Bosnie-Herzégovine

The National Folklore Ensemble “Kolovit” was founded in 1992 by the Gradiska Cultural Center. It was about organizing cultural and artistic activities, developing social values, nurturing tradition, friendship and solidarity between peoples. The ensemble has twenty-six choreographies in its repertoire accompanied by all national costumes.

 

The ensemble has participated in various folk festivals abroad. Every year, around ten trips are made outside the borders of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The costumes used are specimens collected in the provinces and reconstructed from museum samples. The troupe is able to show original folk costumes with around thirty different pieces from different regions. The musical instruments are the accordion, the violin, the flute, the guitar and the tambour-goč.

 

Bosnia and Herzegovina is located in the Western Balkans in southeastern Europe. It borders theCroatia to the north, northwest and south, theSerbia to the east and theMontenegro At the South-East. In the far south, in the commune ofNeum, it opens into theAdriatic Sea about twenty kilometers.

 

About two-fifths of the country is forested with pine, beech and oak. Bosnia and Herzegovina belongs to the group of European countries with the greatest forest wealth. Agricultural land represents a little less than half of the territory. Northern Bosnia contains very fertile land along the river Save. The southern part of the country consists mainly of rocky hills and flat arable land with a Mediterranean climate. Bosnia offers a wide choice of landscapes, with forested mountain ranges, untouched forests, lakes, lush rivers and waterfalls.

 

 Bosnia and Herzegovina consists of two geographical and historical units : the largest part Bosnia to the north, mountainous and covered with thick forests, and the smallest part Herzegovina to the south, consisting of rocky hills and agricultural land. The country is mainly mountainous, encompassing the Dinaric Alps power stations. The highest point of the country is the peak of Maglic at 2,386 meters on the border of Montenegro.

 

Bosnia and Herzegovina, whose capital is Sarajevo, is a Republic federal of nearly three and a half million inhabitants. They are divided into three main ethnic groups who speak the same South Slavic language : the Chtokavian. These three peoples are designated as “constituent peoples” by the constitution, and defined according to their history and cultural traditions : Muslim Sunni for the Bosnians,Christian Catholic for the Croats and Orthodox Christian for the Serbs.

 

This new country, within territorial Europe, sends us its extraordinary national ensemble. You will discover in his show, while peace is still fragile in these lands, that the indigenous peoples of Bosnia and Herzegovina form an extraordinary kaleidoscope of ancestral traditions.