ame the seat of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Mostar-Duvno and in 1939, it became a part of the Banovina of Croatia. During World War II Mostar was also an important city in the fascist Independent State of Croatia.
After the World War II, Mostar developed a production of plastics (fundamentally used in toilet seats) tobacco, bauxite, wine, aircraft and aluminium products. Several dams (Grabovica, Salakovac, Mostar) were built in the region to harness the hydroelectric power of the Neretva. The city was a major industrial and tourist center and prospered economically during the time of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.
Between 1992 and 1993, after Bosnia and Herzegovina declared independence from Yugoslavia, the town was subject to an 18 month siege. The Yugoslav People's Army (JNA) first bombed Mostar on 3 April 1992, and over the following week gradually established control over a large part of the town. By 12 June 1992, the 4th Corps of the ARBiH (which was one of five later seven corps formed in 1992) and the Croatian Defence Council (HVO) in a joined action amassed enough strength to force the JNA out of Mostar. The JNA responded with shelling. Amongst the monuments destroyed were a Franciscan monastery, the Catholic cathedral and the bishop's palace (with a library of 50,000 books), a number of secular institutions as well as the Karadžoz-bey mosque, and thirteen other mosques.
In mid June 1992, after the battle line moved eastward, the HVO demolished the Serbian Orthodox Žitomislić Monastery as well as the Saborna Crkva (Orthodox Cathedral Church) that was built in 1863-1873. During the Bosnian War of 1992-95, the Serb Orthodox Cathedral of the Holy Trinity (Serbian: Саборна црква Св. Тројице) and the Church of the Birth of the Most Holy Virgin, both dating to the mid 19th century, were demolished by the HVO. The cathedral was also known as the New Orthodox Church (Нова православна
