In Prijedor Municipality a culture related field encompasses actions on nourishing tradition, and values of constructed monuments, encouraging work of cultural associations, and work of theatre groups, further development of museum and cinematography related field, supporting various culture related programmes and sessions including assistance to amateurs’ art work.
It can be said that relatively satisfactory results have been achieved in the field thus far.
Main - current - barriers of culture development in the city and Municipality area are as follows: Museum of Kozara, National Library “Cirilo & Metodije”, City Theatre, “Gallery 96”, and many arts & culture associations that are active in the area of Prijedor Municipality.
Museum of Kozara has for the past few years been one of the principle front runners of the cultural life in the area. First exhibition in the Museum goes far back in time – year of 1895. At the time the museum premises had been located in “Kapetanov konak” (today’s city tennis club) and since 1893 museum premises have been located in the nowadays central building.
Museum mainly focuses on study and preservation of cultural heritage of the region. Many renowned artists have had their art works displayed at the museum exhibitions – Milic od Macve, Radovan Kragulj, Sreten Stojanovic, Branko Miljus, and many others.
Prijedor City Theatre was established in 1954 by a group of enthusiasts – theatre admirers.
Even before the war the Prijedor City Theatre was known in Bosnia and Herzegovina for the exquisite quality of its plays. Up until recent the theatre was an amateur one, and nowadays it has fully gained the status of the City Theatre.
Prijedor Theatre professionals have initiated the Theatre Festival of Republic of Srpska named “Kociceva srpska scena”, and every year under patronage of the RS Government and Prijedor Municipal Assembly the Festival takes place in Prijedor with overwhelming participation of acclaimed theatre groups from all over Republic of Srpska.
National Library “Cirilo & Metodije” has at its disposal a book fund encompassing around 40 000 books and represents irreplaceable and invaluable institution for education process of Prijedor high school students and advanced education of various scholars and experts in relevant fields of study. The library has organized many political, literary and science related
platforms and discussion sessions. The library was founded in 1864 as Municipal National Library and is located in the Museum Kozara premises.
“Gallery 96” represents the youngest cultural institution in Prijedor. The Gallery was founded by joint venture of Prijedor Municipality, City of Trento (Italy) and CARITAS of Hamburg (Germany). In a very short period of time it has become a renowned institution having organized and facilitated many exhibitions of acclaimed and influential authors, organizing and hosting many concerts of classical music and organizing book promotions.
Serbian Culture & Arts Association “Mladen Stojanovic” was founded more than a century ago – in year 1885- and was then called the Serbian Vocal Group “Vila”. The work of the Vocal Group greatly helped in creation and establishment of the Music School in Prijedor. It is worth mentioning that the Vocal Group’s hymn was written by Aleksa Santic, and music composed by Josif Marinkovic. The Serbian Culture & Arts Association “Mladen Stojanovic” nowadays functions with its many departments/sections, and the most attractive ones are well-known choir section and folklore section whose members successfully carry on the tradition by dancing and singing.
Culture & Arts Association “Osman Dzafic” was founded in 1971 in Prijedor.
Members of the Culture & Arts Association “Osman Dzafic” are citizens of Prijedor aged between 4 and 65 years of age. Main activities of the Association encompass folklore section, dancing section, choir and music section. The Association currently numbers around 300 members.
Guide through Prijedor
Prijedor Municipality can offer accommodation in a number of hotels, motels and suites. Accommodation can be divided into different categories and can answer various demands and requests of domestic and foreign tourists.
Some accommodation units are located in the city centre and some are located at the periphery of the municipality.
All the tourists who are looking forward to cuisine specialties in the area are welcome to visit many restaurants that offer national and international cuisine specialties, and those looking forward to rejoice in the night life of Prijedor are welcome to visit numerous coffee bars and night clubs – sites that meet the need of both local population and many visitors.
