Banja Luka at the turn of 20th century

Slavs settled the area in the 7th century A.D., although the exact nature of their migrations remains something of a mystery. What is known is that the first mention of the city dates to 1494, by Vladislav II. The name means "Ban's meadow", from the words ban ("a medieval dignitary"), and luka ("a valley" or "a meadow"). The identity of the ban and the meadow in question remain uncertain, and popular etymology combines the modern words banja ("bath" or "spa"), or bajna ("marvellous") and luka ("port"). In modern usage, the name is pronounced and usually declined (u Banjaluci) as one word, and often written as such; the citizens reportedly prefer the more correct form with inflected adjective (u Banjoj Luci).

One of the first public structures after Kastel was a Franciscan monastery, built in 1378 in Banja Luka’s neighborhood of Petrićevac by Bosnian Franciscans. It was the first of such buildings in Bosnia.

During the Ottoman rule in Bosnia, Banja Luka was the seat of the Bosnian pashaluk, and the lords of the region built what is nowadays the main street of the city. Between 1566 and 1574 Ferhat Pasa Sokolovic, one of the founders of the Banjaluka’s town core, built over 200 projects ranging from artisan and sales shops to wheat warehouses, baths and mosques. Among his more important constructions were Ferhadija and Arnaudija mosques, during which construction a plumbing infrastructure was laid that served surrounding residential areas. All this stimulated economic and urban development of Banja Luka, that soon after became one of the leading commercial and political centers in Bosnia. In 1688 the city was set to the torch by an Austrian army, but it quickly recovered. Later periodic intrusions by the Austrian army stimulated military developments in Banja Luka, which made it into a strategic military center. Serb churches and monasteries near Banja Luka were built in the 13th -16th century. In the 19th century Sephardic Jews and Trappists migrated to the city, which contributed to the early industrialization of the region by building mills, breweries, brick factories, textile factories and other important structures. For all its leadership to the region however, Banja Luka as a city was not modernised until rule by Austria-Hungary in the late 19th century.

Austrian occupation brought westernization to Banja Luka. Railroads, schools, factories, and infrastructure appeared, and were developed. This led to a modern city, that after World War I became the capital of the Vrbas Banovina, a province of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. This period is viewed as the golden age of the town.

It owed its rapid progress to the first Ban Svetislav Milosavljević, who was enterprising and energetic. Thanks to him, Banski dvor and its twin sister the Administration building, the Serbian Orthodox Church of the Holy Trinity, theatre and museum were built, Grammar school was renovated, Teachers College enlarged, city bridge was also built and the park renovated. 125 elementary schools worked in Banja Luka in 1930. Revolutionary ideas of the time along the city were allocated by the association «Pelagić» and Student's Club. Banjaluka naturally became the organizational centre of anti-fascist work in the region.

During World War II, Banja Luka was occupied by the mostly native Roman Catholic Croatian Ustaše (pro-Nazi) regime. Most of Banja Luka's noble Serbian and Sephardic Jewish families were deported to nearby concentration death camps such as Jasenovac(more than 600 000 tortured and killed-Jad Washem info) and Stara Gradiška. On February 7, 1942 the Ustaše forces, led by a Franciscan monk, Miroslav Filipović (aka Tomislav Filipović-Majstorović) killed 2,500 Serbs (among them 500 children) in Drakulići, Motike and Sargovac (part of the Banja Luka municipality). The town's Orthodox church of the Holy Trinity was razed to the ground by the Nazi German occupation authorities. The city was finally liberated on April 22, 1945.

In 1969, a devastating earthquake damaged many buildings in Banja Luka. A large building called Titanik in the center of the town was razed to the ground, and the area was turned into a central public square. With contributions from all Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia regions, Banja Luka was repaired and rebuilt. However, much of the old city center that had many small buildings and shops from Austrian-Hungarian and Ottoman periods were damaged beyond repair and were subsequently razed.

The city underwent considerable changes during the Yugoslav wars. Upon the declaration of establishment of Republika Srpska, Banja Luka became the de facto center of the entity's politics, and in 2003 it officially became the capital of Republika Srpska. Some Croats and Muslims were taken to nearby detention camps, Manjaca and Omarska. Some Serb Banjalukans also left for economic reasons or to dodge the draft, in the same period and years after it. Banja Luka's Bosniak and Bosnian Croat population is now much smaller than before the war. Many Serb refugees who left or were forced to leave Krajina and the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (mostly from Sanski Most and Kljuc) moved to the city and its surroundings in the mid-1990s. Serb economic migrants from neighbouring areas of the Republika Srpska also followed suit. As of 2004, many of its current inhabitants are said to be refugees or displaced persons - according to some as many as a third of them, even though the authorities have only registered some 18,000. A number of former residents of Banja Luka currently reside in the city of Hamtramck, Michigan (5 miles from downtown Detroit).

Ferhat-Pasha "Ferhadija" Mosque (1579 - 1993)

All 16 mosques dating from 15th and 16th century in the city were destroyed in the recent war between 1992 and 1995 by Serb extreme nationalists believed to be supported by the authorities of Republika Srpska as part of their ethnic cleansing campaign. Among the destroyed mosques was the Ferhadija mosque, a national monument at the time protected by UNESCO. Recent attempts to reconstruct the Ferhadija mosque resulted in mass riots by Serb nationalists on May 7, 2001. Some 4,000 Serb rioters beat and stoned three hundred Bosniaks, who were participating in a ceremony commemorating the laying of the cornerstone for the reconstruction. At least eight Bosniaks were taken to the Banja Luka hospital for medical treatment. One of them died on May 26, 2001, of head injuries. While many mosques in Banja Luka are being rebuilt the reconstruction of Ferhadija still has not started, although the Serb authorities in Banja Luka have issued all necessary documents, and permissions. According to the Islamic Community in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the reconstruction should begin in 2006.

Many Catholic churches also sustained damage or were destroyed during this conflict. Most Catholic churches, however, were intact during the period from 1992 to 1994. Not until 1995 did the Serbian refugees from Croatia destroy the Catholic church in Petričevac, in retaliation for being forced out of Croatia during the "Oluja" (Operation Storm) military operation.