Fatal Shots on a Fateful Day

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Hello my fellow travellers!

I arrived in Sarajevo at 6 am, unfortunately the bus from Podgorica doesn't drop you at the central bus station but at a small eastern one about five kilometres outside of Sarajevo. I knew this beforehand and I had received a list of good taxi companies from my new host Lejla before I arrived. There was however a couple of young German girls that hadn't checked on anything and didn't know that they would be dropped outside of the city and who felt very lost being out in the middle of nowhere. Since I had already ordered a taxi I invited them to share it.

So there we were, standing around and waiting for a taxi that never seemed to come. I called the taxi company again but this time they said that there wasn't any taxis. Then I figured screw it and I decide to take one of the taxis that always stand by the station even though I knew it will be more expensive, but at least there was three of us to share it. So the taxi took me to the right place and the girls went on from there to the centre for on their own. It cost me 4 EUR but it was worth it to get to the doorstep, especially since I knew my host would have to go to work soon afterwards.

Lejla is a wonderful woman with a really big heart. She has a 12 year old daughter with Autism whom has a personal assistant staying there all the time. Before Lejla left I took the opportunity to shower and wash away the travel dust after which Lejla gave me a lift to the Historical Museum of Bosnia and Herzegovina on her way to her work. I'm glad that I started with the museum since the weather was quite bad and it felt nice to be indoors.

The music is actually really nice and very informative, it doesn't house a huge number of amazing artefacts but it's presented in such a way that it does captivate you and I soon found myself dragging around a chair to sit and read about all the different tragic life stories of the victims of the recent wars. Unfortunately the museum is very run down because the government doesn't take responsibility for it. The National Museum of Bosnia and Herzegovina across the street is even closed due to this lack of funding.

I spent quite some time here, waiting until the weather improved and then I set out to visit the old town. Walking around in the old town is really something else, there has been such an influx of different cultures over the years that there are literally sights at every corner! On the way there I passed by the small but picturesque Church of Saint Joseph but I didn't go inside.

One of the life stories that I read about in the museum was that of Suada Dilbevic and Olga Sucic who became the first victims of the Siege of Sarajevo as well as of a couple commonly known as the Romeo and Juliet of Sarajevo, Admira Ismic and Bosko Brkic, whom was shot on May 19th 1993 by snipers while attempting to flee across the Vrbanja Bridge. The bridge has now been renamed in honour of those first victims, and is now known as the Suada and Olga Bridge. Of course I made my way over to the bridge to pay my respects to those fallen. They were however but a few of all those who fell during the siege which was the longest siege of a capital in modern history. Before the siege was lifted on February 29th 1996, after almost four years of bloody fighting, 13952 people has died, almost half of them civilians.

I also took a short peek at the 16th century Ali Pasha Mosque, built as a monument to the former Ottoman governor Sofu Hadim Ali Pasha after his death in 1560. I didn't really take a closer look at it though which is a shame considering it's age.

From the mosque I made my way down to the Miljacka river that runs through the old town and followed it. There are a lot of interesting and beautiful buildings along the river such as the Sarajevo Synagogue which is the only functioning synagogue in Sarajevo today, built in 1902. Another beautiful building is the Academy of Fine Arts with it's striking green dome roof.

Also situated on the river bank is the lovely little Bakr-Baba's Mosque, the original mosque was built in 1544 as part of an endowment set up by a wealthy Sarajevo merchant by the name of Hajji Alija Bakr-Baba. The mosque was however burned in 1607 as Eugene of Savoy sacked the city and it was rebuilt only to burn down again in 1700 and yet again being rebuilt by the locals. It then remained standing, although in a neglected state until the Austro-Hungarian occupation when it was turned into a military storehouse and then it was once again knocked down in 1895, this time to the foundation and on top of a park was founded. During the first decade of the 21st century archaeological excavations began of the site and eventually the mosque was rebuilt and reopened in 2011.

Next I made my way over to the perhaps most famous landmark in Sarajevo, the Latin Bridge. The bridge itself is beautiful but fairly inconspicuous, the reason for it's fame is unfortunately of a very tragic nature. This is where the Bosnian Serb Gavrilo Princip, a member of the Young Bosnia organisation, assassinated the Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria and his wife Sophie on June 28th 1914.

His, and his organisation's, motive was to create a Yugoslavian state of some form free of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The assassination was tragic is so many ways, the primary of course being that it caused a ripple of effects that led to the outbreak of World War I with over 16 million deaths as a result, and since the war was ended without a true resolution and an unjust peace treaty it can be argued that also World War II was an effect of this fateful decision. Some estimates are that upwards of 85 million people lost their lives in what is the deadliest conflict yet to be fought.

Another reason that this was so tragic is that Franz Ferdinand was actually an advocate of greater autonomy of the various ethnic groups though the Empire, especially for the Bosnian people so they might have actually gained their independence in time anyway without bloodshed. Gavrilo Princip was caught and sentenced to twenty years in prison since he was to young to receive the death penalty.

In prison he contracted tuberculosis and died on April 28th 1918, roughly six months before the end of the war he caused. By this time he had already lost one arm to the disease as well as losing so much weight he only weighed a mere 40 kg. He was buried in an unmarked grave by the prison guards since they feared his bones might be turned into relics by Slavic nationalists. One of the guards however revealed the location a couple of years later so he could be exhumed and buried beneath a chapel in Saint Mark's Cemetery.

