The Sarajevo City Hall

City Hall, 1992

One of the most beautiful buildings in Sarajevo, in my opinion, second to the Art Faculty, is the City Hall. A shell hit the building in 1992 at the beginning of the war, destroying the ancient documents it contained.

Well, 14 years after the war, this building is currently being renovated and is fenced-off and locked-up to tourists. That is, unless you just walk in through the open gate.

I had been spending the afternoon with my friend who had been showing me around the city's historical buildings-- the Franciscan Church, Sarajevska Pivara (the city brewery), Zestra (the olympic stadium), and other great spots around town.

I followed him through the gate and into the magnificent rotunda of the city hall. We noticed a couple of people talking in an adjacent room, so we quickly took the makeshift construction stairs up to the upper floors of the city hall. Most of the plaster was chipped off the walls revealing the brick and mortar construction underneath, but there were small patches of the original plaster that showed the ornate paintings of this Austro-Hungarian relic. To an architecture enthusiast this was an adventure.

We explored the floors, ducking underneath low-hanging wooden beams, carefully ascending the precarious wooden stairs, and entering the dark attic with our cell phones as flashlights.

After a while, we remembered the two people downstairs and how we could get caught for trespassing. (If anyone is reading this who is with Sarajevo police or government, please forgive us.) We hurried downstairs just in time to see the man and woman who were the only other people in the building exit through the only exit, the front door. We ran to the door to avoid being locked in and were greeted by a friendly man in his 40s taking a smoke break on the porch of the city hall.

My friend greets him in Bosnian and begins a conversation with him. My Bosnian at that point was limited to only a few phrases, so I didn't understand any of it, other than it appeared very cordial. My friend introduced himself and shook the man's hand and then introduced me. I shook his hand as I heard Mirza say something that sounded like "architect" in Bosnian. The handshake was firm and longer than normal and the guy had a big smile on his face as we were introduced. I thought it was a little strange at how friendly this guy was being, but I am in Bosnia and people are very friendly here.

After we said our goodbyes and walked away from the city hall, I was relieved that we weren't reprimanded for trespassing, but I was also curious. I asked my friend, "What did you say to that man?" He responded, "Oh, I told him that we were both architects and were inspecting the building before the next phase of construction begins. He was the head of construction on the project. I told him you were an architect from America who specialized in Austro-Hungarian art restoration."