The Rediscovering of Olympic Sarajevo

Alen Celeketic & Marija Malinovic

The 1984 Winter Olympics were one of the biggest events that Sarajevo has experienced in its history. The largest sporting event of Yugoslavia had in the economic sense a tremendous impact on the development of the city infrastructure and the winter tourism in Sarajevo. After the Olympic Games in Sarajevo remained significant architecture, that on the one hand affected the urbanity of the city and the quality of life and on the other hand valorized the mountains surrounding Sarajevo. The attribute of an Olympic City, that Sarajevo gained thought the organization of the Olympic Games, enriched the Identity of the city, that developed out of its history and can be best described with the word “diversity”. In year 1992 began the four-year siege of Sarajevo, in which among all the other tragic events almost the entire Olympic infrastructure was damaged. The city of Sarajevo today is perceived in the world as a wounded city, that is trying to regain its old glory. After the war had ended, began the renovation of the old and construction of new buildings. Great emphasis was placed on ensuring that buildings from earlier centuries were restored with due respect for the architecture. On the other side not enough respect was shown toward buildings that were built in the time of the SFRY, although they are also the part of the history and the identity of Sarajevo and are considered to be the witnesses of their time. Especially affected with the problem of missing respect are the Olympic buildings. It seems that the architectural and economic potential that these buildings have, has not yet been recognized. In the worst case, this problem can lead to a part of the architectural history of Sarajevo being completely lost. The goal of this thesis is an intensive examination of the Olympic Infrastructure On the basis of existing sources a profound analysis of the buildings is made to answer the question of the architectural potential and to raise awareness of the importance of these structures. The thesis also includes an examination of the function of these buildings during and after the Olympics, as well in the present, to discuss their sustainable use back then and the possible sustainable use today. The knowledge should be obtained as to whether and why it would also be important to treat the Olympic buildings with due respect in the future, as well as which role the Olympic architecture plays in the creation of an overall image of the city of Sarajevo.
The master thesis The Rediscovering of Olympic Sarajevo was supervised by Anselm Wagner (Institute of Architectural Theory, History of Art and Cultural Studies).