The first settlement, covering the area of contemporary city, was first founded around springs of salt water. The City has been developing from a settlement of pile dwellings and there has been an evidence of living in the area thorough all prehistoric and historic periods.
Tuzla is the only city in Europe with salt lakes and the only city in the world with salt lakes, swimming and bathing area and beaches in the downtown.
Cum grano salis
Upon a proposal of mayor Jasmin Imamović, the City of Tuzla established Literary Meetings Cum grano salis in 2001 and established the prize “Meša Selimović” for the best novel published in a previous year in Bosnia and Hercegovina, Croatia, Serbia or Montenegro.
Festival Kaleidoscope
It is a special event and one is not satisfied with being a new exclusive contents or being one more among similar ones. It is an event that recognizes a new sense of openness and a dialogue between different cultures and nations in art. In four days, in the heart of the Balkans, young artists become protagonists, performers, actors, painters, sculptors, musicians designers and guests of various origin and nature, intellectuals who come from the whole Europe, from Serbia, Croatia, Italy, Holland, Sweden, France and especially from those places where conflicts prevent natural exchange of ideas. Those people will be enabled to express themselves in new manners and form, to converse and express their opinions in Kaleidoscope. Festival Kaleidoscope was not established in Tuzla accidentally. Tuzla is a symbol of a coexistence of differences in a harmony such as various shapes and colors create beautiful and unique pictures in a kaleidoscope. Looked through Kaleidoscope, film, music, sculpture, photography, dance and painting become a soul of the city, through overlapping of exhibitions, film projections, live performances, workshops, conversations with journalists, artists and essayists, concerts, happenings and other events which are popular among youth.
Biennale of Miniature in Bosnia and Herzegovina
Organized by the Bosnian Cultural Center of Tuzla Canton, visual arts manifestation Biennale of Miniature of Bosnia and Herzegovina has been traditionally held in Tuzla. The manifestation has been held in October for more than a decade and it has promoted miniature art in B&H and wider. It gathers artists and authors from all over the world in Tuzla and it connects artists of various generations and art expressions of a small format.
Centennial of Meša Selimović’s birth
The City of Tuzla, together with the City of Sarajevo, the Academy of Science and Art of B&H, PEN Center of B&H and the Museum of Literature and Theatrical Arts of B&H, celebrated the centennial of birth of Meša Selimović, a writer from Bosnia and Herzegovina, in April 2010.
Stage of Peace
International festival established in 2008 by a network for humanitarian aid and inter-cultural peace work from Aachen. The first meeting of young international theater groups was held in Tuzla and the host was Theater of Youth of Tuzla. Since then, the festival has developed and every year the “Stage of Peace“ has been held in other European city. The objective of the festival and the meeting pf youth is promotion of peace through art. The festival is held every year in September and the meeting celebrates the 21st September, the World’s Day of Peace.
Bike fest Panonika Tuzla
The objective of the fest is to gather many sympathizers of this type of recreation who are dedicated to motorcycling culture and desire to companionship. A traditional and unavoidable part of the event is a parade of motorcycles in the streets of Tuzla.
Summer in Tuzla
In the last few years Tuzla has undergone a cultural renaissance and the city structures are decisive to invest all available resources in development of tourism. According to that, the City of Tuzla has organized “Summer in Tuzla“, a manifestation which offer something for all ages.
INTERBIFEP
International festival of portraits within the fields of drawing, graphics, photography and video art portrait, with recognition and respect for all individual characteristics of authors and their styles in contemporary visual art.
National Theatre in Tuzla
National Theatre in Tuzla was the first established theatre in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Named “The First Theatre of Bosnia and Herzegovina” the theatre was opened in 1898. Today, national Theatre in Tuzla has a rich repertoire and good actors and variety of offer is enriched by frequent guest directors and actors from Sarajevo, Zagreb, Belgrade, Podgorica. Traditionally, every year in November there are “Tuzla’s Days of Theatre”. The manifestation lasts for two weeks and the audience in tuzla may see theatres from the whole region.
Tuzla’s Bike Tour
Mass sport amateur event organized by Bicycle Club Tuzla supported by the City of Tuzla in order to promote cycling as a sport and a healthy way of living. The event tends to popularize recreative cycling and to increase awareness of citizens about the importance and significance of bicycling for human health since this is an event of recreative character and not a competition.
Tuzla Film Festival
Tuzla Film Festival – the festival of South Slavic film (TFF) is an annual cultural manifestation in Tuzla, organized by non-profit organization Magic Factory which targets to promote South Slavic cinematography. A category called “Shoot with anything” targets to popularize film in this area.
TKT Fest – ‘Days of Academic Theatre’
Festival of academic theatre organized by Theatre Cabaret Tuzla. The festival is of a reginal character. It begins on the World’s day of theatre and lasts for a few days. TKT fest is rich in good quality performances of famous directors from B&H, Croatia and Serbia.
Tuzla Guitar Week
Based on the need to give guitarists the opportunity to work with top guitar teachers from Europe and the world during the summer and school holidays.
Many items from the Neolithic were found in Tuzla, among which dishes for production of salt from salt water take a special place. These archeological items confirm that sources of salt were exploited by people during the Neolithic. The oldest European cultures which used salt date back to the Copper Age, which means that the Neolithic archeological findings from Tuzla move the boundaries of knowledge about and usage of salt in human nutrition from the Eneolithic to the Neolithic. It has to be underlined that the Neolithic settlement was found in the center of contemporary Tuzla, which is a unique case and a proof that the settlement was the beginning of continuous living in the area of the contemporary city through all historical periods, from the Neolithic until today.
One of the primary objectives of annexation of Bosnia and Herzegovina by the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy was exploitation of natural resources, among which the salt from Tuzla took a special place. The first saline, constructed in the suburban area of Tuzla, Simin Han, in 1885 represented the beginning of industrial production of salt in Tuzla. Soon afterwards there was the beginning of subsidence as a consequence of uncontrolled extraction of salt water from salt rocks deposits, on which the city is located. The subsidence was on its peak in the 1970s when the city lost several thousand of housing, cultural and economic buildings. The salt is the destiny which constructed and destroyed Tuzla and determined its cultural uniqueness.
Tuzla is the only city in Europe with salt lakes and the only city in the world with salt lakes, swimming and bathing area and beaches in the downtown. The Pannonian lakes complexs consists of three lakes of various depth and size and salt waterfalls. Within the Pannonian Lakes Complex there is an archaeological park – Neolithic Settlement of Pile Dwellings and a geological museum collection “Pannonica”, children’s amusement park, sports fields, caffes and restaurants and other cultural and entertaining facilities. During its fifteen-year egsistence the Pannonica Complexs has been visted by 3.7 million tourists.
