Banja Luka has welcomed the Book Park – a beautiful oasis in the heart of the city, adorned not only with unusual horticulture but also with a monument to Kulin Ban.
Together with numerous citizens, the Mayor of Banja Luka, Draško Stanivuković, attended the grand opening of one of the five new parks and the unveiling of the monument engraved with the text of the Charter of Kulin Ban, as a testament to the Serbian identity and literacy in this region.
- Through all the parks we are building in the city, we will tell the story of who we are as a people. The Book Park, with the monument to Kulin Ban at its foundation, will preserve the identity of the Serbian people and our language, said the mayor.
Writer Ranko Pavlović emphasized that this park is a great honor to the book, and therefore to the reader.
- This is an honor to the book, and then to the reader. It is also an honor to beautiful words, and thus to human survival. This is an excellent place for holding literary evenings in the summer months, in the late hours, with the soft sound of the violin. This will be an extraordinary place for those who love romance and who enjoy listening to beautiful words accompanied by music in an environment where books reign, said Pavlović.
Professor Duško Pevulja stated that this is a great day for Banja Luka, as cities are as significant as the spaces they dedicate to books.
- Even when it seemed that the book was becoming a thing of the past, we witness that it is not, because it is a very resilient, ancient legacy. Both the Book Park and the monument to Kulin Ban are of epochal significance for Banja Luka, but also for the Serbian people in Bosnia and Herzegovina, as Kulin Ban and the Charter of Kulin Ban, being the oldest Cyrillic document, hold a special place in Serbian literacy, culture, and history, even in times when we are forced to renounce something that is unquestionably Serbian, emphasized Pevulja.