Mehmed’s Church or the Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary at the very entrance to the Kozara National Park near Prijedor for more than a century has witnessed the tragic love story of the beautiful Austrian Mary Schmutzer and Mehmed Kulasic. Young people from all over the former Yugoslavia came and continue to come to this “Hill of Love”, on which this symbol of tragic love is located.
Mehmed’s church was completely demolished in the last war, and it was rebuilt and opened for visitors in 2011. It was restored with the help of the locals of all nationalities of the area. The small church in the National Park above Prijedor is also a symbol of the unity that was brought back to Kozarac by the tragic love story of Mary and Mehmed. All the locals, of all nationalities participated in the renovation. The story of the great love continued in the renovated church.
Believers come to this place today at the time of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary on September 8th, and throughout the year, young couples in love from all parts of the former Yugoslavia visit the “Hill of Love”.
Archaeologist Milenko Radivojac in Prijedor is known as a chronicler of the city, but also as a “living encyclopedia”, as his fellow citizens say. While standing in front of Mehmed’s church, he says that it is a locality that has a beautiful story, a somewhat tragic love story.
“A story that can be part of a legend, but also has a historical basis. Namely, in the eighties of the last century, the journalist Gojko Banovic first published a story about forbidden love and Mehmed’s church. From his story came all the other stories that were told later,” Radivojac stated.
The story begins in 1882 when Prijedor almost burned down in a big fire. At that time, more than 400 residential buildings burned down.
“At that time, the Austrian authorities approved a certain Karl Schmutzer to open a large sawmill in this area, as there was a huge forest there. The sawmill was opened in 1883 and it is, in a way, the first industrial facility in the Prijedor area,” said Radivojac.
Schmutzer had two sons and a daughter, Mary. He employed the local population as a workforce.
“One guy, Mehmed Kulasic, stood out among them, who played the accordion beautifully. He entertained all the workers with his songs. As it usually happens, the beautiful Mary fell in love with Kulasic. Mary became pregnant during that secret love, and it was secret because he was a Bosniak, and she was a beautiful Austrian,” Radivojac emphasized.
The two met secretly on a hidden hill above the sawmill, the so-called Hill of Love.
Mary’s father could not come to terms with his daughter’s decision, especially when a child was born from that forbidden love.
The unfortunate part of this story is that the locals found a dead newborn baby wrapped in a newspaper and buried in the ground, which caused great commotion and embarrassment, and since the newspaper was Austrian, the Schmutzer family was suspected. In the legend, it was never really determined whether the baby was stillborn or killed, but it is said to be certain that the child was really Mary’s.
Due to shame and embarrassment, the owner of the sawmill, Karl Schmutzer, sends his daughter back to Austria, fires Mehmed, or, as some say, transfers him to the work of a manual laborer. It is said that at night in Kozarac, only his songs were heard; he sang the songs that Mary loved.
In order to atone for his sins, Schmutzer decided to build first a chapel, and then a church in 1901, and shortly afterward, in the twenties or thirties, he went to Austria as well.
He decided to leave after seeing that the locals, aware of everything that had happened, named the church he built – “Mehmed’s Church”, N1 reports.
E.Dz.
