Dan Sheehan at Lit Hub:
Located on the bank of the Miljacka river in the city’s old Turkish quarter, the beautiful pseudo-Moorish structure, known to locals as Vijećnica (City Hall), was a beloved symbol of the multiethnic, multicultural capital of Bosnia before the entire building, along with two million of the books it housed, went up in flames.
By August 25th, Sarajevo was suffering through the early days of a devastating four year siege (the longest in the history of modern warfare) by Bosnian Serb forces, one which would ultimately claim the lives of over ten thousand of its inhabitants. Every day, from the hills around the city and the windows of captured apartment blocks within it, shells and sniper fire rained down the trapped Sarajevan people—a people who had, only 8 years previous, joyously hosted the 1984 Winter Olympic Games.
more here.