Day 121: Sarajevo

Aug 2 - Payments in BiH are often cash only, so today change another US$100 to KM. Will probably do this again soon, since KM is also used in a country we will be going to later on.

I have mixed emotions about this four-legged Muslim ant. I appreciate he wants to learn the Kur’an, but should really look where he’s going.

Start out by heading to the new, eerily quiet train station, since the property owner doesn’t believe me when I say there are two trains to Mostar per day. Seems odd that I know more about this than he does. On way, pass by the vast US Embassy complex (no photos allowed).

The Sarajevo train station.

This building, called the Avaz Twist Tower, is just by the train station, and easily the tallest building in the city.

Nearby all of this is the National Museum of BiH, which is composed of four separate buildings with a botanical garden in the middle.

The building was constructed in 1911-13, and hosts hundreds of thousands of items, including a huge book archive. The organization and density of information here is truly impressive, in particular the natural history section. There was extensive damage to the buildings in the 1992-95 war, so it seems incredible that it looks so good now.

There was a whole floor on prehistoric artifacts, and I didn’t take any photos there, just to say that the prehistory of BiH follows the standard model of stone age - bronze age - iron age development through trade and other interactions. One of the earliest noted interactions between the indigenous people and the Greeks occurred at the 4th Century BCE trading port of Narona, which is just north along the coast from where BiH has a tiny strip of coastal access today. This particular port acted as a base from which the Romans conducted the conquest of Illyria, starting in 156 BCE. This successful conquest and occupation resulted in the gradual ‘Romanizing’ of the region.

While the Romans could easily control the Dalmatian coast (the places we were in the final week or so of Croatia), the uplands of BiH were a different matter. The terrain is rugged and the population was spread out in little villages throughout. Very difficult to control. The Romans had to deal with uprisings many times in the Dalmatia/Danube region, and eventually established their classic system of roads through BiH, all the way over to Pannonia, more or less where the Serbian border is today.

Artistic style, as reflected in archaeological evidence, shows that while Roman styles on the coast were directly influenced by Rome, the art and architecture in BiH shows a mix of purely Roman and indigenous styles.

The Roman section of the museum, also occupying a full floor, has a great many epitaphs and tombstones.

A tomestone from Bileca, 3rd Century. It says (in translation): To the Manes* - Tatarius, [son of] Venetus, and Tema, daughter of Anaius, to their son Baton, who lived for twenty years and to their daughter Anaia, who lived for twenty-five years, the most beloved of children, had [this tombstone] made in their lifetime for themselves and their loved ones.

*The term ‘To the Manes’, appearing as the letters DM, means the souls of the deceased, which were considered deities of sorts.

There are also some other stelae, including the one shown below. The site of modern-day Srebrenica, which is quite infamous for the massacre during the 1992-95 war, was an important site for the mining of silver and lead in the Roman period. The BiH region formed an important source of metals for the Romans into late antiquity, primarily because it was relatively isolated from the troubled border regions. Silver, copper, iron, gold, and lead were refined an exported for use in other parts of the empire (such as the Roman limes along the Danube, according to historical records).

A dedicatory monument from Gradina (Srebrenica), 251-53 CE. Translation: To the Emperor Gaius Vibius Trebonianus Gallus, the pious, fortunate, invincible Augustus, decurion of the mining colony of Domavia.

One of the halls within the museum. Suspended from the ceiling is a wooden longboat.

A vividly decorated funerary monument, placed out in the botanical garden.

Also in the garden were some Bosnian medieval tombstones (stećaks). The one shown below was for a knight of the medieval aristocracy, probably dating from the 15th Century. It has an inscription on it in Bosnian Cyrilic (not shown in the photo) that says:

HERE IS THE MARKER OF THE HONOURABLE KNIGHT DUKE RADIVOJA OPRAŠIĆA WHILE I LIVED I LIVED RIGHTEOUSLY AND IN HIGH REPUTE. I LIE IN FOREIGN LAND AND MY MARKER STANDS IN MY NATIVE LAND.

This marker looks a somewhat like many dotting the cemeteries of recent times.

Another funerary marker, unfortunately this one did not have a description alongside.

Back across town on the bumpy tram to the eastern hills.

There are several large cemeteries here, all Islamic. In the foreground are some old ones, which often have Turkish turbans on the top. In the background they are all from the 1992-95 war.

Way up Jekovak Hill on the east end of town is the Yellow Fortress, built in the 1700’s, it was one of a series of battlements that helped defend the city. It lost its usefulness after the takeover by the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

Great views of the whole city from the Yellow Fortress.

City Hall on Obala Kulina Bana. Quite an ornately decorated building.

Another of my series of manhole covers. Rather simple, but has the city name so it qualifies.

Bosnia and Herzegovina