Yesterday at 18.30 in the residence of Austrian Embassy in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Austrian Ambassador in B&H, His Excellency Martin Pammer organized promotion of the book “Sarajevo – Tatort Lateinerbrücke” or the “Sarajevo – Latin Bridge Crime Site” from an Austrian author, Erich Pello. On that occasion, Erich Pello, the other authors Jovan Divjak, Josef Pöschl, Adnan Smajić, Alen Velagić and the publisher Ulrich Winkler-Hermaden were invited by the Austrian Embassy to read from the book.
Erich Pello, who also took the impressive photographs, manages to sample the best out of Sarajevo’s architecture and history. One gets an idea of how people lived during the roughly 500 years of Ottoman times, of what happened when Bosnia and Herzegovina became part of Austro-Hungarian Empire and later of socialist Yugoslavia, and how things developed in the post-war times.
No matter whether you go to Teehouse Džirlo, a few steps away from Sarajevo’ Pigeon Square, or to the Teehouse Franz and Sophie in a little street behind the Cathedral, you will have an opportunity to browse a new book about Sarajevo, especially if you speak German. Otherwise, just watching many exquisite photographs taken by the author leads you to the conclusion that most of us have only a fragmentary idea of the richness of the place.
“Sarajevo – Tatort Lateinerbrücke” describes the last days of Franz and Sophie, who got assassinated on 28 June 1914 near the head of the Latin Bridge, something that opened Pandora’s box, and released evil spirits of the 1st World War. However, it is just one of many facets ingrained in the complex history of Sarajevo. As such it serves as a correlation between author’s perception of the city and its historical memory internalized in Sarajevo’s gorgeous, although often dysfunctional physiognomy.
In the hands of interested tourists as well as locals this book may open their mind to realize the cultural richness of this multicultural, truly european capital.
ST
