To the origins
It all starts in Okolište which shelters one of the largest Neolithic tells of the Balkans, a tell designating a hill formed by a continuous alternation of destruction and reconstruction of villages... and those of Okoliste could reach 3 000 inhabitants! Bosnia-Herzegovina also harbors traces of the presence of the Illyrians, who built their cities on rocky spurs that they surrounded with powerful fortified walls. In Ošanići, the archaeological site of Daorson presents the remains of a Hellenistic city. A fort overlooks an acropolis and a residential and commercial area. A stone wall made of two towers surrounded the whole site. But it is especially the Romans who left their print. Their structures were primarily military, as evidenced by the site of Gračine, with its remains of rectangular buildings protected by a stone rampart. The most impressive of all the Roman sites is the archaeological site of Morgojelo, in Čapljina. This is a fascinating example of a fortified suburban villa. The villa rustica was later expanded into a latifundium, a large extensively farmed estate. The main villa consists of four fortified wings delimiting a courtyard serving warehouses and workshops. Massive walls and towers, composed of a mixture of layers of limestone and layers of stones mixed with bricks, are the guardians of a rich decor of mosaics and fake marble. The site of Morgojelo was then transformed into a village in the Byzantine period, of which two basilicas with a nave arranged in a parallel way remain and represent a beautiful example of double churches, as one finds many on the Dalmatian coast. The early Christian basilica of Gradac is also noteworthy for the originality of its plan, which represents one of the first examples of the addition of a chapel with an apse to the original basilica plan.
Medieval power
Bosnia-Herzegovina is famous for its multitude of fortresses (more than three hundred!). These complex defensive systems, built in an impressive ashlar structure, were often erected on the foundations of prehistoric and Illyrian forts. Their varied forms are explained by the fact that each fortress adapts to the unique topography of the hills or rocky spurs. The irregular polygon of the fortress of Blagaj is a perfect example. From a stylistic point of view, one can find in these fortresses Romanesque influences, notably in the sobriety of the square towers, but also Gothic (play on the arcatures, lancet motifs). These fortresses protect astonishing urban cores which grow at the same time as their ramparts are enlarged, thus becoming tiered on several levels. Under the shelter of its ramparts marked out by fortified doors, the city of Jajce deploys a typically medieval urbanism. The citadel overlooks a residential area made of houses originally made of wood forming a kind of amphitheater and whose spaces are served by a maze of alleys and vaulted passages connecting the central square. The church and its bell tower of Saint-Luc are a must-see. The cemeteries of medieval tombs stećci are, them, the superb representatives of a religious medieval architecture. Organized in rows, these tombs are carved and sculpted in limestone and impress with their diversity of forms (slabs, chests, sarcophagi, steles, slabs topped with crosses, gabled structures) and their sculpted and engraved decorations (high and low reliefs in geometric, floral, zoomorphic, heraldic and epigraphic forms). Interfaith, these tombs are a symbol of dialogue between cultures. The most impressive ones are to be seen in the region of Stolac. The medieval necropolis of Boljuni is home to hundreds of tombs bearing the mark of Grubac, one of the greatest craftsmen of the time, who used highly original motifs (lions, fantastic animals with a lizard-like appearance, stylized rosettes, dancing figures...). A layout and motifs that also inspired the builders of the local stone tombs of the great Jewish cemetery of Sarajevo, also a witness to a fruitful exchange between cultures.