The Archduke knew that his visit to Bosnia, to oversee military training, was a dangerous one since he had already survived a previous assassination attempt in 1911. It was a series of unfortunate events that put him in that exact spot at that exact time though. As his motorcade was driving through Sarajevo the Young Bosnia group carried out their true assassination attempt, there was a total of six assassins spread out along the road, each one with instructions to kill the Archduke when he passed them. The first one, Muhamed Mehmedbasic, lost his nerve though and took no action when the motorcade passed him.

Next up was Nedeljko Cabrinovic who hurled a grenade at the car the Archduke was in, his driver however noticed the object that came flying and sped up and instead the grenade exploded under another car, injuring two of it's passengers as well as a dozen bystanders. Because of the ensuing panicked crowds and the faster speed of the car the other assassins lost their chance to act. Cabrinovic tried to commit suicide by swallowing a cyanide pill and jump into the Miljacka river. Unfortunately for him though the pill was past it's expiration date and didn't kill him and the river was only 10 centimetres deep so he was instead arrested by the police officers.

Later though the Archduke made the fatal decision to change to visit those wounded by the grenade at the hospital and pay his respect to them, unfortunately this meant a change in their route which the driver wasn't informed about. This led to him taking a wrong turn across the bridge, when the mistake was noticed he stopped and put the car in reverse which caused the car to stall, right in front of the spot where Gavrilo Princip had moved to after the failed assassination attempt. They were easy targets and Gavril fired two shots from only one and a half metre away, wounding them both fatally.

From the Latin Bridge I made my way over to the Emperor's Mosque with parts dating back to 1565. It's been well restored after being damaged in the war and it's worth a visit in my opinion. As I left the mosque and returned to the river my eyes fell upon a really striking building a bit away, it turned out to be the Sarajevo City Hall from 1896. It was unfortunately closed for renovations so I couldn't go inside but it's definitely one of the most beautiful city halls I've ever seen and certainly worth to go and enjoy even if just from the outside!

Down from the city hall I could also see up to the White Fortress located on a hill overlooking the city. While the fortress does have a interesting history, being built around 1550, I wasn't really interested in going up there for a closer look since I could see that it was in a really sorry state, covered in graffiti and garbage.

Likewise you can also see up to the Jajce Barracks which dates from 1914, from a distance it looks like a beautiful Astro-Hungarian palace but if you look closer you can see the extensive damage caused during the war and it still hasn't been renovated, the roof is caved in and the site is left in a derelict state. Even so I must admit that it would have been interesting to go in for a closer urban exploration look of that one though.

Instead I turned the other way and headed into the historic centre, much of it was built in the early 16th century, such as the Cekrekci Muslihudin's Mosque from 1526, the Bascarsija Mosque, built around 1528 and the iconic Brusa Bezistan, built in 1551 by Grand Vizier Rustem Pasha to house his silk produce. Amidst them all stands the beautiful Sebilj, a fountain built in 1753 by Mehmed Pasha Kukavica which have been replicated in several cities around the world.

After my small venture into the 16th century Ottoman era I sat down at a beautiful restaurant and indulged in some local cuisine. After I filled my belly I crossed through the Morica Han, a beautiful inn from 1551, to reach the Church of the Holy Archangels Michael and Gabriel, commonly known as the Old Orthodox Church, on the other side. As with the rest of central Sarajevo it was built in the early 16th century. From the outside it doesn't look like much but the inside is very beautiful, especially the ceiling.

With that I turned around and returned to the river and crossed it to visit the Hadzijska Mosque from 1561 and the Church of Saint Anthony of Padua from 1853. The latter really stands out with it's striking red colours and is definitely worth a visit! Inside it is a beautiful depiction of the last supper, which I unfortunately couldn't go closer to it for a better picture since there was a mass going on at the time of my visit.

After that I once again returned to the other side of the river, making my movement of the day more and more erratic, to visit the Gazi Husrev Bey's Mosque from 1532, the oldest mosque in Sarajevo and the most representative example of Ottoman architecture in all of the Balkans! Several prominent Bosnian leaders are buried in it's courtyard. Next to it is the Gazi Husrev Bey's Bezistan built around 1540 and of course I took a walk through the covered bazaar to take a look at the wares offered inside.

Next to that stands the remains of the Taslihan, a stone inn, which was built at the same time as the Bezistan but that was knocked down after a fire in 1879. Now it's part of another hotels garden and it makes for an interesting ruin in the Sarajevo landscape.

I decided to make a quick walk back down to the Latin Bridge where I managed to locate the exact position from where Gavrilo Princip fired those fatal shots on that fateful day and after that I again turned around and walked the other direction, I'm really walking a lot back and forth today! I made my way over to the Old Jewish Temple from 1581 which was the first synagogue in Sarajevo but that today houses the Museum of the Jews of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Across from the Old Jewish Temple lies the New Temple Gallery, housed in another former synagogue which was donated to the city for the express intent to function as an art gallery.

I ended my day with a look at the 19th century Church of Saints Cyril and Methodius, it didn't really strike my fancy that much but it was interesting to take a peek at. I have had a really packed day today from morning to evening and even so I didn't manage to see it all today! Sarajevo really had a lot more to offer than I anticipated, the only thing I really knew about Sarajevo before coming here was that of Gavrilo Princip and Franz Ferdinand. I have been pleasantly surprised to find such a well preserved old city centre with such a melting pot of various influences. Therefore I decided to come back here tomorrow before I leave.

Once it got dark Lejla picked me up after she left work. She really works a lot and I feel for her. We then spent the evening at her house, drinking some tea and chatting, she is such an amazing woman!

Tomorrow I will, as I said, take another quick tour of the old city to see some of the things I didn't manage to catch today and after that I will take an early train to Zagreb.

Until tomorrow I wish you all peace and happy travels!

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