Published: June 11th 2016
With the sun barely up we shuffled onto the bus, as Zoe and the mammoth continued to doze I sat in awe as the incredible delights of Bosnia’s countryside passed by. Having attempted several photographs to show it’s splendour the speed of travel and the winding roads didn’t allow me to capture it properly.
Woolly says – I wasn’t dozing I was thinking! I knew that Jo was excited to be visiting Sarajevo, the capital city and as I joined her in admiring the views along the Miljacka River the wonders just kept coming. It was a stark contrast pulling into a small town and seeing the pockmarked buildings once more.
Having seen so much of the troubles and struggles that the city had under gone on the news through out the early 90’s I knew that it held the record for having suffered the longest siege of 1425 days in modern warfare, in fact the country seems to have had little rest through it’s history from battles.
Woolly says – as we came into the city I noted that we were driving along what had been known as Sniper Alley which was the informal name given for the streets of Zmaja od Bosne Street, Dragon of Bosnia Street and Meša Selimović Boulevard the main thoroughfare during the Bosnian War which was lined with snipers’ posts and became infamous as a dangerous place for civilians to traverse, these days people only had to worry about the traffic! A short taxi ride from the bus station left us in the old part of the city and as I sat eating my Turkish breakfast (no where near as good as the ones shared with my wonderful friends John and Gwen at home) I felt a little information might be appreciated by the girls…..
I really wish I hadn’t bought him The mammoth Book of Facts for christmas!
Woolly says – ……It’s a brilliant book! Bascarsija is Sarajevo’s old bazaar and the historical and cultural centre of the city built in the 15th century when Isa-Beg Isaković founded the town. The pigeons seemed to be enjoying the Sebilj a pseudo-Ottoman-style wooden fountain from 1753 which was built to provide free water for the residents and having thrown a few crumbs in their direction I led the way to what I hoped would be a slightly different museum for us to visit. Passing the newly constructed and very ornate City Hall which had been totally destroyed by the Serbs in 1992, a fine building again now, I trotted over the brown river and through the streets passing mosques and commercial buildings…not your usual tourist attraction. Having checked my map I happily saw that we had arrived at the Sarajevo Brewery……
I hope he’s not planning on drinking this early in the morning!
Woolly says – as if!…… founded on May 24th 1864 historians consider it the oldest industrial plant in Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is the only European brewery whose production was uninterrupted during the Ottoman Empire and during the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy and continued production through the troubles. A nice lady took our money and turned on a video for us to watch which seemed to involve a rather large man drinking the product and chatting away in Bosnian, quickly growing bored I looked round at the bottles and barrels that had been used over the years and admired the advertising posters before gazing around for the next room, having tried one door which turned out to be a fire exit it appeared that this was it, hardly worth the walk and not even a drop of beer to have with my quick snack.
Having been to the Marston’s brewery on many occasions when we had the pub in the UK and seen their museum it was a let down, but not to be disheartened we headed back to the river and crossed over the Latin Bridge to return ourselves to the busier side of town.
Woolly says – The bridge became famous in 1914 when it was the site of the assassination of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria that sparked World War I. I had read lots about this assassination and the first failed attempt of Gavrilo Princip and his frineds in wonderful book The Balkan Odyssey, each of the men had a cyanide pill to take but none of them worked so they went to prison instead! Having had the obligatory snap taken at the actual site of the shooting I hurried across the road scooting between the cars and into Despic House. The house belonged to the wealthy Orthodox Christian Despic family who donated the it to the City, along with another property which now houses the Museum of Literature and the Performing Arts. The house is noted as the venue for the city’s first theatre performances so is regarded as the precursor of modern theatre, lead me to the stage my friends! Inside the rooms were typically Turkish in design with benched seating and lovely tiled stoves to keep the cold nights at bay. The doomed ceiling in what is called ‘Father’s Room’ was rather fine and the bed upstairs made me chuckle as even my paws would be hanging off the end it was so short! A stage however wasn’t in sight which was a disappointment. Not wanting to dawdle and with a lot still to do I directed the slackers towards the second of the families houses that they had given.
The Museum of Literature and Performing Arts sounded just up our street but it was not to be.
Woolly says – I’m sure there is a plot to stop me going where I want to in the world! The museum was being renovated and having huffed and puffed Jo decided that a sit down, a snack and a look at the map might be in order. By now I had started to wonder why she seemed to be looking more at the floor than at the rather lovely architecture around us, having asked I was given the rather strange answer of ‘roses’, ok now I know she’s a bit odd but even by her standards this was peculiar, I glanced around and pointed out a rather nice yellow rose on the table behind us, ‘No Woolly, red roses’ she said, I sat looking at her and wondering if she was feeling romantic all of a sudden and whether I should move out of the way in case she wanted a kiss!
