gardens, inns and several stopping inns for caravans. In one description from the year 1697, Zenica is compared to a delta of the Nile, where melons grow and where the entire landscape is very pleasant. It is estimated that Zenica had 2,000 inhabitants at that time; mostly Bosniaks, although Serbs and Croats are mentioned in documents at the end of the 18th century and, during the 19th century, sizable communities of Jews are also mentioned.
The raids of Eugene of Savoy during the Great Turkish War during the 1680s are remembered as dark times which left a lot destruction and caused an exodus of population, but by 1697, Zenica had started to stabilise and to begin to recover its influential position.
Austro-Hungarian Rule
At the end of the 19th century, during the Austro-Hungarian occupation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, there were investments in capital projects that had wider social and economic importance, and were soon to become life and fate of Zenica. Those projects include a railway from Bosanski Brod to Zenica built in 1879, a Coal Mine (1880), Paper Works (1885), Steel Factory (1892) and a Prison (1886), all of which improved both the quality and quantity of city's development.
In the beginning of the 20th century, there was an urban boom and the official State Register for the year 1910 shows that in only a few years the number of population had increased to 7,215 inhabitants. An Orthodox Church was built in 1882, two Catholic Churches in 1910, a Synagogue in 1903, several coaching inns, a hotel, a school, sewerage, paved roads and more. The city changed markedly in character during this period as might be expected during such a developmental boom.
Yugoslavia
During the Second World War, the local population (predominantly Muslim) signed the Resolution of the Muslims of Zenica in May 1942, and formed Muslim militias in the villages of Šerići, Doglodima, Babino and other places who joined the
