Today’s Liberation Square-Alija Izetbegovic is one of the favorite gathering places of the citizens of Sarajevo, as well as the location where numerous events of importance for the capital are held. It started its history differently, and each regime and each government left its mark on it.
The only large square in the center of Sarajevo was opened between the two world wars on the site of the former tram/railway station and customs house (City Station). The City Station was built first for the needs of the Horse Drawn Tram that transported goods and passengers to the main railway station, and later, with the introduction of the electric tram, it became the first depot.
In the 1920s, the station was demolished, and monuments to the first King of Yugoslavia, Peter I, were planned in multiple cities across the kingdom. In Sarajevo, while it was initially planned in a dominant position on the Hrid Hill, the square in front of the Army House was finally chosen for the monument and renamed in honor of King Peter in 1934.
Following the demolition of the old railway station and customs house, in 1938 a jury, which included Ivan Mestrovic, awarded the competition for the monument to the Zagreb sculptor Fran Krsnic. The parts of the equestrian statue were delivered to Sarajevo in late 1940 and early 1941. But the monument survived for only a few weeks before it was removed.
During the Second World War and the occupation of Sarajevo by the Independent State of Croatia in 1941-1945, the square was named after the Bosnian king Stjepan Tomasevic. On the square, in front of the Cathedral, a monument to the fallen German soldiers with an eagle on top of a column was erected, which was demolished in 1945.
In the socialist period, the square begins to take the shape of its present form. The former Faculty of Orthodox Theology is converted into the Faculty of Economics, while the publishing house Svjetlost is located in the new building on the west side of the square. A socialist monument was erected in its center in 1977 and in the early 1980s a series of busts representing Bosnian and Herzegovinian (BiH) writers: Veselin Maslesa, Ivo Andric, Rodoljub Colakovic, Branko Copic, Mak Dizdar, Skender Kulenovic, Mesa Selimovic, and Isak Samokovlija. The busts were removed from the square during the Siege, and returned in 2001, except for Maslesa.
The square survived the aggression and its trees were not cut even during the siege. In 1997, a sculpture was placed in its center, a gift from the Italian artist Francesco Perilli, “The multicultural man will build the world”, which soon became one of the landmarks of the city of Sarajevo.
In 2005, the square was partially renamed by adding the name of the first president of the independent Republic of BiH, Alija Izetbegovic, to the name Liberation Square. Another smaller memorial to the fallen soldiers of the First Police Brigade Stari Grad was erected in 2007 near the Cathedral, with the symbol of the Bosnian lily and a police badge.
In 2019, an initiative was launched to erect a monument to all the fallen defenders of the City of Sarajevo at the Liberation Square – Alija Izetbegovic, but this project has not yet been realized. The decision to reconstruct the square, i.e. to build underground garages under it, caused quite a stir, and due to disputes between different levels of government, the square was a mockery of the city center for months. In August of last year, a more modest reconstruction was completed and the square was reopened, Klix.ba reports.
E.Dz.
