ABSTRACT
Between the mid-nineteenth and the mid-twentieth century, the city of Sarajevo served as the administrative capital of an Ottoman vilayet, an Austro-Hungarian pseudo-colony, and various regional configurations within the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. It did not become the capital of an independent state until the 1990s. Nevertheless, from 1850 to 1941, Sarajevo underwent a drastic metamorphosis that involved taking on the physical attributes of a European political centre and representing Bosnian identity. The typical Ottoman Balkan city was transformed into a typical Central European city through a series of piecemeal planning projects, the modernization of the city’s infrastructure, and the introduction of new building types and architectural styles. Yet at the same time, portions of the Ottoman city, most notably the central market, or Baščaršija, and its monumental mosques, were preserved.
