Glaž

Until now, it has not been reliably determined where the town of Glaž was located, nor the county of the same name to which it belonged and whose center it was. Given that it was a town that throughout the Middle Ages played a significant role in the economic and religious life of the states it was a part of. This is evident from the solid number of sources that have been preserved about it, and the efforts to finally determine its whereabouts did not subside throughout the 20th century. Among the historical sources that give an idea of the position of the Glaž county, it is worth mentioning the well-known charter of Ban Prijezda dated May 8, 1287, where it is stated that the Zemljanik county borders the Glaž county, as well as the list of Catholic parishes of the Zagreb Diocese from 1334, where it is mentioned that Glaž the parish is situated on the border with Usora. Thus, by reading written traces, but also by linguistic analyses of the toponym, which can often lead the uninformed in the wrong direction, Glaž county was mostly situated along the left bank of Vrbas or around Ukrina. More recent research has quite convincingly shown that the county of Glaž was located in the lower reaches of Vrbas, extending along the left bank of the river towards the north all the way to the mouth of the Sava, while the southern border would be somewhere near today’s Banja Luka. However, the exact location of the town of Glaž, at least for now, remains unknown, although certain research indicates that the town should be sought along the very left bank of Vrbas. What can be reliably stated is that Glaž was located at the point where Slavonia and Usora met, which gave the town considerable geostrategic and economic importance, so a customs office for merchants was also established there.

In historical sources, the town of Glaž was mentioned for the first time on June 15, 1244, when King Bela IV issued a charter to Herzog Dionysius here. It seems that the Hungarian king’s stay in Glaž lasted that summer, because on June 29 of the same year, he sent a letter from that place to the Venetian authorities accepting the agreement between these two great rivals on the eastern coast of the Adriatic Sea. The first known lords of Glaž county were members of the Babonić noble family whose rule can be traced back to the second half of the 13th century, when in 1285 Radoslav I Babonić was called župan (prefect) of Glaž, Vrbas and Sana. In the division of possessions between the Babonić brothers – Stjepan, Ivan and Radoslav, in 1313/1314 the tribute collected in the town of Glaž was given to Prince Ivan Babonić. Since 1361, Glaž was under the control of Slavonian ban Leustahi Paksi. 

The seat of the Catholic parish of the same name was located in the town of Glaž, which belonged to the Vrbas District and the Dubica Archdeaconry of the Zagreb Diocese. The county church was dedicated to St. Nikola, which alludes to a more intensive commercial activity in this settlement. In addition, after the Pope gave his consent in 1372, a Franciscan monastery was built here, which was part of the Custody of Greben, that is, it belonged to the Bosnian Vicarage. A year later, the Pope gave the Franciscans who worked in Glaž permission to distribute the holy sacraments to the surrounding population. Glaž had its own sub-town – Srida, which was first mentioned in written sources in 1385, and its name was taken from the weekly fair that was apparently held on Wednesdays.  

The Bosnian rule over Glaž is first attested in preserved records in a document from 1404, where Dragiša Vukčić, brother of Hrvoje Vukčić, is mentioned as lord of Glaž. However, the Hrvatinićs probably took control of this area much earlier, probably in the 1380s when the towns of Ključ, Kozara and Greben were conquered, so it is usually assumed that the town of Glaž was in their hands by 1391 at the latest. In the charter of Duke Hrvoje Vukčić Hrvatinić, dated April 2, 1412, in which he ceded the town of Kotor along with the county of Vrbanja and certain houses to his wife Jelena in order to settle debts, Duke Ivaniš Petrović from the county of Glaž was listed as a witness. Of particular importance is the charter of King Stjepan Tomaš, issued on August 22, 1446 in Vranduk, which confirmed the possessions of Duke Ivaniš Dragišić’s sons, princes Pavle, Marko and Juraj, where in the county of Glaž, among others, the town of Glaž is mentioned with Srida as its sub-town. The charter listed a total of 35 settlements that were part of the Glaž county, which made it easier during later research to identify them.

In historical sources, Glaž was mentioned for the last time in 1469, after which all traces of it were lost. It is assumed that the town was destroyed during the Ottoman conquests and was not rebuilt after that. It seems that its role was taken over by the castle Levač, after which today the Lijevče field is named, which ultimately pushed into total oblivion the toponym Glaž, which referred to the county and the town.

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