Petrićevac
Coordinates: 44°47′23″N 17°11′07″E / 44.7896°N 17.1852°E
Petrićevac is a part of the city of Banja Luka in Republika Srpska, Bosnia and Herzegovina. Today, there are about 25,000 inhabitants in Petrićevac.
The place is the location of a Catholic church of Saint Anthony and a Franciscan monastery in the 20th century. There was also an Orthodox Church made by Ilija Rankić.
During World War II, the Orthodox church was destroyed in 1941 by the Ustaša, the Croatian fascist organization. Miroslav Filipović originated from the Catholic monastery before he went on to join the Ustaše during World War II, and commit numerous atrocities and war crimes over the Serbs in the region between 1942 and 1945. Filipović was defrocked after a February 1942 massacre of Serb civilians in the nearby villages (Drakulić and Motike).
During the war in Bosnia in 1995, the Catholic Church and the monastery were destroyed in revenge by the Bosnian Serb Army, causing the death of one of the friars in the process. This was reportedly done because the buildings reminded them of World War II and they considered it "revenge". The reconstruction of the buildings started in 2003 after Pope John Paul II visited the site.
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