Every day, for the past 14 years, I see the magnificent view of my city from my apartment on top of one of many Sarajevo's hills: Old Town, city centre rooftops, mountains surrounding the city, streets, parks and sky.
Below, directly in front of me, there are several parks with adjacent cemetery stretching from the Presidency building into the city centre all the way to the Olympic Hall 'Zetra' that got its name after this 'green transversal'.
Some years before, it used to be a really beautiful forest-like park with big, almost wild trees and bushes. At that time (in the year 1984, when Sarajevo was host of the Winter Olympic Games), the Austrian Olympic team built this nice, round shaped, half wooden montage cottage in the middle of those parks, to be the headquarters for sportsmen competing at the Olympic.
It was named 'Österreichische Haus' or 'Austrijska kuca' as it was written in capital letters at the entrance.
'Oesterreichisches Haus' inscription is now covered by the beautiful red rag. You can see letters '..us', though.
Austrijska kuca
After the Olympics, the 'Österreichische Haus' was donated to the city and it was used as an artistic pavilion for exhibitions and cultural events. At summers, some chairs and tables set outside of the pavilion made it a cozy and peaceful chill-out café. I remember sitting there in the shade of big trees on Sundays with my father - for hours of quality father-and-son time.
The outbreak of war. Parks still have trees and Austrian House is untouched. Photo taken from my personal photo album.
It happened later that I was standing at my window watching hungry and desperate citizens of Sarajevo cutting down all the trees in those parks one by one. The wood was used for cooking of beans, macaroni and rice on improvised stoves and for minimal heating during cruel Sarajevo winters. I was a witness when the 'Oesterreichisches Haus' got its turn to serve as fuel for starving prisoners of city under siege.
A mortar shell, fired from surrounding hills, missed our houses and hit the roof of the 'Oesterreichische Haus', partly damaging the wooden structure. It was only the first bite of faith and in the matter of minutes people with axes swarmed on it like ants, proudly taking their pray of wood. It looked as one of those speeded-up shots of insects and animals eating their pray until nothing is left of it.
Exactly like that.
I almost forgot the fact that after the trees were cut, the land was used for gardening.
At this stage, all what is lef of the house is foundations and roof.
Austrian House
Since then, nothing has changed there. Some trees were bizarrely planted in the parks, getting nowhere near the old glory of the woodlands. The foundations and what is left of the 'Österreichische Haus' are still there, standing there in its ugliness, partly grown into bushes, now serving as make-shift toilet for those in 'urgent need'. The space in front of the pavilion is used as parking lot for most of the aggressive vehicle owners, those who have never had a drink there on Sundays.
In the present days, the remains of the Austrian House pavilion are hosting new artworks. Teenage graffiti artists of the ever so strong hip-hop scene re-did the walls in their own style making their standing exhibition there. Now it belongs to them.
Often I remember those parks and trees, not as the nostalgia to those times ('cos there is no time for nostalgia for those thinking of future), but as something beautiful not there any more. Something, that has grown for years, but has never reached its glory.
Those trees are not there any more, they will be replaced with new ones, but what do we do about the Austrian House??
Build it new, better and more beautiful to wait for the shadows of those now young trees or remove the remains from the face of earth?
I don't want to watch it like this any more.
26.10.2001 Oh, look: Austrian House in Sarajevo is clean and ready for rebuilding!
Sarajevo | 19.9.2001 | 21:29 
