Strolling through the streets of Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia-Herzegovina, Anabright Hay finds much to admire.
A striking, stripped pseudo-Moorish building beside Sarajevo’s Miljacka River has long featured on postcards and in guidebooks and is top of my list to explore.
How did such a building, inspired by the architecture of Mamluk Egypt and Moorish Spain, but not the Ottoman Balkans, come to be built in Bosnia-Herzegovina?
The Sarajevo City Hall opened in 1896 during the Austro-Hungarian occupation of Sarajevo. It was designed by Viennese-trained Croatian architects Aleksander Wittek and Ciril Ivekovic.
Strangely, the Pseudo-Moorish style was an Austro-Hungarian attempt to develop a Bosnian national style. It aimed to highlight Bosnia’s Islamic heritage gained during more than 400 years of Ottoman rule. But Wittek was sent to Egypt and Spain for inspiration rather than looking closer to home. Later, a Bosnian national style of architecture, which drew more on local traditions, developed.
Badly damaged during the Siege of Sarajevo in 1992 the City Hall is now fully restored and reflects Sarajevo’s fascinating and tumultuous history.
The city did not become the capital of an independent state until the 1990s and its architecture was largely instigated by outsiders. Their aims included not only nation building in Bosnia, but pursuing Ottoman, Austro-Hungarian and Yugoslav agendas.
Despite the trauma and destruction of the recent past much of this diverse legacy remains today. Animated groups of tourists are testament to Sarajevo’s pulling power as a treasure trove of Ottoman, Austro-Hungarian and Bosnian national architecture.
Gleaming in the sun on a crisp May morning the city hall looks as fresh as the image on my 100-year old postcard. I can’t wait to see inside and for five Bosnian marks I can.
Light floods in through its multicoloured windows highlighting the meticulously applied decorative paintwork high above the horseshoe arches in its round atrium and stairwell. I am alone except for a couple of official-looking men in suits whose voices are amplified in the vast splendour of the interior. An exhibition of architectural plans and photos displayed in the basement is riveting. It depicts the recent near total destruction of the interior of the building and literary contents and its recent restoration.
The Sarajevo City Hall has played many roles during its existence. It once housed the National and University Library of Bosnia and Herzegovina. In 1910, it became the home of the new Bosnian Assembly and Archduke Franz Ferdinand visited there before being assassinated nearby in June 1914. The assignation triggered the start of World War 1.
Keen to recapture the view on my postcard I cross a bridge opposite the city hall and stand on the riverbank. But a charming wooden Balkan village style cafe is slightly in the way. Figuring it is time for lunch anyway, and that I can get a good photo from the cafe balcony, I go in and sit down. Some decidedly Kiwi accents from the next table catch my attention. All roads lead to Sarajevo it seems and the young couple tell me they are from North Otago. We swap travel itinerary stories and tuck into our chicken-on-a-stick dish.
(Source: otagodailytimes)
