The Vijecnica - Town Hall in Sarajevo is a reconstructed building, that serves as a multi - functional Town Hall while previously the building used to be a National Library. The building is reconstructed and refurbished in the same Pseudo – Mauro architectural style and the reconstruction has finished with opening the Town Hall doors in the year 2014. The building is a National heritage of Bosnia and Herzegovina and previously as UNESCO heritage building.

Image: Vijecnica - Town Hall (interior first floor walls and arches). Image © Eminent. [Outlet/ Platform]

As seen on the image above, the entrance hall is covered with a glass cone rooftop that lets light into the main hall and during the sunny days enhances the beauty of the building interiors. Visitors can see the rounded pillars and rounded arches that support the ground floor’s and first floor ceilings, moulded surfaces in the cornices and friezes. The celebration of details is visible in every part of the building as ornaments that surround the inside walls of this building.

Image: Vijecnica - Town Hall (interior ceiling and walls). Image © Eminent. [Outlet/ Platform]

More details of the ornamented design of the glass ceiling, angle borders and walls in the Pseudo – Moorish architectural style is visible on the image above.

Image: Vijecnica - Town Hall in Sarajevo (exterior). Image ©Fred Romero from Paris, France¹ via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0)

In fact, the building itself has a grandiose overview that is placed at the end of the Bascarsija Old Town in Sarajevo and serves mainly as the Town Hall building with different celebrations marked in the building due to its large interior hall space. As seen on the image above, the building exterior has the same type of building details as the interior of the building.

Image: Vijecnica - Town Hall in Sarajevo (during reconstruction and refurbishment). Image ©Milan Suvajac² via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)

The whole building Vijecnica – Town Hall Sarajevo is reconstructed and refurbished with the support of the EU.

From the ground floor is the entrance to the building, and the large main stairs invite visitors to the first floor with walls covered in tapestry ceramics.

Image: Vijecnica - Town Hall (ground floor and first floor interior design). Image © Julian Nyča³ via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)

While stairs are covered with floral ornamented ceramics which add to the building interior design, the stairs’ fence is made of concrete and has an open, ornamented design with florals, stars and polygons.

Image: Vijecnica - Town Hall (interior design of stairs’ walls). Image © Eminent. [Outlet/ Platform]

Through the stair fence are visible the entry stair walls that shine with coloured light from the windows and rooftop. More have a look at the image above. 

The building rooms are designed in the same style with lots of ambient lighting and windows for natural lighting, while the walls and ceiling are fully painted and covered in colourful details that speak much of the importance of the Vijecnica building itself.

Image: Vijecnica - Town Hall (windows type). Image © Eminent. [Outlet/ Platform]

The look on the image above shows very clearly the window and door details that was paid much attention to while refurbishing the building walls. One detail as seen on the image above shows mosaics of stars and polygons on the windows, while another detail has vertical elements of arched window openings. Some of the windows are made as glass wall openings, while other windows are actually used as windows for the natural air circulation.

Image: Vijecnica - Town Hall (second floor). Image © Eminent. [Outlet/ Platform]

On this image are shown the detailed mosaics and sculptural finishes of the walls and ceilings and the connection of walls to ceilings, moulded surfaces in the cornice, friezes and borders, as well as long rows of arches and pillars with capitals and all the details that emphasize the second floor.

The basement of the Vijecnica is used as a gallery space for a permanent Vijecnica exhibition with glass walls and lighting for gallery space. The floor is covered in dark red granite ceramics. This space showcases the different multi - use of the building that has been a landmark in Sarajevo for such a long time since it was first built more than 120 years ago. The reconstruction and refurbishment brought a new life to this magical place.

Top image in the article: Vijecnica - Town Hall in Sarajevo (first floor interior design with pillars, arches and roof mosaic visible from the entrance hall). Image © Julian Nyča⁴ via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0).

1. Image: Vijecnica - Town Hall in Sarajevo. Image by Fred Romero from Paris, France. Retrieved 17 October, 2023 from (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sarajevo_-_Gradska_Vije%C4%87nica_(49132375346).jpg) via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0). Copy-Paste into your browser.
2. Image: Vijecnica - Town Hall in Sarajevo (during reconstruction and refurbishment). Image by Milan Suvajac. Retrieved 17 October, 2023 from (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sarajevo_Vijecnica_2011-10-28_(3).jpg) via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0). Copy-Paste into your browser.
3. Image: Vijecnica - Town Hall (ground floor and first floor interior design). Image by Julian Nyča. Retrieved 24 October, 2023 from (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sarajevo_Vije%C4%87nica_Interior_1.JPG) via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0). Copy-Paste into your browser.
4. Image: Vijecnica - Town Hall in Sarajevo (first floor interior design with pillars, arches and roof mosaic visible from the entrance hall ). Image by Julian Nyča. Retrieved 24 October, 2023 from (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sarajevo_Vije%C4%87nica_Interior_2.JPG) via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0). Copy-Paste into your browser.

interior Sarajevo Town Hall Vijecnica