SARAJEVO - In Your Pocket

10 history
Sarajevo is the administrative and cultural capital of
Bosnia and Herzegovina. Situated at the far southern
end of the Dinaric Alps, it lies between the mountains of
Romanija, Bjelašnica, Igman and Trebević, and through it
flows the narrow, shallow Miljacka River, which rises close
to Pale, five miles due east of the city.
First Settlements
Sarajevo is stretched across an area known as Sarajevo
Field, and there are numerous archeological findings
attesting to settlements in this area dating back to the
Neolithic period, as well as records that point to a significant
Ilyiran presence in the area. A primary Neolithic site was
found at Butmir, outside Sarajevo. Ilyrian tribes flourished
in the region from about 1,000 BC until their final conquest
by the Romans around 9AD. For the Romans, with their
aggressive, commercially-oriented and warlike policy of
spreading the Pax Romana, the mountainous country that
lay just next door to them became a source of mineral wealth,
particularly silver.
Spread of Christianity
Between 6-800 AD arrived the Slavs, there was widespread
conversion to Christianity, and the next five hundred years saw
Bosnia at the focal point of influence through varying periods
of conquest, control and administration by Serbs, Hungarians,
Byzantines and Croats. The medieval town of Hodidjed was
located in the vicinity of today’s Sarajevo; however, the actual
name of the city, which comes from the Turkish words saray
and ovasi, meaning ‘court’ and ‘field’ respectively, indicates
that Sarajevo is a creation of the Ottoman Empire.
The Ottomans
Bosnia had starting emerging as an independent state since
the mid-1100s, and became a kingdom under King Tvrtko
the 1st in 1377, just as the Turks started their foray into the
country, presaging the Ottoman invasion which took place
between 1430 to 1592, when the last town in Bosnia - Bihac
- fell into Turkish hands. The country was now part of the
Ottoman Empire, and just in case there was any question
that the country’s religious mix of Orthodox, Christianity and
the indigenous Bosnian church was not sufficient, Islam
joined the fray. Sarajevo became one of the most powerful
cities in the Turks’ new frontier territories, and although the
capital moved twice, to Banja Luka and Travnik, Sarajevo
remained the nerve-centre.
Sarajevo was founded in the mid 15th century by the Ottoman
governor of Bosnia - Isa-bey Ishakovic - to house the area’s
Ottoman government. Anyone strolling through Sarajevo will
easily notice the city’s three distinct parts, each of which are
reflective of the historical period in which it was built. The
initial expansion of the city occurred during the first 150 years
or so of Ottoman rule. Many of the city’s architectural gems
were built during this period, such as Gazi Husrev Bey’s and
The Emperor’s Mosques. Baščaršija - the city’s once-great
bazaar - was also constructed during the same period. By
the beginning of the 17th century, Sarajevo grew into a
vibrant community of artisans and an important merchant
trading post, as well as one of the most significant cities in
the European part of the Ottoman Empire. In 1697 Sarajevo
was attacked and burnt by Prince Eugene of Savoy, the final
of series of unremitting attacks by the Hapsburgs and the
Venetians. The Ottomans moved the capital to Travnik, and
Sarajevo started to refuse to accept governors sent from
Istanbul. This independent, self-determining and occasionally
bloody-mindedness of spirit was to become a core feature of
the city’s identity, most recently surfacing during the four-year
siege of the city from 1992-1995.
Austro-Hungarian Rule
The city’s second architectural expansion started following
the Austro-Hungarian occupation in the late 19th century
and lasted until the beginning of World War I in 1914, after
the 1878 treaty of Berlin gave the Austro-Hungarian Empire
a mandate to administer Bosnia. The city was modernized
during this period. Austro-Hungarians established the city’s
first public transportation system and the first telephone lines.
Many cultural and educational institutions were founded in this
period as well. The National (Land) Museum, the First Sheriate
Law High School and the National Theatre. Sarajevo City Hall,
Ashkenazi Synagogue, and Catholic Cathedral were also added
to the expanding city. The growth of Sarajevo was interrupted
on June 28, 1914 when Gavrilo Princip assassinated Austro-
Hungarian Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sophia
during their visit to Sarajevo, setting off the chain of events
that led to the start of World War I.
Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes
Following the Treaty of Versailles in 1918 that ended World
War I, Sarajevo, along with Bosnia and Herzegovina, became
a part of the newly-formed Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and
Slovenes. It remained within the later-renamed Kingdom
of Yugoslavia until the beginning of World War II, when the
monarchy was abolished and, following the end of the war,
the new socialist Yugoslavia was created.
Yugoslavia and Socialism
The general plan for development of Sarajevo was adopted
in 1945, and the city that suffered tremendous losses during
World War II under the Germans expanded. German occupation
had started in 1941, and Bosnia was assimilated into an
atrocious Croatian Ustasha nationalist entity, where multiple
atrocities were carried out, particularly against Serbs, many
of which took place at the notorious Jasenovac concentration
camp south of Zagreb where between 50-70,000 people,
mainly Serbs, were slaughtered. In 1943 Josep Brod Tito,
leading the Bosnian partisans on covert operations in the
mountain fastnesses of the centre of the country, established
the basis of the post-war Yugoslavia, of which Bosnia would
be one of six republics. Subsequent to the war, Sarajevo was
not only rebuilt but considerably expanded as well. It almost
tripled in size during its third expansion which took place during
the formative years of socialist Yugoslavia. By 1984, when the
city hosted the 14th Winter Olympic Games, Sarajevo was a
modern capital city of around 500,000 people.
Looking Back
Talk to Bosnians about the Tito era, and it is fondly
remembered as a halcyon period set in a kind of aspic of
nostalgia, of benevolent socialism, when everybody had a
car, a state apartment, holidays on the coast every year,
and life was a given. Yes and no, is the answer. The dream
was founded on political repression and kept alive by wildly
unrealistic economic planning and strategies, based on much
heavy foreign borrowing. But for most people, it functioned,
Tito kept nationalism at bay, and the country appeared to
prosper. It was during this period that Sarajevo developed a
reputation as something of a cultural centre, a party town,
and acquired the rather clichéd adjective that is so often used
to describe it: cosmopolitan. But it was a tougher, fiercely
independent and more gutsy series of characteristics that
was to carry it through the years of the 1992-1995 war.
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