First mention of the royal town of Visoko in the 14th century testifies to the centuries-old existence of Bosnia

The Old Town of Visoki was a famous medieval town and fortress that originated during the 14th century on Visočica hill. The town of Visoko is located at its foot, and at the foot of Visočica.

According to archival documents, on September 1, 1355, in the charter of the young ban Tvrtko I Kotromanić titled "in castro nosto Visoka vocatum", the first mention of the Old Town of Visoki occurred. It also served as the seat of a high feudal lord with the title of Grand Duke of Bosnia.

In the second half of the 11th century, the Bosnian bishopric and its seat civitas Bosna are mentioned, and the seat of the Bosnian bishopric was precisely in the Visoko valley and its metropolitan sees, where the heads of the church hierarchy, as well as high dignitaries of the Bosnian Church, resided.

It is precisely these documents, historians emphasize, that best testify to the centuries-long continuity of Bosnia.

Already at the end of the 12th century, Ban Kulin built a church in Biskupić, while in Moštre (a place near Visoko) in the mid-14th century, there was a royal court for a time, and all public affairs of the Bosnian Church were conducted in Moštre. If we consider the fact that Mile (present-day Arnautovići) was the venue for assemblies, a Franciscan monastery, and between 1377 and 1461, the coronation site of Bosnian kings, it is not difficult to conclude that the Visoko valley with the Old Town of Visoki, Podvisoki, Mile, and Moštre was the early center of the Banate of Bosnia, and later the kingdom.

The Old Town of Visoki is located on top of the 213-meter-high Visočica hill at an altitude of 766.5 m, and about 300 m above the valley where the town of Visoko itself developed. It is situated in a prominent location with an excellent view of the entire surroundings. The approach is on the southwest side, from a plain that is 60 meters lower, and the fortified settlement of the fortress and town was called Podvisoki. Although historically important, the Old Town of Visoki was not large in size, about 60 m long and 25 m wide, it had two towers that protected it along its entire length. Inside the town itself, there are several traces of buildings. The wall thickness is about 2 m, and it is mainly built of local slab limestone that is roughly hewn, while the pit sand for the mortar is of uneven strength and quite coarse. A moat about 4 m deep and 8 to 10 m wide was dug around the entire town.

The primary function of the Old Town of Visoki was defensive, but it was also a place from which Bosnian rulers wrote many charters and documents, the last one written being in 1436 when Duke Tvrtko Borovinić issued deeds in Visoki. Although abandoned long ago, evidence on which the history of the Old Town of Visoki and other places in the Visoko valley is based was found during the 1950s, 1970s, and 1980s with archaeological excavations and findings. The oldest preserved literature is by Đorđe Stratimirović from 1891. In 1953, Đoko Mazalić provided a detailed description of the ruins, which remains an invaluable source to this day when mentioning the Old Town of Visoki. With the Ottoman conquest of Bosnia, the town was abandoned before 1503. In 1626, Đorđić mentions Visoki among the abandoned towns.

Today, the Old Town of Visoki is a national monument of Bosnia and Herzegovina. In November 2006, the Academy of Sciences and Arts of Bosnia and Herzegovina issued postage stamps with the motif of 11 fragments of stone gates found in 1994 during earthworks around the area of the Old Town.

In 2005, archaeologist Semir Osmanagić began excavating the Bosnian Pyramid of the Sun beneath the Old Town of Visoki, which is considered one of the largest and oldest pyramids in the world.