were devastated by Croatian troops between 1693 and 1696. These regions were under Ottoman dominion until 1878. About 200 years ago in this part of Bosnia a large number of fortifications were constructed in order to protect often contested borders with Austria. Later on, many fortifications were destroyed during the Austro-Ottoman War as the borders moved towards the east and south in favor of Austria. The first mention of the town, which refers to it as “Palanka Praedor” in a Latin written report of an Austrian field marshal about burnt fortified settlements, occurs between 1693 and 1696. The term “Palanka” indicates a wooden fortification built on an artificially created island on the river Sana. It is not clear how Prijedor got its name, but there are two theories. One of them refers to the term “prodor” in the local tongue meaning penetration or penetration of the Sana river, which often flooded the entire area. The second theory concerns a race between a man and a horse (a horse is commonly known as “Doro”). As the man won, it is said that the man reached the finish line before the horse, in the local language “Prije Dore”. At the same place in the middle of the 18th century, a new fortress appeared, this time built with stone walls, three towers and two clay causeways for the cannons. An archived information from Istanbul dated 1745 tells about two town guards crossing over to the newly built Palanka Pridorska Ada (island). It is the first mention of the fortress on the river Sana where the town developed later. With the emergence of the fortification, the settlement outside of the walls began to develop at the same time. The settlers were probably a Christian population who lived in the vicinity and whose settlements rapidly merged with the town as it expanded to the north. Attesting to this is an account of an Austrian secret agent about the existence of the town for the purposes of the Austrian army, in which he described the town in detail and especially emphasized the suburb in its vicinity. The town started to develop rapidly thanks to the navigability of the Sana River, the development of commerce and craft, and the later construction of the first railway through Prijedor. The first railroad in Bosnia and Herzegovina was built in 1873 next to Prijedor and went from Dobrljina to Banja