NATIONAL MUSEUM OF BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA

This museum (Zemaljski Muzej Bosne i Hercegovine) is the largest in the country. Covering 14,500^m2, it houses the famous Sarajevo Haggadah. It was first conceived in 1850 by the Ottomans and finally established in 1888, ten years after the Austro-Hungarian Empire took control of the country. In 1913, the building was enlarged and transformed in the Renaissance style by Czech architect Karel Pařík (1857-1942), whose work includes the Vijećnica, the Sarajevo Synagogue, and the Academy of Fine Arts. Created with the aim of increasing the educational level of the Bosnian population, the museum was gradually endowed with departments of natural history, archaeology, ethnology and a library. Its leading role in the knowledge of the country's culture was reaffirmed during the socialist period with the development of its collections, the organization of conferences and numerous publications. During the siege of the city, its director was killed while evacuating part of the collections, some items were lost or damaged and the building itself was considerably damaged. However, most of the collections were able to be brought to safety. The museum was gradually reopened after the war with the support of many institutions, such as UNESCO, the National Museum in Zurich, the Association of Swiss Museums, etc. But since the political representatives of the Bosnian-Croat and Bosnian-Serb communities refuse to vote for the budgets dedicated to national culture, the institution suffers from recurrent financial problems. For lack of ability to pay its staff, the museum was completely closed between 2012 and 2015. While the situation now seems to be improving, some rooms still remain closed or awaiting renovation.

Gardens and stećci. In the green space in front of the museum entrance are displayed ten stecći with free access. These medieval Bosnian tombstones come from some of the country's twenty-two necropolises that have been classified as Unesco World Heritage Sites since 2016. But the most impressive are in the courtyard of the museum. Since 1913, this courtyard has been converted into a botanical garden. The place is very pleasant with 1,700 rare, typical or endemic species from all regions of Bosnia and Herzegovina, a small lake, turtles and 22 stecći. Among the latter is the oldest stećak (singular of "stecći") in the Balkans: that of the Serbian count Grdeša of Trebinje, winner of the Battle of Tara against the Byzantines in 1150. As for the most massive and famous one, it comes from the necropolis of Zgošća, near Kakanj. It is a richly decorated 14-ton gabled chest that may have been carved as a burial place for the Bosnian ban Stjepan II Kotromanić (1322-1353), although it is believed that he was buried in the vicinity of Visoko. Also in the courtyard is a modern stone cube inspired by the stećci. This is the monument honoring the museum staff who died during the 1992-1995 war.

Antiquities Section. This is the first section of the archaeology pavilion, at the entrance to the museum. It contains mainly Greco-Roman objects from the first to the sixth century: steles and bas-reliefs, capitals and arches, coins, and mosaics from the rich villas of Ilidža, Bileća and Stolac, including the one of the Minotaur (3rd century) represented in its Cretan labyrinth. Note also the "hand of Sabazios", a small bronze sculpture from the 4th century from the mining region of Srebrenica: it attests to the cult of this deity from northeastern Greece in eastern Bosnia. Some pieces, such as this beautiful Attic rhyton in the form of a crouching satyr (4th century B.C.), were not discovered in the country, but were given to the museum by the Austro-Hungarian authorities for educational purposes.

Prehistoric section. Located in the left wing of the archaeology pavilion, this section remained closed from 1992 to 2020. The gallery is dominated by a 12.5-meter-long dugout suspended in mid-air. Carved from an oak trunk, this Iron Age boat is the largest of its kind in the Balkans. It comes from Donja Dolina, along the Sava River, on the northern border with Croatia. All around, on two levels, showcases present a rich collection of objects from the Paleolithic to the early Antiquity: flints and tools made of reindeer antlers, reconstructions of dwellings and workshops, helmets and weapons of Illyrian and Pannonian tribes, etc. The major pieces here are the pottery and figurines from the Butmir culture (5,100-4,500 BC). They were first discovered in the Butmir district of Ilidža, near the airport, and come mainly from the Visoko region. The pottery is decorated with motifs similar to those of the Minoan culture, while the figurines have much more realistic features than those from other European cultures of the same period.

Medieval section. It is located on the first floor, in the right wing of the archaeology pavilion. In three rooms, life in Bosnia and Herzegovina from the sixth to the fifteenth century is presented: jewelry, carved crosses and liturgical objects of the Bogomils (Christian "heretic" movement of the Balkans), coats of arms of the bans and kings of Bosnia, Bosnian, Byzantine and Venetian coins, first texts from the 10th-12th centuries written in bosančica (the local Cyrillic alphabet), swords, firearms from the 15th century, fragments of the recumbent from the tomb of Stjepan Tomaš (penultimate king of Bosnia, who died in 1461 in Bobovac, two years before the Ottoman invasion).. With the new prehistoric section, it is the part of the museum that benefits from the most careful presentation with in particular numerous explanations translated into English.

Sarajevo Haggadah. The most precious object in the museum, this fourteenth-century Jewish manuscript from Spain is displayed in a secure, air-conditioned room in the medieval section financed in 2020 by the French Embassy. Unfortunately, due to a lack of staff, this room is only open two hours a week (and one hour on the first Saturday of the month). However, one can contemplate the rich illuminations of this "narrative"(haggadah in Hebrew) on a screen showing all the pages scanned at the entrance. The book itself is placed under a thick layer of glass in the center of the room. In the adjacent glass cases are displayed other valuable objects, such as the fragments of the brocade embroidered with fine golden silver threads of Lord Batić Mirković, whose fifteenth-century tomb was discovered in 2015 in the necropolis of Kopošići, near Visoko.

Ethnology Pavilion. Accessible through the botanical garden (on the left as you exit the archaeology pavilion), this is the most dilapidated part of the museum, but the floor is rather rich with reconstructed interiors from the Ottoman period: beautiful Bosnian, Turkish, and Arab carpets, inlaid furniture, finely crafted wooden ceilings, colorful costumes, jewelry, etc.

Natural Science Pavilion. Located at the end of the botanical garden (opposite the archaeology pavilion), this part of the museum is reminiscent of the curiosity cabinets of the 19th century. Although it has been renovated, it still retains its old-fashioned presentation from the Austro-Hungarian period. However, a modern section is dedicated to the aquatic world. Here, the impressive skeleton of a 9-meter-long northern bottlenose whale dominates. This small North Atlantic beaked whale was found stranded in 1893 on the Greek island of Tinos. For the rest, most of the botanical, geological and zoological collections are grouped in two delightful galleries: fossils, rocks, minerals, large series of butterflies, insects and deer horns, naturalized animals, etc.

Library. The building on the right in the courtyard as you leave the archaeology pavilion houses both the administrative services and the museum library. The latter contains 300,000 books and publications. It is open to scholars and the curious on prior request ([email protected]).