Posted on: February 6, 2021 Posted by: Nabeel Rashid Comments: 17

Sarajevo is the only city in entire Europe where we find true colors of Eastern and Western culture simultaneously. This is the reason why Sarajevo is also known as “Second Jerusalem” or “Jerusalem of Europe.” When we enter the area of “Old Town of Sarajevo”, within few minutes of walk, we feel that we are walking in Turkey, Austria and Hungary at the same time as we find buildings with best examples of Austria-Hungary Architecture along with Ottoman Architecture.

We also find places of worship from four major religions including Islam, Catholicism, Orthodox and Judaism.  Each depicting their own colors of architecture, history and cultural backgrounds.

We find countless colors of Western and Eastern World at the same time that it becomes almost impossible to differentiate between them. This is the reason why human beings from any part of the globe can relate to this place and remember this place as “The place where East meets West.”

BOSNIAN LITERATURE:

Sarajevo plays a major role in the field of literature. There are number of publishing houses providing quality books from contemporary to classics. Some masterpieces of literature were written in Arabic, Turkish, and German along with Bosnian language as Bosnia has vast history of literature with flavors of different rulers over the centuries.

Ivo Andric is one of the all-time famous authors from Bosnia who was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature. In fact, Ivo Andric is considered as literary hero not only for Bosnia but for Croatia and Serbia too.

Another legend, Safvet-Beg Basagic, a Bosnian intellectual who is also known as the “Father of Bosnian Renaissance” who preserved an image of Bosnian literature and Muslim literary heritage in his works. Bisera Alikadic is one of the first female authors from Bosnia to publish romance novels.  Other famous authors include Karim Zaimovic, Semezdin Mehmedinovic, Otto Lang, Miljenko Jergovic and Zlata Filipovic.

SPORTS:

Sarajevo is the city which carries the honor of hosting the 14th Winter Olympic Games back in 1984. Zetra Olympic Hall is the famous hall that hosted the mega sports event. After hosting the golden smiling days of sports, this hall witnessed tears of destruction and bloodshed during the war period in early 1990s but was reconstructed again. Now, the golden days of smile are back again as the hall is busy in hosting different sports events along with concerts.  

Major sports includes Football, basketball and Volleyball are famous sports. Other sports include hiking, mountain climbing and rock climbing.

ACCORDING TO THE AUTHOR SANA ALEKSANDRA DELIC FROM BOSNIA:

Sarajevo is the city where tourists, photographers, researchers and film makers come to see the world’s best sunset. The city is famous for its hospitality where family ties are strong, friendship is durable and neighborhood networks are well organized. The city where all major festivals are celebrated at its peak whether it is Ramadan, Eid or Christmas (Orthodox and Catholic both).

MUSIC:

Sarajevo is one of the most influential cities in the Balkan World as far as music is concerned. Rich musical culture of the city was highlighted back in 20th century as it was center of Pop and Rock music and it produced some of the best Yugoslav rock bands of all time like Bijelo Dugme, Indeksi, Crvena Jabuka and many others. Even today, it is famous all over for producing quality music.

SARAJEVO FILM FESTIVAL:

The city is Sarajevo is famous for its film industry and it also carries the credit for organizing Sarajevo Film Festival every year which is known as one of the largest film festivals in entire Europe. Apart from that ballets, operas and drama productions are performed in the National Theater of Sarajevo. The Sarajevo Philharmonic Orchestra also performs at the National Theater.

FAMOUS CUISINE:

When we talk about famous Bosnian Cuisine it includes variety of food like Sogandolma, pite, Bosnian baklava, kadayif, hurmasice and kompot (sweet soup made of different fruits in boiled water).

National dish of Bosnia is cevapi. Some of the Bosnian cuisine is also influenced by Turkish cuisine like sweet cake, grilled beef or lamb and coffee.  

The common words which you will hear in Sarajevo are ”Ako Bog da” which means “If Allah allows/InshaAllah”. Another famous phrase is “Allahimanet” which means goodbye.

Note: We are thankful to the following for guide in our research

https://www.mywanderlust.pl/places-to-visit-in-bosnia-and-herzegovina/

https://www.mywanderlust.pl/sarajevo-history/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zetra_Olympic_Hall,_Sarajevo

https://theculturetrip.com/europe/bosnia-herzegovina/articles/the-coolest-neighbourhoods-in-sarajevo-bosnia/

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