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Gabela
Village
Gabela
Gabela
Coordinates: 43°04′N 17°41′E / 43.06°N 17.69°E / 43.06; 17.69
Country	Bosnia and Herzegovina
Entity	Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina
Canton	Herzegovina-Neretva
Municipality	Čapljina
Area
• Total	6.77 sq mi (17.53 km)
Population
• Total	2,315
• Density	340/sq mi (130/km)
Time zone	UTC+1 (CET)
• Summer (DST)	UTC+2 (CEST)

Gabela (Serbian Cyrillic: Габела) is a village in southern Bosnia and Herzegovina, 5 kilometres south of Čapljina and 4 kilometers from Metković, in Croatia. It is situated in the navigable lower course of the Neretva, off the major road linking the coast with the mountainous hinterland.

Etymology

The name Gabela could derive from the Arabic word "alcabala" (qabāla) which means a "contract" or "tax". Kabalá, qabala, qabalah, kabbalah, in Hebrew literally means “something received”.

History

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According to history, Gabela was first mentioned in a contract between the Serbian ruler Nemanja and the Republic of Ragusa as Drijeva (the old Serbo-Croatian word for ship or ferry). Up to the end of the 12th century it was called Drijevo and was an important centre for the trade between the Bosnian kings and Dubrovnik, in which goods were flowing from Dubrovnik and Republic of Venice: salt, oil, wine, fabrics, glass, weapons and luxury goods, and from the inside: wood, meet, corn, wool, honey and cheese, until it became a Dubrovnik colony known as Osobljane.

Drijeva rapidly became a port for slave trading, along with Brštanik, and this was sanctioned by law. This can be seen in the archives of Dubrovnik, where the Mercantum Narenti (Forum Narenti) is mentioned, and in the Statute of Dubrovnik of 1272, where in the sixth book there is a series of passages (42-52) dealing with the social status of slaves.

In the 14th century the Bosnian kings began to implement forceful measures against this "trade in human flesh on the Neretva" and under pressure from them in 1400 the Dubrovnik Senate banned the trade in human lives, and the transport of slaves in Ragusan ships in 1416 under the threat of six months imprisonment in the underground dungeons in Dubrovnik in the Rector's Palace in Dubrovnik, as well as a fine. Under the name Gabela (it. Gabella - "customs house") the town was mentioned in 1399.

The Ottomans occupied the town in 1529 and built the Sedislam fortress = سد الاسلام on the right-hand bank of the Neretva. It became the center of the Gabela captany (organized before 1561). In 1537 Gabela becomes part of Nevesinje kadiluk.

In the middle of 17th century Ali-Pasha Čengić rebuilt and reinforced the fort, which was also referred as Novi grad (transl. New town). In 1693 it was conquered by the Venetians who repaired the Ottoman buildings, especially in Novi grad and Džerzelez fortress, but they destroyed these buildings again when the Ottomans attacked and recaptured it in 1715. In 1718 the Ottomans themselves rebuilt part of the settlement. The fragments of the walls and towers, the ruins of two churches, as well as Careva džamija (transl. the Sultan's Mosque) which the Venetians converted into a church of Sveti Stjepan (transl. the St. Stephen), and added stone sculptures of lions, the symbol of the Venetian Republic, are all still visible.

Until 1878 it was an important border town between Bosnia Eyalet in Ottoman Empire and Dalmatia as part of Venice and later Austria-Hungary, but the role of Gabela as the border-fort would periodically also befell on town of Počitelj.

Since 1945, Gabela is a village in Čapljina municipality in Bosnia and Herzegovina about 3 km from the border with Croatia on the right bank of the Neretva river.

In the 1980s, a Mexican author named Roberto Salinas Price published a work called Homer's blind audience: an essay on the Iliad's geographical prerequisites for the site of Ilios in which he claimed Gabela was the location of Troy. This was met with quite some interest in Yugoslavia at the time, and the local scientific community was slow to react to this pseudoscientific claim.

Since the breakup of Yugoslavia in the early 1990s and the border becoming an international border, Gabela is an important point of transit, with a rail road passing through it.