Ottoman wealth
In parallel with the reinforcement of existing defensive structures (additions of powder magazines and bastioned elements), the Ottomans developed an astonishing civil engineering art. The Mehmed-Pasha-Sokolović Bridge in Višegrad with its eleven masonry arches and the Old Bridge in Mostar, with its unique 28 m span arch and protective towers, were designed by the legendary Mimar Sinan. The Ottomans also developed a very rich water architecture. Built in stone and covered with lime, with thick walls pierced with small openings, and rooms crowned with domes, the hammam of Stolac is a model of bath architecture. The Sebilj fountain in Sarajevo is one of the most beautiful with its elegant finely chiseled wooden mantling. The Ottoman cities are organized according to an urbanism where green spaces connect the čaršija (center of trade and crafts and beating heart of the city) to the mahala (residential areas). The mosques have a place of first order. The latter are often characterized by a single room topped by a dome and flanked by one or more slender minarets, and by a decoration mixing geometric, floral and calligraphic motifs. The mosques were most often part of larger ensembles including caravanserais and medersas, Koranic schools organized around inner courtyards surrounded by wooden galleries and rooms covered with domes of various sizes. The Hadj Halija mosque in Počitelj, the Sultan Suleyman mosque in Blagaj and the Gazi Husrev Beg mosque in Sarajevo are among the most beautiful. Many cities such as Livno or Gradac also have sahat-kula or clock towers of square plan. The Ottomans also developed a rich residential architecture: rectangular in plan, founded on stone bases, with a framework of bricks and wood, with roofs with overhanging projections and covered with wooden shingles, clay tiles or large stones, with whitewashed walls and symmetrically arranged windows, with a main facade decorated with oriels (closed and glazed wooden balconies) and a facade on the courtyard punctuated with open balconies and porches-galleries in carved wood giving onto a courtyard planted with trees and paved with pebbles, surrounded by high walls.. the Ottoman houses impress by their harmony. The interior spaces are divided into selamuk (public men's quarter) and haremluk (private women's quarter). On the upper level is the divanha or large living room that can be recognized by its musandera, integrated wooden furniture. All these spaces are connected by wooden stairs and overlook the central courtyard. Many of these houses belonged to large residential complexes. Among the most beautiful Ottoman houses in the country are the Svrzo house in Sarajevo, the kuća Resulbegovića in Trebinje, or the impressive Begovina villa complex in Stolac.
Austro-Hungarian Eclecticism
In contrast to the "informal" character of Ottoman cities, the Austro-Hungarians established strict urban regulations: compulsory building permits, fire-fighting measures, standardization of building proportions and the requirement to harmonize styles. At first, the Austro-Hungarians blew a historicizing wind over the country, especially for public buildings and churches. The two great architects of the time were Karel Pařík and Josip Vancaš. To the former, nicknamed the "Builder of Sarajevo", we owe the harmonious and very neoclassical National Museum of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Academy of Fine Arts (former seat of the Evangelical Church) in Romanesque-Byzantine finery. To the latter, we owe in particular the impressive Sacred Heart Cathedral of Sarajevo with its 43-meter-high double bell tower and octagonal rosette portal resolutely neo-Gothic. Pařík was a staunch defender of historic Sarajevo and wanted to establish any new construction away from the heart of the city, while Vancaš was the first to establish legislation for the protection of historic monuments. Gradually, the Austro-Hungarians realized that the application of Western European styles could not be suitable for this multi-ethnic country. They therefore chose to promote the Bosnian identity, without associating it with the Ottoman Empire or with the Panslavic movement which was then in full development, by using a pseudo-Moorish style inspired by Spanish Mudéjar architecture and the Mameluke architecture of Egypt and Syria. Crenellated silhouettes, bays surmounted by horseshoe arches, ornamental richness are among the main characteristics of this style that can be found in the National Library of Sarajevo inspired by the Kemal II mosque in Cairo, and in the impressive Gymnasium of Mostar. Then the country will know a small revolution with the appearance of the Bosnian style. Carried by young architects trained in Vienna by Otto Wagner, the father of the Viennese Secession, a branch of Art Nouveau with more refined geometric forms, the Bosnian style is a mixture of eclecticism, modernity and borrowings to oriental vernacular motifs. The central post office by Josip Vancaš or the fire station by Josip Pospišil are among the great representatives of this style, whose clarity of form and lack of "outrageous" ornamentation announce the contours of modernism.
