Maglaj is a town and municipality in Bosnia-Herzegovina. It is situated in the northern part of Bosnia-Herzegovina, in the Zenica-Doboj canton. The city lies 25 km south of the city of Doboj, the regional trade, education, culture, entertainment, and business centre. The municipality of Maglaj is one of 12 municiplaties in the Zenica-Doboj canton. The city has a population of 25 000. The whole municipality has a population of 43 000.

Grb Maglaj

The city of Maglaj never fell under Bosnian Serb control during the Bosnian War because it had a majority Muslim ethnicity. Most cities in Bosnia that had Muslim majorities never fell to the two other conflicting sides.

The town is situated in the northern part of Bosnia and Herzegovina and is situated in territory where bosniaks, or Muslims, presently form a large majority. The old Maglaj, like numerous other cities in Bosnia and Herzegovina, has an old town with mosques, traditional houses dating back from the Ottoman Empire, and a fortress that stands as a symbol of Maglaj. The new part of Magalj, situated on the West side of the river Bosna, is made up of modern architecture that was started in the 1950s, and became massively developed until 1991.

Maglaj on map BiH

The River Bosna flows trough Maglaj on its way north to the Sava river on the border between Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia. Before the civil war, the Bosna river was heavily poluted due to heavy industrial activity at the nearby Natron paper and pulp factory, as well as steel and wood industry factories in the southern cities of Zenica and Zavidovići respectively. Nowadays, the river has become cleaner due to decreased industrial activity at those plants and higher environmental standards, but ultimately will become exposed to environmental hazard yet again as these heavy industry factories reach their maximum capacity yet again.