Pale () is a town and municipality of the city of Istočno Sarajevo, Republika Srpska, Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is situated southeast of the inner city of Sarajevo, making it de facto a town and suburb of Sarajevo. As of 2013, it had a population of 22,282 inhabitants, while the town of Pale has a population of 13,883 inhabitants.
The famous Jahorina ski resort is located some from the municipality.
The Romanija mountainous region separates Pale from Sokolac, with highlands stretching out as far as Vlasenica and Rogatica.
History Middle Ages Pale was mentioned as a nahiye in 1468, and likely existed priorly as a župa. The surroundings were held by the Pavlović family in the 15th century, with fortifications at Pavlovac on Prača river, Gradina in Gornje Pale and Hodidjed above the junction of the Miljacka rivers. The Hodidjed settlement served as an administrative center for the surrounding area. The Pavlović belonged to the higher nobility of the Kingdom of Bosnia, their holdings extended from Vrhbosna (today's Sarajevo) in the west to Dobruna in the east. Pavle Radenović, the founder of the Pavlović line, aside from his ancestral holdings around Pale also owned the mines in Olovo, the city of Trebinje, and parts of Konavle and Cavtat. The area under his control enjoyed prosperous trade between the locals and Ragusan merchants. The main trading center was the town of Prača, part of the Pale municipality today. After the death of the Bosnian King Tvrtko I in 1391 the Bosnian feudals houses struggled to gain the throne. The sons of Pavle, under threat from other Bosnian aristocrats, asked for aid in their allies, the Ottomans. The Ottomans pursued a strategy of divide and conquer that eventually resulted in complete conquest.
Ottoman rule After the fall of Bosnia the feudal holdings of the House of Pavlović were divided into 11 districts, and renamed the entire area the "Pavli Vilayet. The first Ottoman census in the year 1468–69 the town of Pale is recorded under the name of "Bogazi Yumry" as the seat of one of the 11 districts. The district of "Bogazi Yumry" contained six villages of which two were located on the plane of Pale.
Due to the harsh conditions in which the local Christian population found itself, there is very little data about the urban development during the Ottoman rule of this area in the Middle Ages. The area continued to be commercially viable and valuable to the new rulers. The town of Prača continued to grow and expand until the great fire and outbreak of Black Death in the 18th century. The name "Pavli Vilayet" continued to be used for this area until the beginning of the 19th century and the town eventually came to be known as Pale. One of the earliest recordings of this new name is a map from 1877, where the town itself as well as the entire region are labelled as "Pale".
During the 19th century the Ottoman Empire found itself under the two politically and socially completely different power struggles. In 1831, Captain Husein Gradaščević, one of the wealthiest and most powerful members of the Bosnian aristocracy, came to lead the rebel aristocrats. After the conquest of Travnik, the seat of the Ottoman Viceroy, the Bosnian aristocracy demanded that the Ottoman Sultan halt his reform efforts and keep the status quo in Bosnia. In addition they wanted the right to vote for and appoint the Viceroy from among their ranks. Captain Husein did not wait for the Sultan to answer their demands and appointed himself the Vice Roy of Bosnia, alienating many of his supporters in the process. The Sultan played the different factions against each other and in 1832 sent an army against the rebels. One of the decisive battles against the rebels took place in the town of Pale itself. Captain Husein did not command sufficient numbers of troops and suffered a defeat. The decisive victory broke the back of the revolt.
Austro-Hungarian rule
With the Berlin Congress Bosnia was placed under the administration of Austria-Hungary. During this time significant investment and economic changes were made in Pale and the surrounding areas. The new overlords were favoring the exploitation of the natural resources, primarily mineral and wood products. The town of Pale at this point becomes an important logging and wood products center in the region. According to the 1895 census, Pale with the adjacent villages had 483 inhabitants. 440 inhabitants were engaged in agricultural and logging activities while 27 were engaged in clerical work. Industrial development spurs on supporting activities. New trade shops, hotels and other service activities are brought to the town.
According to administrative records of the Austro-Hungarian administration, by 1879 in Pale there were already two modern log mills, and their products were transported to Sarajevo. With the construction of the rail line connecting the Bosnian capital of Sarajevo with its eastern border town Višegrad the town of Pale received its first railway station. The railway link enabled Pale to continue to grow and prosper with foreign investment making it possible to open several additional mills in the town. Construction of the Bosnian Eastern Railway from Sarajevo to Uvac and Vardište started in 1903. It was completed in 1906, using the track gauge. With the cost of 75 million gold crowns, which approximately translates to 450 thousand gold crowns per kilometer, it was one of the most expensive railways in the world built by that time. The line was closed down in 1978, and dismantled afterwards. In February 1907, Pale opened it first elementary School. The school was administered by the school-church board of the Serbian Orthodox Church in Pale but admitted students regardless of faith, mostly children of people who were involved in the town log mill.'
