Trebinje Sauce

Where is Trebinje and why is it such a special place? Both of those are hard to say. After three years of travel, my kids remember this small town that we visited in 2018 as their favorite place in the world and now we have finally returned.

It’s not really possible to explain the location of this town without a bit of explanation. Before the Bosnian war of the 1990s, the region was multi-religious with Catholic, Orthodox and Muslim living side by side.

Despite attempts by the Bosnian government in Sarajevo to hold the country together, the situation quickly devolved into a religious war in which three main groups fought each other: Croatian-backed Catholic armies, Serbian-backed Orthodox armies and Bosniak Muslim armies. Entire villages of innocent people were slaughtered in the name of religion as each group attempted to cleanse regions so they could make a political claim on them.

Trebinje at this time became part of the Serb Republic (Orthodox religion) while the two other groups allied against the powerful army of the Serb Republic to create the Federation of Bosnia and Herzogovina. When the war ended, these two entities remained so that Trebinje is today located in the Serb Republic of the Herzogovina region in the country of Bosnia-Herzogovina. So while Trebinje may be a city in Bosnia, it’s not really.

Many of the populations were encouraged or forced to move during the war so that today Trebinje is mainly Orthodox despite a few old mosques in town. Some people we met here still feel bitter about the war. A local couple were originally from Sarajevo, but during the war they were forced to sell their home there and move to the Serb Republic because of their Orthodox religion. Other people I met here moved from Kosovo, another region of former Yugoslavia from which populations emigrated based on their religion.

Located in a valley between rocky mountains, a river of icy cold water runs through the center of town. On a hot summer day, there is nothing like a swim in a cold river. The town pumps some of it out into a huge swimming basin in town where local kids and families spend the summer swimming. Cafes set up shop between the basin and the river and sell beer, coffee and ice cream in the shade of riverside trees and umbrellas.

This is one part of Trebinje that appeals to NG and ND. The other is the food. For the past three years they have talked about Trebinje Sauce, a magical mystery sauce served with sausage and chicken wings at local pubs. The food is excellent, especially in the atmospheric old town where meals are served between the river and old city walls.

The kids also haven’t forgotten the massive ice creams served just inside the old city gate. This was one of our first stops on our return to Trebinje and it did not disappoint.

Is there anything to see in Trebinje? Sure, there is a sixteenth century Ottoman bridge, a semi-collapsed medieval watch tower in the hills and a mountain-top church overlooking the town, but for the kids the real attraction is the swimming and ice cream. And maybe the sauce. There’s nothing like Trebinje sauce.