Siroki Brijeg is a town and municipality in southwestern Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The name of the city means “the wide hill” in Croatian. The city is also sometime referred to as “Siroki Brig” and among the inhabitants of Herzegovina simply as “Siroki” (“the wide”). Between 1945 and 1990, the name was officially Lištica, after the river that flows through it.
HISTORY
Ancient period
The ruins from the Illyrian period confirm that the area of Široki Brijeg had a large population in pre-historic times. The evidence can be seen on the hill Gradina on the frontier of Mokri and Čerigaj. There is also evidence on the walls of the forts where they had been in past. During the ancient period there was plenty of life in that region. From the Roman period there are remains of a fort (refugium) in the village of Biograci and a basilica in Mokri; there are remain of the forts and roads there.
Middle ages Emperor Constantine VII Porphyrogennetos mentions that Mokriskik was in that area[citation needed]. The basilica in Mokri was built and destroyed several times in the Middle Ages and it was used for its purpose. In her neighbourhood is nekrepola with stećak,which are present elsewhere. There number and size indicate that this region was (from 12th till 15th century) has been very populated and rich[citation needed]. From that period on Kočerin was kept the longest tablet on stećak written with Bosnian Cyrillic, known as Kočerinska ploča („Kočerin tablet“). The residues of middle-age fort can be found in the Bork, close to the source of river Lištica.
Ottoman rule
After the Turkish conquest in the middle of 15th century the population was mainly rural and in the mountains.
Until the middle of 19th century, Herzegovina was cut off from social, cultural and political events in other European countries.
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