ABSTRACT
Owing to their Ottoman past and to contemporary Austro-Hungarian colonial policies, Bosnia and Herzegovina1 were exceptional areas in late nineteenth-and early twentieth-century Europe. In particular, their urban soundscapes were a mixture of Ottoman and Central European practices. The colonial administration, from the beginnings of the occupation, did not abandon the traditional Ottoman cannon signals for midday and fire alarms, for instance, while the presence of three main religions in Bosnia – Islam, Serbian Orthodoxy and Catholicism – meant that the spectrum of everyday religious soundmarks was more diversified than elsewhere.2 Through standardized sets of signals, the colonial authorities provided these religions with a much more pronounced position in the soundscape than elsewhere in the Empire or in the Balkans. Another important component of the Bosnian urban soundscape was, however, common to all Habsburg lands: the sound signals of the imperial festivals and salutes for high-ranking guests.