During the Bosnian War in the 1990s, Gabela camp was a prison camp run by the Croatian Community of Herzeg-Bosnia and Croatian Defence Council. The camp consisted of detention facilities and a munitions warehouse. "Outside observers were not allowed to visit Gabela until August 1993. At this time the ICRC registered 1,100 inmates."

Demographics

According to the 2013 census, its population was 2,315.

Sports

Local football club NK GOŠK has spent a few seasons on Bosnia and Herzegovina's top level and play their home games at the Stadium Perica-Pero Pavlović.

Further reading

• Official results from the book: Ethnic composition of Bosnia-Herzegovina population, by municipalities and settlements, Zavod za statistiku Bosne i Hercegovine - Bilten no.234, Sarajevo 1991.

References

1. Naklada Naprijed, The Croatian Adriatic Tourist Guide, pg. 318, Zagreb (1999), ISBN 953-178-097-8
2. Salinas Price, Roberto (2006). Homeric whispers: intimations of orthodoxy in the Iliad and Odyssey. Scylax Press. ISBN 0-910865-11-6 – via Google Books.
3. Škiljan, Dubravko (1985). "Troja i kako je steći". Latina et Graeca (in Croatian). 1 (25). Zagreb: Institut za klasične jezike i antičku civilizacija Latina et Graeca: 3–4. ISSN 0350-414X.
4. Sabrina P. Ramet, Ljubiša S. Adamović, Beyond Yugoslavia: politics, economics, and culture in a shattered community, pg. 59, Westview Press (1995), ISBN 0-8133-7953-9
5. University of West England, Bristol, School of Humanities, Languages and Social Sciences - United Nations, (27 May 1994), Final report of the United Nations Commission of Experts established pursuant to security council resolution 780 (1992) Archived 2007-12-10 at the Wayback Machine
6. "Naseljena Mjesta 1991/2013" (in Bosnian). Statistical Office of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Retrieved September 26, 2021.

External links

v t e Neretva river basin
Countries	Bosnia and Herzegovina Croatia
Places	Ulog Glavatičevo Konjic Čelebići Ostrožac Jablanica Mostar Počitelj Čapljina Gabela Metković Opuzen Ploče
Wellsprings	Izvori Neretve Vrelo Bune Bregava Bunica Komadinovo Vrelo Krupac Krupac Župski Lađanica Ljuta Konjička
Tributaries	Left Jezernica Živanjski Potok Lađanica Župski Krupac Bukovica Šištica Konjička Bijela Idbarčica Glogošnica Mostarska Bijela Buna Bregava Krupa Right Gornji Krupac Tatinac Donji Krupac Ljuta Bjelimićka Rijeka Slatinica Račica Rakitnica Ljuta Trešanica Neretvica Rama Doljanka Grabovica Drežanka Radobolja Jasenica Trebižat
Lakes	Natural lakes Uloško Boračko Blatačko Deransko Svitavsko Kuti Reservoirs (artificial) Jablaničko Ramsko Grabovičko Salakovačko Mostarsko Vrutak
Hydroelectric power plants	Jablanica Hydroelectric Power Station Grabovica Hydroelectric Power Station Salakovac Hydroelectric Power Station Rama Hydroelectric Power Station Mostar Hydroelectric Power Station Čapljina Hydroelectric Power Station
Related articles	Battle of Neretva Hutovo Blato Neretva Delta Stari Most Upper Neretva Zalomka
Trebišnjica drainage: sub-basin of the Neretva	Places Bileća Trebinje Ravno Dubrovnik Cavtat Wellsprings Trebišnjica wellsprings Čepelica Tributaries Left Pilažovački Potok Sušica Right Čepelica Tmuški Potok Reservoirs Bilećko Trebinjsko Vrutak Hydroelectric power plants Trebinje I Trebinje II Čapljina Dubrovnik (BiH & Croatia) Other topics Orjen Popovo Polje Vjetrenica
List of rivers of Bosnia and Herzegovina

• Villages in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina
• Populated places in Čapljina