Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
himroyalties?) Ifyougoaroundbehindthemosqueandduckintothe
Hotel Europe,
you'll
findagenteel,chandeliered,Viennese-stylecoffeehouseinterior.ThearchitectwhogaveSa-
rajevo its Austrian look—including this hotel—was actually a Czech, Karel Pa
ř
ík. He lived
here for nearly 60 years and designed some 70 buildings in town, including the City Hall,
thebigEvangelicalChurchacrosstheriver,andtheNationalMuseumwherethiswalkends.
Continuing two more blocks along Ferhadija street, on the right, you can't miss the
Catholic Cathedral
(described later). Notice that this is the fourth different house of wor-
ship we've seen (Muslim, Orthodox Christian, Jewish, Catholic) in just the short distance
since we began our walk.
Around the right side of the cathedral is the very sobering
Srebrenica Exhibition,
doc-
umenting the heinous genocidal activities at that eastern Bosnian town. This sight is a must
for visitors who want to better understand the atrocities that went on in this country so re-
cently (exhibition described later).
On the opposite (left) side of the cathedral, just before the side door, look for the big
Sa-
rajevo rose
in the pavement—a distinctive starburst indentation that's colored in red, and
carefully preserved as a memorial, even after the surrounding pavement was replaced. Im-
mediately following the war, about 1,000 of the impact craters in the streets of Sarajevo
were filled with a red resin, instantly creating a poignant memorial. As the city has rebuilt,
most of these Sarajevo roses have been replaced with new asphalt. Only a few remain, and
those are tended to by a local preservation group. I'll point out a few more Sarajevo roses
through the rest of this walk.
Behind the cathedral is an old Ottoman bathhouse
(hamam),
with telltale copper domes.
Todayit'spartofaprivateculturalcentercalledthe
Bosniak Institute.
Itsometimeshouses
special exhibits; if one is going on, you can look around inside.
