October 26, 1969 - Banja Luka Earthquake On October 26, 1969, at 2:55 am, a devastating 6.4 earthquake occurred in Banja Luka. The tremors lasted for several hours, the last of which - and the strongest - occurred at 4:36 PM, that is, almost fourteen hours after the first. The epicenter was actually located near Banja Luka - that's why the earthquake turned out to be so strong. There were deaths - a dozen and a half people actually lost their lives, most of them in one building. More than 1,100 people were injured and almost all the buildings in the city were damaged. Due to the destruction in the schools, children had to urgently move to schools in other cities - and study there. But here the ground arose for help from other countries - for example, the Bulgarians built a school, named in honor of the Bulgarian revolutionary Georgi Rakovsky, and Holland did not attach any ideological meaning to the new school built with the participation of this country - it was simply called "Holland". Some of the buildings, unfortunately, had to be completely demolished to rebuild new buildings. And in Kraina square, a "crooked clock" was installed, which serves as a reminder of the earthquake. They show the time 9:11 stopped on October 27, 1969. And in the early 1970s, the director Bernimir Jankovic made a film based on the earthquake in Banja Luka - "A day long than a year", whose plot is built around a group of prisoners who were released from prison to help rebuild the city after the earthquake according to the word of honor to return. And they did come back, proud that "they were given a chance to be human, they were given trust", as one of the characters explained at the end of the film. Balkanist.

October 26, 1969 - Banja Luka Earthquake On October 26, 1969, at 2:55 am, a devastating 6.4 earthquake occurred in Banja Luka. The tremors lasted for several hours, the last of which - and the strongest - occurred at 4:36 PM, that is, almost fourteen hours after the first. The epicenter was actually located near Banja Luka - that's why the earthquake turned out to be so strong. There were deaths - a dozen and a half people actually lost their lives, most of them in one building. More than 1,100 people were injured and almost all the buildings in the city were damaged. Due to the destruction in the schools, children had to urgently move to schools in other cities - and study there. But here the ground arose for help from other countries - for example, the Bulgarians built a school, named in honor of the Bulgarian revolutionary Georgi Rakovsky, and Holland did not attach any ideological meaning to the new school built with the participation of this country - it was simply called "Holland". Some of the buildings, unfortunately, had to be completely demolished to rebuild new buildings. And in Kraina square, a "crooked clock" was installed, which serves as a reminder of the earthquake. They show the time 9:11 stopped on October 27, 1969. And in the early 1970s, the director Bernimir Jankovic made a film based on the earthquake in Banja Luka - "A day long than a year", whose plot is built around a group of prisoners who were released from prison to help rebuild the city after the earthquake according to the word of honor to return. And they did come back, proud that "they were given a chance to be human, they were given trust", as one of the characters explained at the end of the film. Balkanist.