Pale, Bosnia and Herzegovina

Pale is a town as well as a municipality in Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is located southeast of Bosnia's capital Sarajevo. The municipality of Pale is one of the six municipalities of the City of Istočno Sarajevo located in the Republika Srpska entity of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The town Pale represents a crucial junction between east as well as west that is the Sarajevo Valley and the Drina River basin. There are building from the Roman times. However, there were several fortified settlements: Pavlovac on the River Praca, Gradina in the Upper Pale and Hodidjed above the junction of the Miljacka rivers.

The Hodidjed settlement served as an administrative center for the whole area. So, the feudal holdings of the House of Pavlovic were actually divided into 11 districts, and renamed the entire area the "Pavli Vilayet. The first Ottoman census in the year 1468-

69 the town of Pale is recorded under the name of "Bogazi Yumry" as the seat of one of the 11 districts. The district of "Bogazi Yumry" contained six villages of which two were located on the plane of Pale.

Due to the conditions in which the local Christian population found itself, there is very little data about the urban development during the Ottoman rule of this area in the Middle Ages. The area continued to be commercially viable and valuable to the new rulers.

The town of Praca continued to grow and expand until the great fire and outbreak of Black Death in the 18th century. The name "Pavli Vilayet" continued to be used for this area until the beginning of the 19th century and the town eventually came to be known as "Pale".