Boro Spasojević, an architect and athlete, son of the city that he has been building his entire life, will no longer walk on the streets of Sarajevo.
He came to our meeting a little late and, in the manner of a gentleman, apologized a lot. But who cares about those trivialities in comparison with photographs he took out of his pocket right away and placed them on the table, and started explaining them. One was taken by Aleksa Štrbo on May 1, 1949. It shows the junior basketball team of the Society Sarajevo, whose member was also the architect Boro Spasojević.
“Here we are in the yard of the bowling alley that was located approximately where the BBI Center is located now,” said Mr. Spasojević, recalling that the same team won the third place at a Yugoslav competition in Split a year before.
“We had out training sessions in FIS. Instructions came from Aco Gec,” continued the renowned Sarajevo architect and no less famous handball player (he was declared the best athlete in BiH), a basketball player, athlete who was also dealing with acting, singing in a choir, who was one of the founders of a musical octet…
“My youth is linked to the time where a complete personality was demanded, so it is not surprising that I, although I was best known for handball, started from boxing. Right after the liberation of Sarajevo, Aco Savić and I had our first boxing match in the Sports House. The judge was Sveto Ćuk and our coach was Ferid Kulender, former champion of the Balkans”.
We were sitting in café Vatra. No one passed by without saying hello to Mr. Stanojević and saying a word or two to him. Suddenly, we were talking about the architecture of Sarajevo, the architecture that he wrote about with professionalism, warmth, authenticity. He sighed because of the monstrous concrete and glass monsters that hinder the breathing of the city, hide the view of Trebević…
The five-minute interview turned into a memorable story that keeps me thinking about it even after Boro Spasojević passed away – he, who always proudly stated that he is the son of the city on whose streets he has been walking for 87 years, and he still did not have enough of them. That is why you should not be surprised to see him talking with passersby at the Markale market, or to sit on the concrete wall next to the Cathedral, together with newspaper and flower sellers.
(Source: Edina Kamenica, Al Jazeera Balkans)
