Sarajevo Contd: The Cathedrals of Sarajevo

I resumed my wanderings and the streets of Old Town gradually faded into the newer city.  Not the new city, the downtown business district has been rebuilt since the Siege, but the Austrian part of the town.  Expanded during the period when Bosnian was part of the Austrian Hungarian Dual Monarchy.  From the late 1800s, Bosnia was part of the Austrian Empire, and the architecture reflects this.  Twin Cathedrals attempt to reach majestically, but do not completely succeed in impressing the pedestrian.  Not that they are not lovely, but the general building height in this neighborhood matches the towers and the wedding cake architecture is just as pretty.

The square around the Cathedral of Jesus’Sacred Heart includes a number of buildings dating from the Austrian period.

The Catholic Cathedral of Jesus’ Sacred Heart was built in 1889.  It stands in the center of a square, imposing and unwelcoming.  It’s odd actually.  It should be a spiritual center, like the mosque, but it is a bit cold and unfriendly.  The impression isn’t helped, I suppose, by the museum to the Srebrenica massacre across the way.  In a town that strives to be so open an warm, the Catholic church is a little forbidding.  I revisited 2 other times, assuming that my first impression might be a reflection of my mood, or even a bad day.  I am sorry to say, it is the only church in Bosnia I never got a welcoming vibe from.
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The grand Serbian Orthodox Cathedral, on the other hand, was welcoming in a way I never expected.  Having done my homework, I had cast the Serbs into the role of the villains of the piece.  (By the way, I still think that, but I reserve my judgment for the Bosnian-Serbian Military and some horrible men, most of whom have been tried as war criminals.)  But the Cathedral Church of the Nativity of Theotokos gives of the peacefulness and kindness of a family church.
If you have never been in an Orthodox Church, the lack of pews is disconcerting at first.  My mind tends to think they are half-way through preparations for a dance or supper.

Lower left, exterior of the Orthodox Cathedral Church of the Nativity of Theotokos.  Lower right, the interior skylight.  Top, the screen showing the Religious Icons typical of the Orthodox churches of the Balkans.