The Town & History

Prehistory & antiquity

Traces of civilisation reach into prehistory — over 1,400 tumuli, hillforts and cairns have been recorded across the municipality. Many sites remained unexplored due to the creation of Bileća Lake. In the Roman period the centre of the area lay in the Trebišnjica valley, at Panik — the ancient Leusinium, where an epigraphic monument from the 1st century AD was found, the first written historical source about Bileća.

The Middle Ages

Numerous stećci date from the medieval period. In the 1970s, 1,724 stećci were recorded (later research notes even more). The name Bileća is first mentioned on 25 January 1387 in a Dubrovnik document. In Dubrovnik sources it appears as Bilechia. The Drina Road passed through medieval Bileća, carrying goods from the Adriatic toward the interior of the Balkans.

Ottoman & Austro-Hungarian era

Bileća developed under Ottoman rule, especially as a strategic point toward Montenegro. About 6 km from Bileća, at Vučji Do, the Ottoman army suffered a major defeat in 1876 (the memorial complex today lies on the Montenegrin side of the border).

In the Austro-Hungarian period a military settlement (“New Bileća”) was built with dozens of accompanying structures, and the town gained modern infrastructure. In 1895 Bileća had a customs-and-tax office, a military hospital and other institutions.

The twentieth century

Between the two world wars Bileća was connected by railway, which ran from 1931 to 1976. With the damming of the Trebišnjica in 1967 and the commissioning of the Trebinje I hydro plant in 1968, Bileća Lake was created, and the valley with Roman Leusinium, villages and roads was flooded. The stećci were then relocated to the new lake shore.