Prijedor is a modern era’s city whose near surrounding has been inhabited in prehistory along the mere Sana river. In wider areas of the city were found the Roman and medieval settlements. Near Ljubija were found numerous monuments from the Roman time testifying about the settlements from these times and iron ore production as well as data that iron ore from Prijedor pits were used for making Roman legionaries weapons.

Prijedor had been mentioned for the first time in the end of the 17th century in letters of Earl Adam Batthyány during the so-called “Vienna War ( 1683 – 1699). Soon after Prijedor became an important merchant craft centre thanks to Roman roads and flotation of the Sana river as well as the first railroad which was built in 1873. 2019.

Plague and cholera neither avoided the city nor a great fire in 1882 in which the city was burnt to the ground so the Austrian authorities brought the first town – planning scheme in 1901 which served as the foundation for building a modern settlement.

Nowadays, Prijedor is a developed urban, merchant and industrial centre and, at the same time, a good host to some famous world companies as well as those from Bosnia and Herzegovina. By the latest census in 2013, 97.588 inhabitants lived on the territory of the city of Prijedor. Prijedor is the third biggest local community in Republic of Srpska, after Banja Luka and Bijeljina, and the seventh biggest local community in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The city on Sana river is also a city of rich tradition, art creation and cultural heritage that determined the modern development of the city in this field. When the Serbian Singing Church Society “Vila“ was established long ago in 1885, a few could have thought that this Society will generate the development of theatre and music activities which will be a foundation for Theatre of Prijedor, Music School and the choirs Serbian Cultural Artistic Association “Dr Mladen Stojanović“ and the Serbian Singing Society “Vila“.