The reconstruction of the pedestrian zone in Strossmayer Street – from the junction with Ferhadija Street to the intersection with Green Beret Street, will begin on Saturday, September 14th, the municipal Investment and Utilities Department in charge of the project confirmed.
Preparatory work on the construction of the site and the installation of protective fences will begin on Friday.
As previously done in Ferhadija, Sarači, Bravadziluk and Baščaršijski trg streets, the old parts will be removed, as well as reconstruction of the water supply network, settling of the drainage system, laying of reinforced concrete substrate and then new paving.
The Strossmayer Street in Sarajevo was built by the Austro-Hungarian administration, envisaging that part of the city as its urban “heart”, which this street remained to be until today. Back then it was called Rudolph’s Street, in honor of Rudolph, the son of the emperor Franz Joseph I. This Crown Prince of liberal attitudes tragically ended his life at the age of 31, in a story shrouded in mystery.
The official version is that he committed a suicide together with his mistress, the 18-year-old Baroness Marie Vetsera, due to forbidden love. However, there are theories that both were killed on demand, or that Rudolph first killed Marie and then himself. By all accounts, it will never be known what exactly happened that night in the Mayerling castle.
Since 1919, when the Kingdom of Yugoslavia assumed power, the street has been named Strossmayer’s Street, after Josip Juraj Strossmayer, the Bosnian-Đakovo and Srijem bishop, politician, theologian, writer… At one time he strongly fought for the idea of unification of the Yugoslav peoples, and he also promoted the construction of the Cathedral in Sarajevo.
