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The Culture of Sarajevo is represented in various ways.
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Numerous cultural festivals occur every year, such as the Bašćaršija Nights, Sarajevo Winter Festival, and the Sarajevo Jazz Festival.
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The Culture of Sarajevo is represented in various ways.
Numerous cultural festivals occur every year, such as the Bašćaršija Nights, Sarajevo Winter Festival, and the Sarajevo Jazz Festival.
Numerous theatres are present in Sarajevo as well, such as the National Theatre of Sarajevo. The first ever Bosnian opera was held in Sarajevo in 2003. Theatres are also an important part of Sarajevo culture. The first great Sarajevo theatre was the national theatre of Bosnia and Herzegovina, built in 1919 and surviving to this day. Prior to that, plays were often held in parks or at the large houses of wealthy families. Sarajevo also houses the Sarajevo Youth Theatre.
Sarajevo also holds many of the most famous historical texts in Bosnia and Herzegovina. They were largely held in the Sarajevo City (and University) Library that was built in 1896. Unfortunately Serbian ultranationalists purposely fired upon the building with incendiary shells. They succeeded in setting the building on fire, and along with it thousands of irreplaceable texts. Today an international effort is underway to replace what was lost.
In Ottoman times, the Gazi Husrev-beg library was one of the largest and greatest in the Balkans. Destroyed since, it is currently being rebuilt in a stunning modern form that will house many of the oldest texts found in the city.
Historically, Sarajevo was home to several famous Bosnian writers, poets and thinkers. Nobel Prize-winner Ivo Andrić attended high school in Sarajevo for two years. Multiple award-winning writer Zlatko Topčić is from the city.
Sarajevo is also home to the Sarajevo Haggadah, one of the oldest surviving such texts, originating from the 14th century and brought by Jews fleeing the Spanish inquisition. As of late, modern art has flourished in the city as well.
Contemporary poet Semezdin Mehmedinović wrote Sarajevo Blues from inside the city during the siege of Sarajevo in 1992.
Sarajevo is home to a number of cultural institutions dedicated to upkeeping the city's culture. The notable Bosniak institute is housed in an impressive building in central Sarajevo, and features various interesting exhibits dealing with the city's and country's culture and history. Also notable are the International Center for Kids and Youth in New Sarajevo and the Center for Sarajevo Culture.
The most famous in all of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the National Museum of Bosnia and Herzegovina, is located in central Sarajevo. It was established in 1888, from an idea dating back to the first half of the 19th century. The Sarajevo Haggadah is held there. While in Sarajevo one can also visit the Ars Aevi Museum of Contemporary Art, the Historical Museum of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Museum of the City of Sarajevo, the War Childhood Museum and the Bosnian and Herzegovinian Museum of Literature. There existed an impressive Olympic museum dedicated to the 84 games, but it was destroyed in warfare. Part of the exhibition has been relocated to a small exhibition hall on the site of the Zetra Stadium.
An interesting aspect of the city's culture is its rich musical history. Many regard it as the most musically influential city in the Balkans, especially during the 20th century. "Kad ja pođoh na Benbašu" is a great example of traditional Bosnian music, and it is one of the city's unofficial anthems. The city is home to the Sarajevo Philharmonic Orchestra.
During the second half of the 20th century, Sarajevo was a center of Yugoslav pop and rock music. Some of the bands from the Sarajevo school of pop rock, such as Bijelo Dugme and Indeksi, are arguably the greatest Yugoslav rock bands of all time. After them come a wide array of other bands and performers considered "greats" and "legends", such as Crvena Jabuka, Plavi Orkestar, Zabranjeno Pušenje, and others. Solo artists such as Kemal Monteno and Dino Merlin also gained much prominence. Monteno's song, "Sarajevo Ljubavi Moja" (Sarajevo Love of Mine), is another unofficial anthem of Sarajevo. Sarajevo is also the hometown of one of the most significant ex-Yugoslavian alternative industrial-noise bands, SCH.
The Sarajevo Film Festival has been held since 1995 and has become the premier film festival in the Balkans. Largely due to its size and the success and popularity of cinema in Bosnia, the event has gained considerable importance and often attracts foreign celebrities. The Sarajevo Winter Festival is also well-known, as are the Bašćaršija Nights, a month-long showcase of local culture, music, and dance.
The city is also present internationally in various forms of pop culture. The film "Welcome to Sarajevo" was released in 1997. The Irish rock band U2 had a hit song with Miss Sarajevo , and progressive metal group Savatage's 1995 Concept Album "Dead Winter Dead" deals with the story of Sarajevo's Romeo and Juliet. Sarajevo is also the name of a jam band from East Windsor, New Jersey.
