On the shore of Miljacka, a city was born that wins the heart of everyone who visits it with its beauty and has proudly defied all the adversities that have befallen it for centuries. Sarajevo is a symbol of tolerance, coexistence, and love, as evidenced by photos that are hundreds of years old.
From the beginning of the city of Sarajevo until today, there have been various circumstances that were often merciless towards the people and the sights that make this city special. However, no event has caused the soul of this city to disappear.
Many have written about the beauty of Sarajevo, and its uniqueness is still admired today. Thanks to photographs taken a hundred or more years ago, we can enjoy the sights of the city, thinking about what the people of Sarajevo did back then, where they worked, what kind of life they led…
Valuable collector of the treasures of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), Zoran Tarade, publishes photos of Sarajevo and other BiH cities on his Facebook group, thus preserving the memory of the cultural and historical heritage.
Sarajevo during the Austro-Hungarian Empire
Sarajevo became part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in 1878, and industrialization, development, adaptation to Western culture, and social changes are characteristic of that period. The three biggest changes in Sarajevo that occurred with the arrival of Austria-Hungary are changes in the political structure of the city, architectural style, as well as changes in the education system.
In the summer of 1884, the digging of Sarajevo’s streets and the laying of tram rails began. On that occasion, Sarajevo was left without one of the most beautiful bridges – the stone bridge over the Kosevski Potok near the Ali Pasha Mosque, but it also received the title of the first city in the Balkans and in Central Europe to have a tram. The first tram line in Sarajevo was 3.1 kilometers long. The first tram officially started operating on January 1st, 1885 at 10 a.m.
Numerous photographs from Sarajevo and the whole of BiH are kept in Viennese and Hungarian archives, and thanks to BiH collector Zoran, everyone can enjoy looking at them and comparing parts of the city and looking for similarities with the current appearance.
April 6th – Day of the City of Sarajevo
Every April 6th, Sarajevo defies all those who worked for its destruction, who cowardly killed civilians behind snipers, not choosing a victim, defying every shell thrown, and there were tens of thousands of them…
The painful memory of the longest siege in the modern history of warfare begins on April 6th, 1992, when the siege of Sarajevo by the former Yugoslav People’s Army (JNA), the Army of Republika Srpska (VRS), and Serbian paramilitary formations began, which lasted 44 months.
The Day of the City of Sarajevo is symbolically celebrated on April 6th, a date that has a different significance for all citizens over the years. On this day in 1941, Sarajevo was bombed for the first time by the Wehrmacht, and on the same day in 1945, Yugoslav Partisans liberated it from the fascist occupier, Radio Sarajevo reports.
E.Dz.