Yugoslav period
This period can be divided into two main stages. The first corresponds to the interwar period and is characterized by a modernism tinged with the simple geometry of cubism and neoplasticism inherited from the Dutch De Stijl movement. The great representatives of this movement are the brothers Muhamed and Reuf Kadić, to whom we owe in particular the Mekteb Building on Ferhadija in Sarajevo with its facades covered with green ceramics and glass loggias, and Juraj Neidhart, who worked with great figures of modernism such as Peter Behrens and Le Corbusier, and who developed an architecture combining vernacular elements and integration with the environment.
The second period corresponds to socialist Yugoslavia. Bosnia-Herzegovina did not escape the advent of concrete and the creation of dormitory towns with large complexes intended to house the workers of the new industrial suburbs. But very quickly, due to a policy of decentralization, the country develops a form of critical regionalism, establishing a modernism with sobriety moderated by real expressionist impulses. One of the great architects of the time is Zlatko Ugljen. He was responsible for many hotels with clean and simple lines, such as the famous Hotel Visoko, and for "historical" revisits to modernism, such as in Tito's Villa Gorica in Bugojno and in the superb White Serefudin Mosque in Visoko, for which he received the Aga Khan Award for Architecture in 1983. Ugljen also worked on the realization of numerous memorials and monuments erected to the glory of the Yugoslav Revolution called Spomenici. Inspired by ancient and pagan iconography, the memorial in Garavice Memorial Park looks like a concrete totem pole. For the Monument to the Fallen Fighters for the Liberation of the People in Sarajevo, he worked in collaboration with the sculptor Petar Krstić, who also created the memorials in Vogošća, Sanski Most or Bratunac, showing an impressive sculptural expressiveness. This mixture of brutalism and expressiveness can be found in the work of Ivan Strauss, who also adds borrowings from the international style with the use of glass, as in his Elektroprivreda Building, a kind of inverted glass pyramid with redans, the Holiday Inn hotel and especially the famous UNIS towers in Sarajevo.
Since independence
During the Bosnian war, more than 2,000 historic buildings were destroyed. In the case of Sarajevo, the term "urbicide" is used to describe the repeated attacks on its architectural and urban identity. But the inhabitants have always shown a fierce desire to protect their heritage and, later, to rebuild it, joining the UNESCO project called "Restoring Life in Sarajevo". Then, very quickly, the capital experienced a real estate boom. The residential area of Hrasno saw the birth of the Bosmal City Center with its twin towers of almost 120 m high, and the city acquired the Avaz Tower(Avaz Twist Tower), with its astonishing twisted glass facade stretching 172 m high. In 2012, the director Emir Kusturica chooses the outskirts of Višegrad to establish Andrićgrad, a city so named because it is entirely dedicated to the work of the Yugoslav writer Ivo Andrić. Objective: to give the impression that this city was built centuries before. With its ramparts and its paved streets, the city makes illusion... and debate too. To build it, Kusturica destroyed the century-old fortress of Petrinja and offers a rereading of the prosecco history that is not really to the taste of the Bosnians. Debates that do not arise from contemporary achievements that are harmoniously integrated into the beautiful landscapes of the country: pino Nature Hotel with its large triangular windows reminiscent of fir trees, Hotel M Gallery at the foot of Bjelašnica Mountain whose upper floors seem to extend the forest, the panoramic restaurant at the top of Raduša Mountain with its gently sloping roof, glass walls and interior spaces made of local wood, or the Bivouac Zoran Šimić Cabin in Pridvorci, a shelter with the appearance of wooden diamonds, are some of the most interesting contemporary designs. In these remote areas, these achievements also allow us to observe the treasures of rural architecture where houses with thatched roofs, houses with stone foundations, wooden walls pierced with small windows and steeply sloping roofs descending almost to the ground, and houses with hipped roofs housing large storage granaries. But it is undoubtedly Sarajevo that is changing the most and the fastest. Its stunning Festina Lente footbridge is punctuated at its center by a loop serving as a shelter and meeting place, as a symbol of the city's yearning to regain its unity. Launched in 2021, its project to renovate a former military barracks into a large university campus, to which will be added other modern buildings and a renewal of the urban planning of Novo Sarajevo, also promises great novelties!
