Museums of Sarajevo: The Olympic Museum
The Olympic Museum of BiH was
founded with the aim of preserving, for posterity’s sake, the memory of the
organization and realization of the XIV Winter Olympic Games (WOG) which were
held in the capital city of Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1984.
From 1984 to 1992, the museum was
housed in a prominent villa in the center of Sarajevo, which had been designed
by the famous Czech Architect, Karl Paržik, for Nikola Mandić, a Sarajevo
lawyer and politician. Mandić, who served as President of the Independent State
of Croatia (NDH) and was later deemed an enemy of the state, lost his life and
property after the Second World War.
On April 27, 1992, right at the
beginning of the last war in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Olympic Museum was hit
by grenades. The building was badly damaged and many valuable items went up in
smoke. However, most of the collection was salvaged and transferred to the
Zetra Olympic Complex and the new Olympic Museum of BiH was opened in 2004 to
mark the 20th anniversary of the XIV WOG.
Many items related to the XIV
Winter Olympic Games have been donated, which has helped replenish the museum’s
collection, and renovation of the Olympic Museum of BiH is in progress.
Source: http://sarajevo.travel/en
