THE SARAJEVO MUSEUM – THE SVRZO HOUSE
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Before ‘Europeanisation’, Sarajevo was dominated by a specific residential culture, symbolising in its full sense the relation towards life and the life philosophy of a Bosnian man. Comfortable, bright, and spacious houses with a yard were built on the city’s steep slopes, enclosed by a high wall from the outside world, and gardens behind the house. The house preserved the intimacy of family life yet offered an insight into life on the street. On the opposite side, across the garden, the view was broadly open to the horizon. The Svrzo’s house is the most remarkable preserved specimen of the exceptional Sarajevo’s residential architecture in the Ottoman period. It is a pearl of the Bosniak urban residential culture of the 18th and 19th century. It consists of several units interrelated with two yards and several gardens. The structure of the house corresponds to the typical architecture of its time: the relatively modest appearance of the house facing the street and its very rich interior; divided into selamluk, meaning the male or public quarters of the house, and haremluk, female or family quarters of the house; four-hipped roofs, patios, large atriums, storage, hammam, water point in the yard … The house was built by the prominent Sarajevo family of Glođo and inherited by the Svrzo family.