There is an Orthodox Christian Temple in town, they said it was the oldest Orthodox Temple in that region of the Balkans, and it was just one kilometer away from the UN Military Observers (UNMO) rented house, close to the historical part of Sarajevo. It was a small temple, but it had the most interesting story to tell.
In the beginning of the Ottoman occupation of Bosnia, before 1500 AD, the ruling Sultan decided to demonstrate his benevolence to the locals and authorized the construction of small Christian worship site. However, he had two conditions regarding that shrine’s construction. According to the legend, the Sultan called the leader of the Christian community and said:
– “I will allow you to construct a Christian temple, but it cannot be taller than the lowest mosque of Sarajevo, and it has to fit inside a cow’s skin.”
The Sultan was obviously thinking of a small wooden made shrine. Something limited to a cross and an altar, under a roof porch, where the believers would have to pray out on the open, facing the altar. He was benevolent, no doubts, be still, it was an extremely modest offer.
However, the locals did not give-up the idea of constructing a proper church; as small as it had to be. They killed and skinned the largest cow they found, and they’ve cut the skin into an unbroken spiral thin string. Then, they laid the string on the ground, forming a rectangular shape, and they marked its corners in the soil. That way, they defined an area for the Temple that would “fit inside a cow’s skin”.
The second condition – “it cannot be taller than the lowest mosque” – was also a challenge. Because the church was going to be small, they needed to have an upper gallery to fit more people during the Eucharistic service. The solution was to go down and start construction from below ground level. They dug the inside of the skin in such a way that the ground floor of the church was actually on the basement level. That way, the upper gallery was just above ground level and a third level (the tower) was still below the lowest minaret in Sarajevo.
The entire building was made of stone, which was another thing the Sultan was not expecting. The Sultan was speechless when he saw the final work. He realized that the locals did not disrespect his instructions; they had just maneuvered around his words in a very clever way; therefore, he authorized the temple to remain, and that was, indeed, a benevolent decision.
Coincidentally, the temple, located just behind the Sarajevo National library, was not damaged by the 1992-1995 war, because it was shadowed by the Library’s building, and all its religious art assets and Orthodox Icons are still intact.
Nowadays, when the visitor enters that spectacular Temple, he/she sees that the ground floor is not at the expected level, and he/she a sees is a set of stairs going down to an open basement, where the altar his. At the doors’ level, to the left and to the right, a small set of stairs leads the visitor to the gallery around the walls of the church, for people to assist the mass from up above.
With the passing of time, the original infrastructure has also suffered some modifications, and further constructions around the original church were made, in order for it to become an Orthodox monastery. However, the original temple has been preserved and its History can be witnessed at the site.
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