80 years ago, co-creator of modern Sarajevo Karel Pařík passed away

Sarajevo/Prague – Czech architect Karel Pařík, whose death will mark 80 years on June 16, has been credited with a number of buildings in the Bosnian capital of Sarajevo. A native of Veliš near Jičín, he is the author of, for example, the National Museum, the National Theatre, and the headquarters of the University of Sarajevo. A graduate of the construction industrial school and architectural school in Vienna, he arrived in Sarajevo in the spring of 1884 at the age of 27 and hardly ever left the country afterward. In total, Pařík built over 110 buildings in Bosnia and surrounding countries.

He earned a good reputation right at the beginning when he and his classmate, Croatian Josip Vancaš, designed the Catholic cathedral, which still dominates the square in close proximity to the ancient Sarajevo center – Baščaršija. In designing a school for judges of sharia law, where the Islamic faculty is located today, Karel Pařík was inspired by Moorish style. Throughout the turn of the 20th to 30th centuries, his work was characterized by historicizing architecture.

Karel Pařík (born July 4, 1857) also served for many years in the civil service and gradually rose to the position of chief building counselor. He thus co-shaped the appearance of Sarajevo and other cities in Bosnia and Herzegovina, also overseeing urban development. His important buildings are found beyond Sarajevo – alongside the residence of the Orthodox Herzegovinian metropolitan in Mostar, there are also court buildings (Zenica, Foča, Gacko), and he designed spa facilities in the Croatian resort of Kupari.

In his honor, one of Sarajevo's squares is named after him: Karel Pařík Square. The square adjoins Pařík's last building, which he designed with his son – that building is the neo-Romanesque Catholic Church of St. Joseph, completed in 1939.