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Sarajevo
Museums
by
ALOHA DEAN
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History Museum Museum Zmaja od Bosne 5, tel. 47 04 18. The permanent exhibition of this box-like building next to the National Museum is closed, but the room at the back occasionally holds small exhibitions on topics from Bosnian history. Parked outside are some of the weapons the partisans used to terrorize the Nazis in WWII, as well as unimpressive armored train. National Museum Zmaja od Bosne 3, tel. 66 802766 80 25. Under endless restoration, this good museum is only open two days per week, and only for a few hours. If you are in town at the right time, the museum is certainly worth a visit. On display is the Sarajevo Haggadah, 
Haggadah for Passover, 14th century (outside link)HAGGADAH is the Jewish book of rites, a collection of biblical stories, prayers and psalms related to Pesah, important Jewish holiday. It is named after an ancient Jewish prophet Haggai (around 520 BC). One of the most valuable such books in the world is the Sarajevo Hagaddah, written around 1314 in Spain. Unique by its extraordinarily rich illuminations, it came to present Bosnia and Herzegovina by the end of 15th century with Jewish Sephardic settlers, exiled from Spain in 1492. The value of this book of rare beauty is estimated by international experts to 700 million USD (1991). Since 1894 it is in possession of the Sarajevo Museum (Archeological Museum, Zemaljski muzej, founded by Sarajevo Croats in 1888). Kept with extreme care in a steel box, very few people had opportunity to see it. During World War II, the manuscript was hidden from the Nazis by the director of the museum, who, at risk to his own life, smuggled the Haggadah out to a Muslim cleric in a mountain village—there it was hidden under the floorboards of either a mosque or a Muslim home. During the Bosnian War of 1992-1995, when Sarajevo was under constant siege by Bosnian Serb forces, the manuscript survived in an underground bank vault. One wing of the main building holds the newly arranged collection of archeological finds: Greek and Roman tombstones, mosaics and pottery, as well as medieval arte facts like rusty swords, jewelry and coins. Unfortunately, texts are in Bosnian only. The courtyard holds the University‘s modest botanical garden, where Japanese apple trees have survived the war, as well as some impressive Stecci, carved medieval Bosnian tombstones that are the symbol of the country, and of which thousands still remain across the country. The three other buildings around the garden hold the library, the natural history department with the usual stufy collection of stuffed animals(although the eagles are impressive) and finally the ethnography museum. The latter houses the beautiful interior of an 18thcentury Bosnian house, comparable to the Svrzo house and with English-language texts. Furniture and dressed dolls are used to show how Bosnian families followed trends from Istanbul first, but later became more influenced by fashion from Vienna. One scene shows the embarrassing way that girls met boys - the lad would sit outside the lattice work and pluck his sitar while the girl, with full consent of her parents, would sit inside to be wooed. |
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