Zenica, town in central Bosnia and Herzegovina. The town stands on the River Bosna, some 73 km (45 mi) north-west of Sarajevo, the capital city. It lies in a mountainous region with poor agricultural potential. Before the Bosnian-Croatian-Serbian War Zenica was a major centre for heavy industry based on local brown coal and iron. Since the war ended in 1995 there have been attempts to restart the 100-year-old steel plant (which formerly employed 22,000 people), but the disruption of the war and the poor availability of reliable power supplies have adversely affected output. Zenica was also an important centre for the dairy industry and the processing of forest products.

There is evidence of prehistoric settlement during the Neolithic Period, and the area has an abundance of important archaeological sites. Lead was mined during the Roman era, and silver was extracted in the Middle Ages. Early written references to the town date from the 13th century. The town was conquered by the Turkish army in 1463, and almost destroyed in 1697 during the Austrian invasion led by Eugene of Savoy.

Zenica was the second largest city in Bosnia and Herzegovina before the Bosnian-Croatian-Serbian War and is at present at the centre of a Muslim area. Zenica’s strategic location at the junction of a number of important road and rail routes (to Sarajevo in the south, Split in Croatia to the south-west, Budapest in Hungary to the north, Banja Luka to the north-west, and Osijek in Croatia to the north-east) gave it special significance in military operations. The war has resulted in considerable trauma for the population of Zenica. Efforts were made to provide the population with counselling via radio broadcasts, and a television station was established specifically to support democratization through multi-cultural programming and objective information. It has been estimated that between 1.5 to 4 million landmines were laid in the area during the conflict and that these have affected over 12 per cent of households in the city. Population 128,495 (2003 estimate).