The Sarajevo City Hall, a symbol of the city and one of the most representative and beautiful buildings from the Austro-Hungarian period, was shelled several times during the siege of Sarajevo, and on August 25, 1992, shells fired from the positions of the Republika Srpska Army caused a large fire in which the interior of the building was completely burned.
The town hall, which before the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina was the National and University Library of Bosnia and Herzegovina (NUBBH) and which represented a gathering place for students and all people eager for knowledge, burned down on August 25 in just a few hours, and with it the written treasures of Bosnia and Herzegovina were irreversibly destroyed.
Almost 80 percent of the library collection, two million books, magazines, as well as manuscripts of inestimable value that testify to the history of Bosnia and Herzegovina were burned in the fire.
Although citizens and employees tried to save a certain part of the collection, the fire that engulfed the City Hall was almost impossible to control, and an additional problem was the constant sniper fire from the positions of the Army of Republika Srpska on the hills around Sarajevo.
August 25, 1992, was one of the most emotionally difficult days for all the inhabitants of Sarajevo, as well as for all the people for whom the City Hall represented a symbol of the city and a kind of center of knowledge.
Thanks to the strength of understanding and solidarity of friends and partners, the City Hall was renovated and officially opened on May 9, 2014, on Europe Day and Victory Day over Fascism. Its post-war renovation lasted 18 years.
It now houses books and manuscripts of exceptional value and rarities, and represents a multimedia center of culture, art and economy of the City of Sarajevo and the state of BiH, where concerts, literary evenings, exhibitions, presentations, conferences, congresses, symposiums, receptions, anniversaries, and weddings are held.
In 2006, the Commission for the Preservation of National Monuments of Bosnia and Herzegovina declared the City Hall a national monument of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