World War I
In the early months of 1914 after the decisive Serbian victory at the Battle of Cer the allies requested from the Serbs and their Montenegrin allies to attack the Austro-Hungarians in Bosnia and tie up their forces there. In October 1914 the Serbo-Montenegrin armies penetrated the areas surrounding Sarajevo and gained control of Mount Romanija. During that operation, Montenegrin units entered Pale but they withdrew soon afterwards, leaving with a large part of the local Serb population.
Those who were unable to flee were at the mercy of the Austrian Schutz corps, irregular Austrian police forces tasked with suppressing revolt within the empire. Pale was pillaged and burned down completely after the Austrian forces re-entered the town, with 54 residents lynched in the town center. In the town of Goražde, a refugee column of villagers from nearby villages such as Prača, Vijara, Budj, Podgrab, Vrhpraca, Gorovici, Hotocine, Glasinac, Podromanija and Socica were intercepted by Austrian regular forces and the irregulars before they could cross the Drina river. 48 adult men were separated from the rest of the group and executed by pistol-shot, while the remaining refugees were forced into detention camps. Conditions in these detention camps were especially harsh. Among the most infamous was the detention camp in Doboj. From December 1914 to July 1917 more than 45,000 people (mostly Serbs) were detained there. While the exact numbers of fatalities will probably never be known, more than 1000 fatalities were identified, 230 of which were from the Pale municipality.
Post-World War I With the end of the war and the absorption of Bosnia into the newly created Kingdom of Yugoslavia, the town of Pale once again struck out towards growth. The basis for economic recovery and development once again, as before, were based on the natural resources of the region, in particular forestry.
Newly developed transportation links with Sarajevo spurred growth. In 1928 the town itself became the center of the municipality. By 1939 there were more than 14 log mills in Pale which generated more than of wood products. Increased economic development spurred population growth. Between 1921 and 1931 the number of inhabitants increased from 2,382 to 11,103.
In the 1930 one could already find 30 to 40 large buildings. In 1935 a modern water supply system was put into use. The town flourished culturally as well. New and old schools were renovated and built. A community center, completed in 1928, dedicated to the victims of World War I featured gymnastic equipment and from time to time cultural and entertainment events were held there.
In 1934 the Vihor Football Club was founded, and along with it a new soccer stadium was constructed. The cultural and sport society "Soko" was responsible for a large level of participation by Pale's inhabitants in their athletic programs. The members of this club would go on to successfully compete in Zagreb, Ljubljana and Prague. In this period the town also received the first medical facility as well as a library.
By the 1940 Pale already have the looks of a small, but very well arranged city. A significant number of intellectuals as well as affluent and influential people from Sarajevo and other places in the country constructed summer homes in Pale. All of this was interrupted with the German attack on Yugoslavia in April 1941. After the conquests of Zagreb and Belgrade the German forces turned their drive towards the center of the country. On 15 April, a German motorized division would occupy Sarajevo and capture the Yugoslav Supreme Military command in the town of Pale itself. By April 1941 a complete surrender was signed. The short April war brought on a full dismemberment of the country. The town of Pale was incorporated into the Nazi-affiliated Independent State of Croatia, led by the Ustaše.
The first of act of the newly installed puppet regime in the town of Pale was the demolition of the World War I Victim Memorial as well the demolition of the Eastern Orthodox Church. All Serb enterprises were nationalized and taken over by Nazi sympathizers. The former home to the cultural center was turned into the HQ of the local regiment of Ustaše, which would soon serve as prison and detention center. Mass deportations, executions of prominent Serbs were daily occurrences. During the summer of 1941 the first massacres occurred, the villages of Njemanici and Bjelogorica were completely destroyed and more than sixty people were murdered.
Faced with this kind of mistreatment the local populace started an armed revolt. The initial skirmishes took place in the early morning hours of 1 August 1941. The occupation forces tried to brutally suppress this revolt and during the month of August more than 75 prominent town folk were arrested and deported to death camps.
In mid-November 1943 in a retaliatory expedition the Ustaše killed more than 100 inhabitants of the village of Rakovac. After 45 men out of that village reported to the Ustaše administration for the issuance of new identification documents they were all arrested and in pairs of two were chained to each other. They were transported and murdered. After they killed the men they went to Rakovac to kill the remaining women, children and the elderly. During World War II, in the municipality of Pale more than 1200 civilians were murdered, while another 350 resistance fighters were killed in the fighting.
Socialist Yugoslavia After World War II, the town and municipality of Pale, thanks to the tireless efforts of the local population, slowly recover and resume their economic development. In 1946 on the foundations of the old log mil a new one is constructed. This new mill would produce more than of wood products. The mill itself employed more than 170 in the mill and an addition 150 in the forest.