Bless him nothing that lovely! A Sarajevo Rose is a concrete scar caused by a mortar shell’s explosion that was later filled with red resin. Mortar rounds landing on concrete create a unique fragmentation pattern that looks almost floral in arrangement. Because Sarajevo was a site of intense urban warfare and suffered thousands of shell explosions during the Siege there had been hundreds in the city, I was yet to find one.
Woolly says – having patted her on the shoulder and considered medical help we set off once more. The Orthodox Church was stunning both inside and out, no pictures allowed was no longer a surprise but the incredible gold work that was created in 1868 and given as a gift to the church by the Romanov family was incredible. We stood and stared, the more we stared the more we saw, finally with my neck starting to ache I hustled the party back outside and across the little area of greenery, ‘white rose’ I cried but Jo just shook her head. As we wandered through the main walking area I was delighted to see the cities Cathedral, modelled after the Notre-Dame in Dijon, France work began on 25th August 1884 and was completed on 9th November 1887. A fine example of Neo-Gothic style but for us with it’s large doors closed that was all we would get to see. Onwards we went and having found ourselves back in the Old City once more I spied what appeared to be a Hamman, knowing Jo and Zoe’s interest in these things I trotted through the door to find myself in a museum.
Housed in what was once an undercover Turkish shopping area that sold silk from Bursa from 1551 it now held the exhibits for the Sarajevo museum up to 1918.
Woolly says – Reams and reams of information and a lack of artefacts greeted my eyes to show willing I toured round the glass cases as the girls tried to absorb the written material, first Jo gave up and then Zoe it wasn’t a day for reading apparently! Having checked Jo’s watch I clocked that the time was fast approaching for the big attraction of the day and pushing the women in front I pointed them in the direction of our driver.
A lovely young man greeted us and sheparded us and an Italian lady into his car before setting off along the 7km of Sniper Alley. The information came thick and fast, first in English for us and then in Italian for our new companion.
Woolly says- he was wonderful and so knowledge….maybe he has a Mammoth Book of Facts! As the journey passed he told us of the struggles the city had been through during the Bosnian War and that his family had been divided with his Father disappearing for three years to fight while him, his brother and mother sought sanctuary in Italy (explains the fluent Italian!) Finally we pulled up at the Tunnel of Salvation, the Sarajevo Tunnel was an underground tunnel constructed between March and June of 1993 during the Siege of Sarajevo in the midst of the Bosnian War. It was built by the Bosnian Army in order to link the city of Sarajevo which was entirely cut off by Serbian forces with Bosnian held territory on the other side of the Sarajevo Airport, an area controlled by the United Nations. The tunnel linked the neighbourhoods of Dobrinja and Butmir allowing food, war supplies, and humanitarian aid to come into the city and allowing people to get out. It became a major way of bypassing the international arms embargo and providing the city defenders with weaponry. Jo was first out the car and I could see her staring at the ground in front of her, it appeared that she had her first rose!
Unlike the real flowers it was heart breaking to see and to realise that this one had involved a missile sent from fifteen kilometres away that had killed nine people.
Woolly says – as we went past the ticket office our guide showed us a map of the area during the siege, sobering indeed when you realised that the city had been surrounded and that for over three years no one, no country or any powers of the time had stepped into help them. The video that came next gave a tiny view of the actual bombing, fires and bullets raining down on the buildings and citizens of Sarajevo using actual footage that had been taken at the time. It also gave us an insight into how the tunnel was built and the lady who had owned the house giving water and help to everyone that came through it. For four months men worked twenty four hours a day not just digging but navigating through electric cables with water up to their waist but then having to clear the earth and water without being detected, they were hero’s.
We were led to the tunnel entrance to find that an incendiary had landed just a foot away but had luckily not exploded although other attempts to stop the tunnelling had not been so lucky and other entrances had been destroyed. Down the wooden steps we were only able to view twenty five metres of what is left of the original eight hundred metres but even being short it was a struggle for me to get through, how they had managed to bring the injured, food, water and even animal stock was incredible.
Woolly says – upstairs showed a mock up of supplies being moved and the equipment that they had used, a small pot bellied stove had provided heat but didn’t allow them to have the smoke billowing out to the world above for fear of being seen so they had to breath the smoke in instead, many died from this alone. I had to admire the resilience that the people had shown and the young man who had told us a little of his life and the ongoing affects that he still has but who is proud to be Bosnian and gives the tours to make sure that the stories of those that no longer can, live on.