Lijevče Field

Lijevče, also the Lijevče field (Serbo-Croatian: Lijevče polje, Serbian Cyrillic: Лијевче поље), is a small geographical region in northern Bosnia and Herzegovina; a plain situated between the rivers Sava and Vrbas, and Mount Kozara. It includes settlements part of Gradiška, Srbac and Laktaši, in the Banja Luka Region of the Republika Srpska entity. It is part of the wider Bosanska Krajina ("Bosnian Frontier") historical region.

The macro-mountain of the Vrbas river at the mouth of the Sava is called Lijevče polje, and the name refers to the plain which extends from the left bank of Vrbas, downstream from Klašnica, in a length of around 34 kilometres. Towards the north the depression funnel extends and it almost reaches to Gradiška, so that the Sava river is its northern border. It is roughly in the beginning of Vrbas, between Sava in the north, Prosara in the west, Motajica in the east, and Kozara in the southwest. The western border of the plain is determined by contour lines of 120 metres above sea level towards Potkozarje. The total area of the field is about 500 kilometres. The boundaries give the plain a roughly triangular outline.

Crossing over soft alluvial soil, the Vrbas river and its tributaries have changed their courses, creating numerous meanders, backwaters and breaking new beds. In 1943, Vrbas broke a new mouth of the Sava, around 350 metres upstream from the previous one. The part by the Sava is of alluvial-barred character and is partly exposed to the annual floodings of Sava.

The large ponds of Bradač and Jovač are still visible on satellite image. Matura is the old course of the Vrbas, which bed tends to move eastward. The earliest mention of this stream is from 1443, when it was recorded in a charter as „aqua piscatura Mlaterma vocata“.

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