The Franciscan monastery and SS Peter and Paul’s church in Mostar have for centuries been the nucleus of religious and cultural life of the Croats of Herzeg-Bosnia. The Franciscan friars who arrived in Herzegovina in the 14th century built a church and a monastery in Mostar in the 15th century.
According to the monastery records, the Turks ravaged and burnt the monastery about 1563. The friars who managed to escape found refuge in Dalmatia where they founded a monastery at Živogošće. Despite the perils, they cared for the spiritual welfare of their flock in Herzegovina. Still, it took a long time before the church and the monastery in Mostar were repaired. The reconstruction of the church started in March 1866, and the Franciscan friar Petar Bakula supervised the works. The church was under roof in 1872, and it has been renovated and redecorated several times. The monastery reconstruction started in 1890, when the corner stone was laid. The Franciscan theological seminary was established, and this was the first university institution in Herzegovina. A rich collection of paintings by old and contemporary masters has been made in the meantime. The monastery library contains over 70,000 volumes, plus a thousand periodicals and over 500 manuscripts. The archives are very important for the history of the area, as they range from Turkish documents to parish registers.
At the beginning of October 1991, the so-called Yugoslav National Army launched an attack on Bosnia and Herzegovina by destroying the Croatian village of Ravno. In March 1992 they started an attack on Mostar. The Franciscans remained in the town helping their flock during the war atrocities. On the night of Saturday, May 9th 1992, the Serbian and Montenegrian soldiery shelled the church. The fire destroyed the church, but the Franciscans managed to save the monastery.
Despite the hardships, the Franciscans of Herzegovina, aided by their flock and numerous donators, started the construction of the new SS Peter and Paul’s church and the reconstruction of the monastery in autumn 1995.
