Our Walk Through Sarajevo

Explore our walk in Sarajevo. We interviewed and photographed 31 trees along the way. The walk itself occured between the two main locations of our trip: the Balkan Han Hostel and History Museum of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The google map below contains the archive of our walk. The dark green dots indicate the trees that we 'interviewed'. The lighter green dots indicate places of urban gardening during the siege, that we visited now. If you click on the dots, archival and recent photos will show. The pink dots mark the places where we interviewed people: a woman collecting elderblossoms to make lemonade, for example, and forestry professor Sead, who showed us how to find 'scars' in the bark of the trees.

Interviewing trees might seem a peculiar method: after all, trees can't speak. During the interviews, Nicole made a voice recording to note our observations and hypotheses about the stories this tree could tell. Jonas stood close to the tree, and made photos 'looking out', documenting the trees 'view' - focusing particularly on whether the tree was in a secluded area or potentially exposed to sniper fire. Catherine took 'portraits' of the tree itself, mostly focusing on the bark.

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Trees as Resource

Interview 24: Circle of Blue Spruce "We're standing inside the room made by five variants on coniferous pine trees. These are all young because they are hidden behind a large building. So, you have the triangle [of concealment to the] north of the building, and beyond this triangle's [area] are larger trees. The inside here is barren and the floor is made of pine needles. I wonder if people hang out here. I see a pigeon bone." Within Park Mirze i Davora there is one triangularly shaped area that would have been shielded from sniper view by neighbouring buildings. Today, most of the trees in this park are between 150-200 years old and were likely planted during Austro-Hungarian Times. However, there is one exception to that assessment: the five spruce trees within the triangle of protection. In the place of trees cut for firewood, these five spruce were planted in their stead during the war. See the article excerpt below. The Location: Park Mirz...

Trees as Resource

Interview 26: Young Linden Along Terezija "Tree 26 is part of a group of young lindens that have been planted on the street where the Dom Mladih mall is situated [and which runs parallel to the Miljacka]. It is quite out in the open, so we were doubting why there [are] young trees here. And we think the answer is that there were containers placed here in the war and that gave [the citizens] enough shelter to cut down the [existing] trees for wood. To be investigated." Location: Terezija, Sarajevo 71000. Cropped image: FAMA, Survival Map, 1992-96.

Trees as Resource

Interview 12: Young Birch in an Overgrown, Private Garden "A young birch tree sits with another birch trees and many other trees, some ivy, some weeds, and a very angry crow who is maybe territorial and doesn't like that we are here. These are all quite young, in an overgrown garden. It's pretty typical for Sarajevo: one big Robinia [also known as black locust], a lot of elder trees, and a kitten, a walnut tree, and another cat." As a young tree in a private garden, it is likely that during the war trees were felled here for firewood. Location: Pruščakova, Sarajevo 71000. Sarajevo: City Under Siege (1994) BBC documentary: ~22:59 women cut down birch tree, “Leave my birch alone!” “It’s too late. We’ve already cut it.”

Trees in Sarajevo

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