Photos of Our Life in Sarajevo

		Here's a photo of Sarajevo from the hills surrounding the city. This far out of the city, feels like rural village life rather than a capitol city! Every time we go up into the hills to overlook Sarajevo I think of a popular folk song, "Sarajevo, My Love"!

Here's a view of Sarajevo from a different hill. We love to drive up into the hills to look at the city at night. The hillsides are covered with little tiny lights from individual homes. It's even more beautiful in person than it is on this photo!

		This is the little shop around the corner from our apartment where we buy a few basic groceries. The shopkeeper is very friendly and we have fun visiting with him. Every neighborhood has a shop like this and is a place to visit with your neighbors.

This is John shopping for fresh produce in Markala, the main outdoor market in the center of the city. This market is known for the terrible mortar attack that occurred on February 5, 1994 killing 68 civilians. It has recently been completely renovated with a high covering over the whole market. It is open all year round and the produce is wonderful!

		Yet another view of Sarajevo. The dark red church with the green copper steeple is St. Anthony's Franciscan church. The connected monastery is fra Ivo's home. Our interreligious choir, Pontanima rehearses in a room in the monastery and our English-speaking Anglican congregation also meets in a room in the monastery.

This is a view of the inside of St. Anthony's church. The photo is actually taken at the wedding of one of our choir members, Zana Uherka. Fra Ivo officiated the ceremony and Pontanima (in the front on the left) sang.

		Sarajevo is sometimes called the "European Jerusalem" because it is a historical home to four major religious communities -Eastern Orthodox Christian, Sephardic Jewish, Islamic and Roman Catholic Christian. Places of worship for all four communities can be found within 500 meters. Bosnia holds a long tradition of openness and cooperation between the religious communities while preserving their distinctness. This photo shows one of the many mosques of the Islamic community. Faithful Muslims go to their local mosque five times a day to pray.

The Serbian Orthodox Christian community has three churches within the city of Sarajevo. This one, Saborna (meaning synod) is the Serbian Orthodox cathedral. Worship services, which follow a liturgy are long (no pews to sit in!) but it is acceptable to come for only part of the service. We enjoy going to Sunday morning services before our own church service. The icons, incense, candles and dramatic music create an atmosphere of awe and the mystery of God.


During our time here, we have observed a lot of reconstruction of war damaged buildings all over Bosnia. These two photos show the Main Post Office in Sarajevo which was completely destroyed by incinerator shells during the war. The first shows the building (pink) as it looked when we arrived in Sarajevo (Spring 1999). The second shows the building (yellow) as it looks as of summer (2000).