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Ostrožac
After falling under the Ottomans' command in 1577, it kept its function as fortress,
but it comes to higher importance after the Karlovac Peace Treaty in 1699. Besides
existing public part of the middle-aged town on the north, the new noble part was
built on the south side.
The biggest investor in fixing and building the fortress was Osman–Aga Beširević
who was the first Captain of Ostrožac Captaincy, since 1690 to 1727. All later captains
were from this Krajina family of beys (until abolishing of captaincies in 1835).
In the first half of the 18
th
century Ostrožac became the seat of Ostrožac Captaincy.
By its territory, fortresses and number of men this captaincy was on the first place in
Bosnian Ejalet.
Two positions were protected in Ostrožac : the fortress and the province. The crew
included all five branches of border guards: in the end of the 16
th
century 150 men, in
the beginning of the 17
th
century 136, in the middle of the 17
th
century 204 and in the
middle of the 18
th
century 166 men. The fortress had 2 bigger and 4 smaller cannons. In
the first half of the 19th century Ostrožac had 28 cannons and Captaincy of Ostrožac
had 4.150 soldiers.
Because of possessing Ostrožac for a long period family Beširević got the right
of inheritance for town and fortress. On that base Mehmed–Bey Beširević sold this
town after the Austrian–Hungarian occupation to Lothar von Berks. This man was
Governor of Bihać County in period from 1896 to 1905.
The new beginning for Ostrožac started in 1969 when colony of sculptors was
formed inside it. Exactly this colony was formed two years before because sculptors
worked in Bihać since 1967 till 1968. The colony was officially formed on September the
21
st
, 1970. In 1973 Norwegian sculptor Ula Enstad became member of the colony and
since then this was international colony. We can come to conclusion that by its age and
preservation Ostrožac is one of the most precious constructions in Una–Sana Canton
because it transcendents pre-Ottomans', Ottomans' and modern cultural heritage.