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Why name of hotel Katarina?
In honour and glory of Queen Katarina Kosaca Kotromanic who was a Bosnian queen as the wife of lust but one Bosnian King Stjepan Tomaš. She was a daughter of Stjepan Vukčić Kosača, duke of Hum, who was called Herzog in charter of Friedrich III (German-Roman Emperor).He liked this word so much that he calls himself in all documents Herceg and that is origin of word Hercegovina.
Katarina Kosača Kotromanović was born c.1425 in Blagaj near Mostar, the seat of her mighty father Stjepan Vukčić, most powerful amongst Bosnian nobility, and died on November 25, 1478 exiled in Rome.Her childhood and life coincided with a difficult period for the Bosnian kingdom. Turks attacked periodically, looting and burning and giving a clear sign that they intended to conquer it all together.
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In 1446, she was given in marriage to the illegitimate son of Stjepan Ostoja, Stjepan Tomaš, to strengthen the ties between the Bosnian royal house and Bosnia's nobility at the time when Count Herman II of Celje and Zagorje, son of Herman I of Celje and Katarina of Bosnia (who, in turn, was a daughter of Vladislav Kotromanić), was poised to claim the Bosnian throne, and the Ottoman threat to Bosnia was looming.
Stjepan Tomaš was in a difficult position. His own brother, Radivoj Ostojić, supported by the Ottomans, was also claiming rights to the throne, referring to himself as Bosnian king, while Bosnian nobility considered his origins and marriage to a commoner, Vojača, unfit for a king. Tomaš sought support from the Pope, and in exchange for recognition of himself as a legitimate ruler of Bosnia and denunciation of the heretic Bosnian Church, he was crowned in 1445. In another political masterstroke, he married Katarina in a Catholic ceremony in May of 1446 ensuring, at least for a short while, the support of the most powerful nobleman in the kingdom and a staunch supporter of the Bosnian Church, Stjepan Kosača.
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Having moved to Kraljeva Sutjeska, the seat of Bosnian kings, Katarina gave birth to son Sigismund (also referred to as Šimun), in 1449, and daughter Katarina in 1459. During this time, her husband, under pressure from the Catholic Church, embarked on widespread persecution of the followers of the Bosnian Church once again colliding with the Bosnian nobility and people. Some 40,000 followers of the Bosnian Church found refuge in the lands controlled by Katarina's father, who, having received the title of Herzeg from the Holy Roman Emperor Friedrich III in 1448 and with the blessing of Sultan Mehmed II the Conqueror, once again found himself on the collision course with his son-in-law.
While Queen Katarina escaped to Kozograd, and then to Konjic, Ston and Dubrovnik, her children were taken to Turkey and converted to Islam. It appears that she never heard from them again, but hoped until the end of her days that they would be freed. During the entire time that she lived in Rome, she thought about the liberation of her kingdom, and in particular the liberation of her two weak children who were taken to Istanbul to the sultan's court in the Islamic faith. Her daughter Katarina died in Skoplje, where Isa-beg Ishaković, founder of Sarajevo and Novi Pazar, erected her a tombstone. It stood there until the earthquake of 1963, but has not been repaired since. However, the tradition of visiting the young Katarina's grave and lighting candles there remains alive. |
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The unfortunate Queen Katarina carried with her the symbols of the Bosnian royal house, hoping her kingdom was eventually going to be restored. Having spent some time in Dubrovnik, she travelled back to her parental home in Blagaj, but found her ailing father feuding with her brothers Vlatko and Vladislav. With Herzeg Stjepan, she, once again, left for Dubrovnik. Herzeg Stjepan, however, died in 1466 in Novi (today Herceg Novi), and Katarina accepted the invitation of the Catholic Church to move to Rome. In Dubrovnik, she is said to have left the sword of her late husband to be delivered to her son if he comes back from captivity. Decisive role in creating mith of Queen Katarina trough history had Franciscan monks. They were spreding stories where they emphasise sharing pain and suffering of Queen Katarina and Croatian people.This truly unhappy women was used by politicians and teologist as an argument to proove Croatian character of Bosnia and Hercegovina.
The Catholic Church seems to have been the only institution that still recognised Katarina as the 'legitimate queen'. However, her influence through noble connections seems to have been wider, since she is noted to have attended the wedding of Serbian Princess Jelena and Russian Duke Ivan III, also known as Ivan the Great.
In her will she left all of the kingdom to the Holy See, but only should her children 'not return to the Christian faith'.
Catholics from the region (mostly Croats) often visit her tomb in the Roman church of Santa Maria in Aracoeli. Her tombstone features a life-size portrait with the emblems of the houses of Kotromanić and Kosača to each side.
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