Open City Hall means freedom has returned to Sarajevo

The renovated Sarajevo City Hall opened its doors to all citizens and tourists today as part of the Open Days, which will last until the end of July, writes the Bosnian news agency Patria (NAP).

In just a few hours, hundreds of tourists visited the City Hall. Many of them said they were in Sarajevo for the first time, but they had heard of the City Hall before, many times.

The City Hall is one of the most beautiful symbols of Sarajevo, built at the end of the 19th century as the seat of the city administration. Before the Army of Republika Srpska set it on fire on August 25, 1992, it housed the National Library, which that night lost nearly two million books, including the last manuscripts of valuable world works.

The renovation of the City Hall building cost around 32 million KM, and was mostly financed by European Union funds. It opened on Victory over Fascism Day and Europe Day, May 9 this year.

Bernard Grolean came to the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina from France. He told the Patria agency that this is his third visit to Sarajevo, and he remembers the City Hall from 1996, when he was here for the first time.

- Everything was destroyed then, said Grolean.

- I never dreamed it would ever be this beautiful again, he added.

Randi Mossing from Norway says it is hard to believe that someone could destroy such a large number of invaluable books.

- I was here a few days ago when the City Hall was being prepared, but now that I have peeked inside, I am delighted. I wish I had had the chance to see the City Hall when it was full of books, said Mossing.

Emina says she was in Sarajevo when the City Hall was burning, so being in the renovated City Hall now means much more to her than just the renovation of a building. For her, this is the return of peace and freedom, writes Patria.