Author Description

The intent of this work is to bring the attention on the Sarajevo's National and University Library, also known as Vije?nica (City Hall). This Moorish building, housing more than 2 million books and periodicals, was shelled by Serb nationalists in the night between the 25th and 26th of August 1992. The 90% of the material housed in the building got lost in the flames. My intent is to reflect on which could be the future use and meaning attributed to Vijecnica at the light of its changing of meanings throughout time and of its role as a material representation of social memories. In particular this book wants to shed light on the relation between the reprocessing of memories -- from the Yugoslav period to the nationalist shift in the 1990s -- and the destruction of cultural heritage in Bosnia between 1992 and 1995. This book will be useful to those interested in the history of the Library, as one of the main symbol of Sarajevo as it was before the war, and to those interested in new and innovative kinds of commemoration through the study of "involuntary monuments", started in Europe after the Second World War.