Mostar Gymnasium

Gimnazija Mostar (František Blažek) Гимназија Мостар
Location
Španski trg 1 Mostar Bosnia and Herzegovina
Information
Type	Gymnasium
Established	1893
Principal	Ankica Čović
Age range	14–19
Language	Bosnian and Croatian (mutually intelligibile)
Website	www.gimnazijamostar.ba

Gimnazija Mostar (Cyrillic: Гимназија Мостар) is a gymnasium in Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina. Formerly called Gimnazija "Aleksa Šantić" (Гимназија "Алекса Шантић") in honour of the eponymous poet, it is nowadays popularly referred to as Stara gimnazija (The Old Gymnasium).

The first gymnasium in Bosnia and Herzegovina was established in 1879 in Sarajevo, capital of the Austro-Hungarian Condominium of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Mostar, the largest city of the Herzegovina region in the south of the Condominium, was by then a developed education centre, second only to the capital. It had a merchants' school, 18 primary schools (two secular schools, one Orthodox, one Catholic girls' school, 4 Muslim boys' schools and 10 Muslim girls' schools), a private German school and a kindergarten. None of the schools, however, prepared students for a higher education, forcing parents to send their minor children to Sarajevo.

In February 1893, the local branch of the Serbian Orthodox Church appealed to the National Government of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The government was concerned that the student body would be too small, expecting Muslims (the most numerous religious group in Mostar) not to be interested. The Orthodox clergymen thus pointed out that their desire was shared by Catholics. The National Government would only allow a lower gymnasium, but the superior Ministry of Finance of Austria-Hungary ordered that the new school be a full gymnasium and opened within 1893. Teachers' and principal's posts were advertised throughout the entire Austria-Hungary.

The school was ceremoniously opened on 26 October 1893 and, despite concerns raised by the National Government, it immediately enrolled members of all of Bosnia and Herzegovina's religious groups: Orthodox Christians, Catholics, Muslims and Jews. The first teaching staff was formed by three teachers, including the Slovene philologist Martin Bedjanič (1855-1931), whose assigned subjects were Bosnian and Latin and who also served as he first principal, and the biologist Antun Pichler (1862-1922), who taught Natural Sciences. They were joined the same year by a Catholic and an Orthodox religion teacher, by their Muslim counterparts the following year, and finally by a Jewish religion teacher. Until the present building became functional in 1898, classes were held in a leased house of the city councillor Husaga Komadina (brother of the future mayor Mujaga Komadina). Besides instructions in Islam, Serbian Orthodoxy, Roman Catholicism or Judaism, the compulsory subjects were Bosnian, German, Latin, Greek (or, alternatively, Classical Arabic for Muslim students), Geography and History, Mathematics, Natural Sciences, Philosophical Propaedeutics, Free-Hand Drawing, Penmanship and Gymnastics. Singing, French, Italian, Stenography and Gusle were optional subjects.

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