Neum is a place and the associated municipality with almost 5,000
inhabitants in the south of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The Neum
Corridor is the country's only access to the sea.
Neum is
located on the Adriatic Sea in a small bay protected by the Pelješac
peninsula. The place has the highest average annual temperature in
all of Bosnia and Herzegovina. It lies in a headland five kilometers
wide at its narrowest point, which separates the southernmost part
of Croatia around Dubrovnik and up to the border with Montenegro
from the rest of Croatia.
In the area of the
municipality of Neum there are several sites from prehistoric times,
but archaeological research in this area is still inadequate. A
large number of stećci (stone graves) can be found from the time of
the medieval Bosnian kingdom, especially in the hinterland.
In the late Middle Ages, the area around Neum was a bone of
contention between the Republic of Venice and the Republic of
Ragusa. With the Peace of Karlowitz in 1699 it became part of the
Ottoman Empire, among other things because the Republic of Ragusa
wanted to prevent Venice from being further strengthened in the
region and, for this purpose, the Ottomans as a buffer to the
Venetian Dalmatia, two strips of land, including at Neum in
North-west of the ragus area. This gave the Ottomans access to the
Adriatic for the first time.
At the time of Napoléon, Neum
formally remained with the Ottoman Empire, but the French built a
road through the area. Even in the age of the Austro-Hungarian
monarchy, Neum remained attached to Bosnia-Herzegovina. In 1947 the
then Yugoslav republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina exchanged a short
coastal strip near Sutorina in the Bay of Kotor with the neighboring
republic of Montenegro for an area in the mountains. This made Neum
the only Bosnian-Herzegovinian access to the sea. Neum has been part
of the state of Bosnia and Herzegovina since 1992.
Neum is the only settlement in Bosnia and Herzegovina with access to the Adriatic Sea. It is located in the southern part of the country in the Herzegovino-Neretva canton of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina. In the north and south it borders on the Croatian county of Dubrovnik-Neretva. The length of Neum to the Croatian borders is 9 km, but due to the fact that the elongated, uninhabited, mountainous Klek Peninsula juts into the sea from it, the length of the country's coastline is 24.5 km.
Due to its seaside location, Neum is the warmest place in the country (average January temperature + 9˚C, July - + 25˚C) with a subtropical Mediterranean climate. More than 1000 mm of precipitation per year; fall mainly in winter. Pebble beaches, clear sea and long summers have made Neum a popular resort.
The economy of Neum is based on tourism, and income
comes not only from vacationers in local hotels, but also from
transit tourists traveling across Croatia to Dubrovnik and
Montenegro, and staying in Neum to shop in local shops, since goods
in Bosnia are much cheaper than in Croatia, and according to the
interstate agreement on free transit, Bosnia and Herzegovina allows
free unhindered transit to and from Croatia through the “neum
corridor” of people, luggage, goods and vehicles and no charges,
customs duties, taxes and other similar charges in regarding traffic
in transit do not apply. Residents of nearby Croatian settlements
also use this when they come to Neum for shopping. But in connection
with the possible construction of the Pelješac Bridge, along which
in the future it will be possible to carry out continuous traffic
throughout Croatian Dalmatia and there will be no need to travel
through the neighboring country, the "shopping-transit"
replenishment of Neum's budget will probably fall. In Neum, Euros
and Croatian Kuna are freely accepted along with the Bosnian stamp.
Culture
Since 1995, the largest Croatian music festival
"Etnofest Neum" held in Neum has become an annual cultural event.