SARAJEVO - Croatia and Slovenia - page 708

points), or anything else you might need in Sarajevo (along the river at Obala Kulina
Bana 5, tel. [phone], www.sirius-travel.ba , [e-mail] ) .
Internet Access: You'llfindInternet cafésallovertheOldTown.Wi-Fiiswidelyavailable
at hotels and cafés; look for the free “old city” Wi-Fi hotspot around “Pigeon Square.”
War and Peace in Sarajevo
WhentheOttomansarrivedinthisvalleyinthe15thcentury,whathadbeenahumble
settlement of Bogomil kings and Franciscans from Dubrovnik was swiftly conver-
ted into a major trading center—thanks to its strategic location along the moun-
tainous passage from the Croatian coast to the Ottoman-held lands farther east. Sa-
rajevo's location, nestled in the mountains, was near silver and coal mines, and
came with an ample supply of fresh spring water and runoff from the mountains all
around—providing constantly running water, which is highly valued in Muslim cul-
ture. The Ottomans harnessed that water to build baths and fountains for Sarajevo's
mosques. The town became a thriving population center and, eventually, the capital
of the area.
The city's growth was set back temporarily in 1697, when Prince Eugene of
Savoy—leading his Habsburg-funded army on an offensive against the Otto-
mans—burned Sarajevo to the ground. Later, as the Ottoman Empire declined in the
late 19th century, it turned the keys to Bosnia and Sarajevo over to the Habsburgs,
who gladly sent urban planners and architects to spiff up the humble Ottoman burg
to Viennese standards. During its brief 40 years under the Austro-Hungarian Em-
pire, Sarajevo was modernized and grew quickly. But the Habsburgs, too, fell from
power—thanks to a war that started with the assassination of the heir to the throne in
this very city (see “The Shot Heard 'Round the World,” on here ) .
DuringtheYugoslavera,Sarajevoenjoyedaprivilegedstatusasatownthatexem-
plified Tito's idealistic vision of the various Yugoslav ethnicities living and working
together. It was chosen to represent Yugoslavia to the world as the host of the 1984
Winter Olympics. Sarajevo seemed poised to emerge as a leading world-class city.
Butthenitsfatetookanappallingturn.JusteightyearsafterthoseOlympics'clos-
ing ceremonies, Sarajevo again seized the world's attention, for the worst possible
reasons. As Yugoslavia broke apart, multiethnic Bosnia became ground zero for
hashing out old grudges between the union's dominant ethnic groups. Sarajevans
woke up one morning in the spring of 1992 to discover that their hometown was
under siege, completely surrounded by the heavy artillery of Radovan Karadži ć 's