The first public school in Bosnia and Herzegovina was founded in Tolisa near Orašje in 1823. It was founded by friar Ilija Starčević, who built a special building for the needs of the school, the first of its kind in what was then Bosnia. The curriculum was adopted from Slavonia, and the first teacher was Ilija Boričić from Cerna. In the first year, the school had about eighty students enrolled. Friar Ilija is one of the most famous Franciscans of Bosna Srebrena from the first half of the 19th century. As a Franciscan and educator, he laid the foundations for public education in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Franciscans have been present in Tolisa since the Middle Ages, and the Tolis monastery dates back to the second half of the 19th century, when the Franciscans in that part of Bosnia decided to build a monastery on Raščica. Next to the parish house, built in 1855/56, the foundations of the new monastery, which was officially established on January 12, 1876, were laid in 1862. Due to the dilapidation of the old monastery, a second monastery was built in 1923, whose centenary is celebrated this year.
The construction of the monastery and parish church in Tolisa, before the last war, the largest in Bosnia and Herzegovina, began in 1864 and was completed in 1881. The church was renovated in 1911 by the design of Josip Vancaš. In 1917, the inside of the church was destroyed by a fire, and its restoration took about ten years. The Franciscan monastery and church are dedicated to the Assumption of Mary.
(Željka Šaravanja)
