Boron nitride layers were grown on sapphire substrate by metal organic vapor phase epitaxy system that was originally designed for growth of GaN. Structures were characterized by scanning electron microscopy, atomic force microscopy, the Raman spectroscopy, absorption and time resolved photoluminescence. Presented results confirm successful deposition of BN layers and gives information about basic properties of the material. The Raman line at 1370 cm^{-1} and absorption edges at 5.6-5.9 eV were observed which is related to hexagonal phase.