Sarajevo

Sarajevo is the capital city and largest urban center of Bosnia and Herzegovina, with an estimated population of 602,500 (as of December, 2006). It is also the capital of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina entity, and the de jure capital of the Republika Srpska entity, as well as the center of the Sarajevo Canton. Sarajevo is located in the Sarajevo valley of Bosnia proper, surrounded by the Dinaric Alps and situated around the Miljacka river. The city is famous for its traditional religious diversity, with adherents of Islam, Catholicism, Orthodoxy, and Judaism peacefully coexisting there for centuries.

Although settlement in the area stretches back to prehistoric times, the modern city arose as an Ottoman stronghold in the 15th century. Sarajevo has attracted international attention several times throughout its history: In 1914 it was the site of the assassination that sparked World War I, while seventy years later it became the host city of the 1984 Winter Olympics. More recently, Sarajevo underwent the longest siege in modern military history during the Bosnian war. Today the city is recovering and adjusting to a post-war reality, as a major center of culture and economic development in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

History

The Sarajevo valley has a long and rich history dating back to the Neolithic period, when the Butmir Culture flourished. Several Illyrian settlements existed in the area before it was conquered by Rome in 9 CE. During Roman times, a town named Aquae Sulphurae ("sulfuric thermal spring") existed on the location of the present-day Sarajevo suburb of Ilidža. After the Romans, the Goths settled the area, followed by the Slavs in the 7th century.

The settlement Vrh-Bosna existed in the valley as a Slavic citadel from 1263 until it was conquered by the Ottoman Empire's warriors in 1429. Under Isa-Beg Isaković, the first Ottoman governor of the Bosnia Province, the settlement was established as a city, named Bosna-Saraj, around the citadel in 1461. The governor oversaw the construction of the city's Old Town district, including a water-supply system, mosque, closed marketplace, public bath, hostel, and Governor's palace. Gazi Husrev-beg was appointed the second governor of the Bosnia Province in 1521 and built the city's first library, madrassa, school of Sufi philosophy, as well as the Sahat Kula clock tower.

In 1697, during the Great Turkish War, a raid was led by Prince Eugene of Savoy of the Habsburg Monarchy against the Ottoman Empire, which conquered Sarajevo and left it plague-infected and burned to the ground. The city was later rebuilt, but never fully recovered from the destruction. The Ottoman Empire made Sarajevo an important administrative centre by 1850, but the ruling powers changed as the Austria-Hungarian Empire conquered Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1878 as part of the Treaty of Berlin, and annexed it completely in 1908. Sarajevo was industrialized by Austria-Hungary, who used the city as a testing area for new inventions, such as tramways, before installing them in Vienna.

In the event that triggered World War I, Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria and his wife Sophie, Duchess of Hohenberg, were assassinated in Sarajevo on June 28, 1914 by a Yugoslav, Gavrilo Princip, a nationalist/provocateur assassin. In the ensuing war, however, most of the Balkan offensives occurred near Belgrade, and Sarajevo largely escaped damage and destruction during the war. Following the war, after the Balkans were unified under the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, Sarajevo became the capital of the Drina Province.

In April 1941 Nazi Germany invaded Yugoslavia and bombarded Sarajevo. At this time, there were approximately 10,500 Jews living in Sarajevo, who, along with Romany and Orthodox Serbians, were oppressed by the Ustaše dicatoring government or transported to concentration camps. Yugoslav Partisan resistance fighters, led by Josip Broz Tito, liberated Sarajevo on 6 April 1945.

Afterwards, the city grew rapidly as it became an important regional industrial center in Yugoslavia. As part of the 1945 General Town Development Plan modern city blocks were built west of the old city, adding to Sarajevo's architectural uniqueness. The peak of city growth occurred in the early 1980s, when Sarajevo hosted the 1984 Winter Olympics.

On April 6, 1992, as the former communist state of Yugoslavia was disintegrating, Sarajevo was surrounded by the Yugoslav National Army (Bosnian: "Jugoslovenska Narodna Armija") and a number of paramilitary (Bosnian Serb Army) formations. The siege of Sarajevo, which lasted until October 1995, resulted in large scale destruction and dramatic population shifts. Reconstruction of Sarajevo started as soon as the war ended with the Dayton Agreement of November 1995.

By 2003, most of the city had been rebuilt, with only a few remaining visible ruins in the city centre. Modern office buildings and skyscrapers have since been constructed throughout the city.