Olovo

Olovo takes its name from the lead found in the mountains of eastern Bosnia. In the late Middle Ages its mines made it a prosperous commercial centre, drawing merchants from Ragusa on the Adriatic. The town lay in the lands of the Pavlović family, whose revenues from mines and customs helped sustain their power. A Franciscan monastery and church dedicated to the Virgin Mary also stood at Olovo.

Trade between Olovo and Ragusa is recorded from the fourteenth century. In the first half of the fifteenth, more merchants from Olovo entered into credit transactions with the coastal city, while its lead found a market beyond Bosnia. The monastery was founded in the later fourteenth century, during the reign of Tvrtko I. It served the town's Catholic community amid the varied religious life of medieval Bosnia.