HAMMAM GAZI HÜSREV-BEY - BOSNIAN INSTITUTE

This ancient hammam (Gazi Husrev-Begov Hamam) was built in the second half of the 16th century. It is the largest and best preserved of the seven public baths dating from the Ottoman period in Sarajevo. It remained in use until 1916 and was used as a covered market during the 1992-1996 siege, sheltered from sniper fire. Since its renovation in 1998, it has been part of the Bosnian Institute (Bošnjački Institut), the most visited cultural institution in the city (mainly by the local public and the diaspora). It is located on the left in the entrance courtyard of the institute. Designed as a Roman bath, it included hot baths, pools and dry baths with a complex system of heating and piping. It is surmounted by eight lead domes: two large ones above the façade, two medium ones in the central part and four small ones at the back. It is a rare case in the country of çift-hamam, a "double hammam" that can accommodate men and women in two separate parts (another exists in Blagaj). From the 19th century, an extension reserved for non-Muslims was added. It was used for the ritual ablutions of the inhabitants of the neighboring Jewish district.

Superb ethnographic collection. Attached to the foundation of the Gazi Hüsrev-Bey mosque in the 17th century, the hammam is today managed jointly with the Bosnian Institute. The latter was founded in Zurich in 1988 by Adil Zulfikarpašić (1921-2008), whose tomb is in the entrance courtyard. A former partisan, but opposed to Tito, he went into exile in Switzerland and campaigned for a "Bosnian" identity within Yugoslavia (the socialist authorities only recognized a "Muslim nationality"). All his life, this businessman and philanthropist collected objects and books of the Bosnian culture. These are the collections that are presented in the modern building that has been attached to the Gazi Hüsrev-Bey hammam since 2001: coins, stamps, seals, Islamic manuscripts, etc. The art collection is particularly noteworthy, with more than 1,500 works by 200 artists, among which The Dance of the Goat(Kozaračko kolo) by the great Tuzla painter Ismet Mujezinović (1907-1984). The ethnological collection (19th-20th centuries) is also very rich with superb jewelry, carved wooden furniture as well as anterija, long tunics of silk or velvet finely embroidered.