Franciscan Monastery of Saint Bonaventure

The Monastery of St. Bonaventure in Visoko carries within it one of the longest and most turbulent histories of the Franciscan presence in Bosnia. It all began in 1340, when the first Franciscan monastery in Bosnia was founded in nearby Mile — the very place where Bosnian kings were crowned. That monastery was destroyed by the army of Eugene of Savoy in 1697, but the Franciscans did not give up — they returned to Visoko a full two centuries later, in 1900, and built a new monastery and church designed by architect Ivan Holtz. The Church of St. Bonaventure is an elegant single-nave building with an impressive 23-metre bell tower, and its vault was decorated in the early 20th century with neo-Baroque wall paintings by Marko Antonini — four panels depicting scenes of St. Francis in glory that still take visitors' breath away today.

The complex also includes a monastery with a seminary, the Franciscan Classical Gymnasium, and a collection of paintings by old masters. Declared a national monument of Bosnia and Herzegovina, this complex is located right on the banks of the Bosna River.