Široki Brijeg

Široki Brijeg is a town and municipality in Bosnia and Herzegovina, located in northern Herzegovina.

During the Second World War, it was the site of a massacre of a number of Franciscan friars at the hands of the Partisans.Fact|date=October 2007 When the Partisans took full control of the town in 1945 it was renamed to Lištica. In 1990, the town's name was again changed to Široki Brijeg.

The local football club is called NK Široki Brijeg, and the local basketball club is HKK Široki. Both these clubs are supported by local fans known as Škripari and they both achieve envious results with regards to the size of the town.

The town is the birthplace of the soccer player of the year in Austria Mario Bazina, as well as Stanko Bubalo and popular Croatian singer Ivan Mikulic who appeared on the Eurovision Song Contest representing Croatia in 2004. The town is also the birthplace of former Croatian defence minister Gojko Šušak, a naturalised Canadian citizen, and the native town/municipality of a number of Croatian politicians. The town holds a memorial football tournament in Gojko Šušak's honour each year. The town also hosts the Dani Filma (Days of Film) film festival. www.siroki.com

Demographics

1971

27.285 total
* Croats - 26.940 (98,73%)
* Serbs - 234 (0,85%)
* Muslims - 43 (0,15%)
* Yugoslavs - 12 (0,04%)
* Others - 56 (0,20%)

1991

In the 1991 census, the municipality of Široki Brijeg had 26,437 inhabitants: 26,231 Croats (99.2%), 147 Serbs (0.6%), 19 Yugoslavs (0.07%), 9 Bosniaks (0.03%), and 31 others (0.1%). The town itself had 6,864 inhabitants, 99.37% being Croats.

Twin cities

* Vinkovci, Croatia

External links

* [http://www.sirokibrijeg.ba/ Official site]
* [http://www.siroki.com/ Široki Brijeg Independent daily]
* [http://www.sirokibrig.com/ Široki Brig Unofficial]
* http://www.siroki.info/
* http://www.siroki-brijeg.com/