The house of Safvet-beg Basagic in Nevesinje will be reconstructed into a museum space, which was also supported by the Ministry of Culture and Sports of the Sarajevo Canton, the cantonal press service announced on Wednesday.
The idea for Basagic’s house to be bought has existed for several years, and these days it is being brought to its final realization.
This endeavor was undertaken by the Bosniak Cultural Community “Preporod” thanks to the financial support of the Federal Ministry of Displaced Persons and Refugees, the Ministry of Culture and Sports of Sarajevo Canton and the City of Sarajevo.
The building, which was previously privately owned, will be reconstructed and will soon be a cultural-educational and museum space.
It will thus be preserved, torn from oblivion and put into the function as a national monument of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which it is, and it is dedicated to one of the most famous personalities in Bosnia and Herzegovina in history and literature.
Born on May, 6 1870 in Nevesinje, Safet Bašagić is one of the great minds of B&H’s literature from the end of the nineteenth and beginning of the twentieth century.
Bašagić attended elementary school in Mostar and Konjic, and after completing ruzdija in Sarajevo, he studied at the University of Vienna on department of Oriental Languages.
He was actively involved in the social trends of the former state, and in 1903 he founded the cultural society Gajret and in 1907, the newspaper Ogledalo. He defended his doctorate dissertation in Vienna, 1910 entitled: “Die Bosniaken und Hercegovcen auf dem Gebiete der islamischen Literatur” and got awarded with the title of doctor.
That same year he was elected as member of the Bosnian Parliament where he awaited ruin of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy. After the end of World War I, he was working as a curator at the National Museum until his retirement in 1927. He died on April 9, 1934 in Sarajevo, and was buried in the harem of the Bey’s mosque.
He was a great lover of poetry and wrote many songs.
