October 24-28, 2011: While it’s hard to walk the streets of Sarajevo, and look up at its encircling hills, without remembering the war, the city has moved on. Apparently, plenty of money for restoration poured into the city after the siege was lifted (guilty consciences at work, perhaps), and the streets I enjoyed exploring were no longer lined with burned out buildings.
And I did enjoy myself. Mostly outdoors, although besides the History Museum, dedicated to the siege, I visited the neighboring National Museum, where I paid my respects to the Sarajevo Haggadah – is it blasphemy to say I was less impressed than I expected? I found the Jewish Museum, in the quiet, stone Sephardic Synagogue more evocative. And I visited a couple of house museums, much more to my taste than art galleries.
Sarajevo was already firmly embedded in 20th century history before the break-up of Yugoslavia, as it was the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand on its Latin Bridge that led to the First World War. The bridge was attractive enough, but not particularly impressive, given the weight of history it carried. Several other bridges crossed the Miljecka River, but the water level was low, and the north shore home to a major road, and I mostly walked further north.
The older, Turkish, section was home to the souvenir shops, and to craftsmen, mostly metal workers. In additional to traditional materials, the casings from the shells that had fallen on the city were now being remade into souvenirs. Further west, in addition to the cathedrals, I found a big square, where even in the rain men played chess on the pavement with over-sized pieces. But mostly I just strolled, admiring the buildings and soaking up the atmosphere, and stopping off for coffee both in the old section, and in a newer, multi-story mall.
It turned out that I had timed my visit well. My last day I ate lunch in the Holiday Inn and bought a train ticket at the neighboring station. The US embassy used to occupy a house in the center of town, but had just been moved to a purpose built fortress near the Holiday Inn, and when I walked past I noticed one bored looking guard and a line of people sheltering from the rain as they waited to enter the consular section. The next day, a gunman opened fire on the embassy, wounding the guard. It’s hard to imagine what he hoped to achieve.
Lovely photos!
Love your pics.
Wow! I was deployed to Tuzla in 1996 as part of the Implementation Force and again to Sarajevo in 2000 as part of the Stabilaztion Force. I have great memories of Bosnia and surrounding areas and think of the native people often. I also was blessed to travel to Split and Trogir Croatia several times while I was there. Hopefully one day I can make it back as a tourist.
Stabilization