Zagvozd is a municipality in Croatia

Croatia

Croatia , officially the Republic of Croatia , is a unitary democratic parliamentary republic in Europe at the crossroads of the Mitteleuropa, the Balkans, and the Mediterranean. Its capital and largest city is Zagreb. The country is divided into 20 counties and the city of Zagreb. Croatia covers ...

 in the Split-Dalmatia County

Split-Dalmatia County

Split-Dalmatia County is the central-southern Dalmatian county in Croatia. The administrative center is Split. The population of the county is 455,242...

. It has a population of 1,642 (2001 census), 99% which are Croats

Croats

Croats are a South Slavic ethnic group mostly living in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and nearby countries. There are around 4 million Croats living inside Croatia and up to 4.5 million throughout the rest of the world. Responding to political, social and economic pressure, many Croats have...

.

Zagvozd celebrates its municipal day on July 16 to coincide with the local celebration of the feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel

Our Lady of Mount Carmel

Our Lady of Mount Carmel is the title given to the Blessed Virgin Mary in her role as patroness of the Carmelite Order. The first Carmelites were Christian hermits living on Mount Carmel in the Holy Land during the late 12th and early to mid 13th centuries...

.

History

From 1941 to 1945, Zagvozd was part of the Independent State of Croatia

Independent State of Croatia

The Independent State of Croatia was a World War II puppet state of Nazi Germany, established on a part of Axis-occupied Yugoslavia. The NDH was founded on 10 April 1941, after the invasion of Yugoslavia by the Axis powers. All of Bosnia and Herzegovina was annexed to NDH, together with some parts...

. In the settlements of Zagvozd and Rastovac, at least 190 lost their lives over the course of the war.

Zagvozd was the site of a 1945 massacre of 18 friars and civilians. Their remains were discovered in 2005.. DNA analysis in Split

Split (city)

Split is a Mediterranean city on the eastern shores of the Adriatic Sea, centered around the ancient Roman Palace of the Emperor Diocletian and its wide port bay. With a population of 178,192 citizens, and a metropolitan area numbering up to 467,899, Split is by far the largest Dalmatian city and...

 revealed the identities of three of the victims as Franciscan friars from the town of Široki Brijeg

Široki Brijeg

-Name:The name of the city means "the wide hill" in Croatian . The city is also sometime referred to as "Široki Brig" and among the inhabitants of Herzegovina simply as "Široki" . Between 1945 and 1990, the name was officially Lištica, after the river that flows through it.-Geography:The river...

. In 2007, the 15 unidentified bodies were buried in Zagvozd while the identified friars were buried in their native Široki Brijeg.