Sarajevo is the capital and largest city of Bosnia and Herzegovina, with a population of 275,524 in its administrative limits. The Sarajevo metropolitan area including Sarajevo Canton, East Sarajevo and nearby municipalities is home to 555,210 inhabitants. Located within the greater Sarajevo valley of Bosnia, it is surrounded by the Dinaric Alps and situated along the Miljacka River in the heart of the Balkans, a region of Southern Europe.
Like the surrounding Balkan countries, Bosnia and Herzegovina has had a turbulent past marked by frequent foreign invasions and occupation. As a result, Bosnian music is now a mixture of Slavic, Turkish, Central European, Mediterranean, and other influences.
The culture of Bosnia and Herzegovina encompasses the country's ancient heritage, architecture, science, literature, visual arts, music, cinema, sports and cuisine.
Zdravko Čolić is a Bosnian-Serbian pop singer and is widely considered one of the greatest vocalists and cultural icons of the former Yugoslavia. Dubbed the 'Tom Jones' of the Balkans He has garnered fame in Southeastern Europe for his emotionally expressive tenor voice, fluent stage presence and numerous critically and commercially acclaimed albums and singles.
Baščaršija Nights is the biggest culture festival in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina. Taking place throughout July every year, it celebrates various aspects of the nation's culture, and includes performances of classical music, rock and roll and folk music; live theatre; various exhibits and folklore displays; as well as books, film, children's programming, opera and ballet.
The rock music of Bosnia and Herzegovina mostly developed during the time when Bosnia was part of socialist Yugoslavia.
Saša Lošić "Loša" is a Bosnian recording artist. He initially rose to prominence as the lead vocalist of the Bosnian-based music act Plavi orkestar, which is one of the most popular music bands of the former Yugoslav Pop and Rock scene.
The Sarajevo Haggadah is an illuminated manuscript that contains the illustrated traditional text of the Passover Haggadah which accompanies the Passover Seder. It is one of the oldest Sephardic Haggadahs in the world, originating in Barcelona around 1350. The Haggadah is owned by the National Museum of Bosnia and Herzegovina in Sarajevo. Its monetary value is undetermined, but a museum in Spain required that it be insured for $7 million before it could be transported to an exhibition there in 1992.
Baščaršija is Sarajevo's old bazaar and the historical and cultural center of the city. Baščaršija was built in the 15th century when Isa-Beg Ishaković founded the city.
Edin Dervišhalidović, known professionally as Dino Merlin, is a Bosnian singer-songwriter, musician, and record producer. Born in Sarajevo, he was the founder and leader of Merlin, which eventually became one of the best-selling rock-bands of Southeast Europe.
Hari Mata Hari is a Bosnian pop band. Hari Mata Hari is the stage name for the singer Hari Varešanović. The group originated from the city of Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The group has performed over 1,000 concerts and sold 5 million albums to date. Their songs are among the most famous and popular love ballads in the former Yugoslavia era. Hari Mata Hari was the representative of Bosnia and Herzegovina at the Eurovision Song Contest 2006 held in Athens, Greece. Coincidentally, hari mata hari in Malay stands for 'day of the sun, or Sunday'.
Tourism in Bosnia and Herzegovina is a fast-growing sector making up an important part in the economy of the country.
The history of Jews in Bosnia and Herzegovina spans from the arrival of the first Bosnian Jews as a result of the Spanish Inquisition to the survival of the Bosnian Jews through the Holocaust and the Yugoslav Wars. Judaism and the Jewish community in Bosnia and Herzegovina has one of the oldest and most diverse histories in the former Yugoslav states, and is more than 500 years old, in terms of permanent settlement. Then a self-governing province of the Ottoman Empire, Bosnia was one of the few territories in Europe that welcomed Jews after their expulsion from Spain.
Art of Bosnia and Herzegovina refers to artistic objects created by the inhabitants of Bosnia and Herzegovina from prehistory to present times.
The following is a timeline of the history of the city of Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Merima Ključo is a Bosnian concert accordionist and composer. In 1993 she moved to the Netherlands as a refugee of the Bosnian War. Currently she is a Bosnian-Dutch citizen. After receiving a Genius visa in 2011 she became an American resident and is based in Los Angeles.
Around 2:30 p.m. on Sunday, 1 March 1992, a Bosnian Serb wedding procession in Sarajevo's old Muslim quarter of Baščaršija was attacked, resulting in the death of the father of the groom, Nikola Gardović, and the wounding of a Serbian Orthodox priest. The attack took place on the last day of a controversial referendum on Bosnia and Herzegovina's independence from Yugoslavia, in the early stages of the breakup of Yugoslavia and the Yugoslav Wars.
Maja Milinković is a Bosnian fado singer and songwriter, born in Sarajevo, the capital of SR Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Ranko Rihtman is Bosnian pianist, composer, arranger, and conductor.