Mariastern Trappist Monastery (Marija Zvijezda)
The 1869 abbey that gave Banja Luka its first electric light, its first printing press and the world-famous trapist cheese.
On the bank of the Vrbas at Delibašino Selo, just outside Banja Luka, stands the abbey that gave the city its first electric light, its first printing press and a cheese known across Europe — the Trappist monastery of Marija Zvijezda.
The monastery was founded in 1869 by the Austrian Trappist Franz Pfanner, who arrived with a handful of monks on 21 June that year at land bought in Delibašino Selo beside the Vrbas river. He named it Marija Zvijezda (German Mariastern, "Star of Mary") in gratitude to the Mariastern Cistercian convent in Lusatia, which had helped fund the purchase.
The Trappists belong to the Order of Cistercians of the Strict Observance, a monastic community guided by the motto Ora et labora — "Pray and work." That principle shaped the abbey, which grew alongside its life of prayer into one of the region's most important industrial centres.
The world's largest Trappist abbey
By the early 20th century around 200 monks lived here, making Marija Zvijezda the largest Trappist abbey in the world. The community built a mill, a brewery, a cheese dairy, a brickworks and a sawmill, and in 1891 the first printing press in Banja Luka.
Trapist cheese
The abbey's most famous product is trapist, a semi-hard cheese the monks began making in 1882. The recipe was brought from France, and the cheese takes its name from the Trappist order that spread it. Trapist was exported throughout Austria-Hungary and beyond, its recipe kept secret and passed on by word of mouth. Production lapsed late in the 20th century and was revived in 2008.
Brewery and first electricity
The monastery brewery, built in the late 19th century, is regarded as the forerunner of today's Banja Luka brewery. To power their workshops the Trappists built one of the first hydroelectric plants in Bosnia and Herzegovina on the Vrbas. The first light bulb lit up in the abbey on 27 March 1899 — Banja Luka had electricity before Zagreb and Sarajevo — and by 1910 a 300-horsepower turbine was lighting the entire city.
The monastery today
After the Second World War much of the complex was nationalised, and the main abbey building was turned into an orthopaedic clinic. The site was declared a National Monument of Bosnia and Herzegovina in 2004. Today only two monks remain, continuing monastic life and preserving the tradition of the celebrated trapist cheese.