Everything about the city oozes industry. So do its 115,000 inhabitants, who used to breathe in the yellow-black toxic fumes from Zenica's Lange Jannen and Lange Liezen every day. The pertinent refusal of steel giant ArcelorMittal and it’s successors to take the most basic environmental measures contributes to Bosnia and Herzegovina having the highest number of deaths in Europe due to air pollution for many years. The country ranks in the top five worldwide.
However, in an unexpected turn of events, the factory recently came to a standstill. Economically has a great impact, pilling up with the unexmployment caused by the closing of the coalmines. Ecologically, the city air hasn’t been as clean since the war put a halt to the industry. But clean air doesn’t pay the bills. Another effect of the closure of the steelfactory is the fact that the city-heating was connected to the factory, which poses an immediate problem.
It’s uncertain what will happen next to the Zenica. In a national level, EU has trying to pull the country closer the accession. However, if due to EU-regulations the industry has to close and people lose their economic perspective, this might not be a popular strategy among the citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Heerlen is in-between growth and shrinkage, between backward- and forwardleaning. After decades of urban shrinkage and decay, the city experiences modest new growth, largely because of non-Dutch citizens.
More on Zenica’s history.
The question why cannot be answered without taking the political context into consideration. Many things stopped working because of the war and didn’t start working thereafter. Is it a lack of political will or perhaps it take financial investments that they can’t afford. But it gets even worse, even within Bosnia it is impossible to travel from the federation to the Republika Serpska.
By car train or flixbus
If you’re travelling from Northern Europe, one option is to take a car train from Hamburg or Düsseldorf to Innsbruck, and then continue the journey by car.
Travelling to Zenica by train is a little more complicated. Bosnia’s railway network isn’t connected to the rest of Europe’s rail network, so this is probably one for the real train enthusiasts. If you still insist to travel sustainable, there will be a bus involved. It cannot be done without.
As mentioned before, you can reach Zagreb or Ljubljana by train, then you need to hop on a bus. I took some variations: to Vienna by train or - on my way home - to Munich with the bus and from there the fast-speed train. Also, within Bosnia and Herzegovina training options are slightly limited (although Zenica used to be very well connected to all parts of former Yugoslavia).
The last option I enjoyed. Traveling by Flixbus about 15 hours. This is quite a long journey, but it sometimes feels like a feverdream: you are in a light sleep and you wake up only to get out at the Bosnian border. Second time you wake up you are in Ljubljana. It’s certainly not as bad as it seems when you think of spending 15 hours in a bus with people that you don’t know.
In case you would like to visit both cities Heerlen and Zenica, a direct Flixbus from Aachen (nearby) to Zenica will bring you there in 30 hours.
If you prefer to fly, you have three airports to choose from: Sarajevo International Airport, Tuzla International Airport and Banja Luka International Airport. Sarajevo is by far the most convenient option.
From each of these airports, you can continue to Zenica by bus or train. Sarajevo offers the quickest and easiest connection. The other two airports are mainly worth considering if you find a significantly cheaper flight.
For chevapci restaurants, brutalist or modernist buildings and mobile phone repair shops, check out this map.