Marindvor is Sarajevo settlement which is located in the center of the city. It is full of beautiful palaces from the Austro-Hungarian period, the buildings of recent construction, and religious objects that represent the national monuments.
But, this place was not always called like this. Before the arrival of the Ottomans, here use to be a couple of houses and lots of green areas, so it was called Zagorica. With the arrival of Isa Bey Ishakovic, the founder of Sarajevo, he was accompanied with the certain Šejh Magribija. He (Magribija) settled just in this area, built a house, then a mosque, which is today called Magribija Mosque, and by her, whole quarter.
At that time mahala of Šejh Magribija was the final border of Sarajevo, which, in small extent, was inhabited. Magribija derives from word Magrib, where is the origin of Šejh Magribija, and it was a name for Islamic countries from North Africa, Tunisis, Algeria and Marocco.
AUGUST BRAUN
With the arrival of the Austro-Hungarian authorities, in that part of Sarajevo, construction begins. Actually, everything is related to the industrialist August Braun, who comes with the new government, who was actually producing building materials, bricks more precisely. It is known that Braun had a large number of brick factories, of which some were at Bistrik, present-day Ciglane settlement and Velešići.
With Braun, to Sarajevo came his wife Mary (Marija - Marienhoff), who was a very beautiful woman, who loved him much. She was a beautiful spouse so he decided to build her a palace (1885 – 1897), on the site of present-day Marindvor, and give it her name. So he did, and this part of town got the name of Mary’s house. Over the time Marijin Dvor became Marindvor because of easier pronunciation.
It is remembered that people use to say: “mad count builds palate in the field, that no-one will need”. But they were wrong. August Braun was a visionary, knew that the city needed to expand so he started to build the palace. It was built in stages from 1885 to 1899 as a residential-business building, which in the middle has a park, which still today serves a purpose.
WHAT TO SEE
- Parliament Building,
- History Museum,
- National Museum,
- Vilsonovo Šetalište,
- St. Josip Church,
- Vrbanja Bridge,
- Unitic Skyscrapers.
