ABSTRACT
Sarajevo is a city shaped by different cultures, identities, and social and political developments ranging from the first settlers in the BCE period to the present day. During the Medieval and early modern periods, the city was influenced by three major ruling powers: the Ottoman Empire, Austria-Hungary, and Socialist Yugoslavia. Moreover, Sarajevo experienced World War I, World War II, and the Bosnian War (1992–1996), all of which profoundly affected both the civilians and the city itself. This historical background provides a wide range of cultural and historical resources to preserve, reinterpret, and incorporate into the city’s urban identity. This paper aims to investigate how Sarajevo and its inhabitants generate urban identity by preserving remnants, traces, and memories, while simultaneously integrating them into everyday urban life. To achieve this, the city of Sarajevo was visited, and remnants embedded in urban life were observed, analyzed, and photographed. In addition, face-to-face conversations were conducted with local residents. Accordingly, different remnants from the Middle Ages, World War II, and the Bosnian War were selected from Sarajevo’s urban fabric for analysis. The paper explores how the people of Sarajevo tend to preserve traces of the history the city has witnessed. I argue that they maintain urban memory within contemporary urban life, thereby contributing to the formation of urban identity. This practice represents a way of remembering the past, regardless of whether it was dark or traumatic. This work attempts to contribute to the literature on how urban memory is valued and preserved within the city, becoming integrated into everyday urban life and evolving into one of the city’s defining characteristics and elements of identity.
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