Centar (Cyrillic: Центар, lit. ”Center") is a municipality of the city of Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is located between the older parts of the city under Stari Grad, and the newer more modern parts of the city under the municipalities Novi Grad and Novo Sarajevo.
The Centar municipality is the administrative, business, commercial, cultural, educational, and medical centre of Sarajevo. Although some of these may be disputed, Centar is certainly the most important part of Sarajevo, housing most major branches of the city and national governments.
The municipality of Centar occupies 3,313 hectrates of land, of which close to 17% is housing. The amount of private and state owned land is nearly equal, with 1600 and 1713 hectrates respectively. The municipality celebrates May 2 as "Centar Municipality Day", in commemoration of the heroic defense by citizens of the aggressor's assault on the Building of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Centar is also home to many Olympic complexes such as Mirza Delibašić Hall and sports venues Asim Ferhatović Hase Stadium and Zetra Olympic Hall.
History The Siege of Sarajevo had a tremendous effect on Centar. Prior to the aggression, Centar municipality had 79,000 citizens, of which the majority were Bosniaks. 7,000 citizens of the municipality were killed by the aggressors during the war, as major battles took place on its grounds. There was also a heavy presence of land mines in the area, however in December 2003 the government succeeded in clearing all land mines from the area. Since the end of the war, the municipality has received 12 major awards, indicating its current well-being and prosperity.
Demographics 1971 126,598 total Bosniaks - 74,354 (58.73%) Serbs - 27,658 (21.84%) Croats - 12,903 (10.19%) Yugoslavs - 5,944 (4.69%) Others - 5,739 (4.55%)
1991 79,286 total Bosniaks - 39,761 (50.14%) Serbs - 16,631 (20.97%) Croats - 5,428 (6.84%) Yugoslavs - 13,030 (16.43%) Others - 4,436 (5.62%)
2013 55,181 total Bosniaks - 41,702 (75.57%) Croats - 3,333 (6.04%) Serbs - 2,186 (3.96%) Others - 7,960 (14.42%)
Local communities Centar consists of the following 19 local communities:
Bardakčije Betanija Breka Ciglane Crni Vrh-Gorica Donji Velešići Džidžikovac-Koševo I Hrastovi-Mrkovići Koševo II Koševsko Brdo Marijin Dvor Mejtaš-Bjelave Nahorevo Park-Višnjik Pionirska Dolina Skenderija-Podtekija Soukbunar Šip Trg Oslobođenja-Centar
Gallery
References
Official results from the book: Ethnic composition of Bosnia-Herzegovina population, by municipalities and settlements, 1991. census, Zavod za statistiku Bosne i Hercegovine - Bilten no.234, Sarajevo 1991.
External links
The official web site of Centar municipality Sarajevo