Sarajevo City Hall (Vijećnica)
Pseudo-Moorish 1896 city hall, rebuilt after the siege and open daily for visits.
Vijećnica stands at the eastern end of the Baščaršija quarter, where the Miljacka river bends beneath the hills. Commissioned under Austro-Hungarian rule, it was begun to a design by Karel Pařík, redrawn in a pseudo-Moorish idiom by Alexander Wittek and completed by Ćiril Iveković after Wittek's death. It opened on 20 April 1896 as the seat of the city administration. The triangular plan, banded stonework and horseshoe arches drew on Islamic buildings in Cairo and Andalusia, giving the Habsburg city a deliberately oriental civic showpiece.
After the Second World War the building became the National and University Library of Bosnia and Herzegovina. On the night of 25 August 1992 it was struck by incendiary shells during the siege of Sarajevo; the interior burned and around two million books, manuscripts and periodicals were lost. Reconstruction to the original drawings began in 1996 and the restored hall reopened on 9 May 2014. It now hosts council sessions, concerts and exhibitions, and visitors can see the atrium, stained glass and a display on the rebuilding.
Highlights
- Triangular pseudo-Moorish plan with striped stone and horseshoe arches
- Glazed central atrium rising through galleried floors
- Exhibition in the basement on the building's two-decade reconstruction
- Riverside setting at the entrance to the Baščaršija old quarter
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