court clerk previously registered the Medžlis of the Islamic Community in Mostar as owner of a parcel containing a mosque in Vrapčići. “No one objects to the Islamic Community being registered as the owner where there’s a mosque, or the Catholic Church where there’s a Catholic church, but the same rule should apply to the Serbian Orthodox Church,” the Committee stated.
The registrations come a few weeks after former Grand Mufti of Bosnia and Herzegovina Mustafa Ceric called for the formation of a Bosnian Orthodox Church, separate from the Serbian Orthodox Church, which has canonical jurisdiction in Bosnia. The proposal was condemned by the Interreligious Council of Bosnia and Herzegovina, representing the Orthodox, Catholic, Jewish, and Islamic communities.
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