Karel Pařík was a Czech-born architect of Austro-Hungarian citizenship who spent most of his life in Sarajevo where he designed over seventy major buildings. In Bosnia and Herzegovina, he is also known as Karlo Paržik.
Biography
Born near Jičín in 1857, Pařík moved to Sarajevo at the age of 26, after the Austro-Hungarian occupation of Bosnia and Herzegovina. He designed around 150 buildings in Bosnia, 70 of them being in Sarajevo. Today they house important Sarajevo institutions such as the National Museum of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Sarajevo National Theatre, the Faculty of Islamic Sciences, the Ashkenazi Synagogue, as well as government offices and schools. Pařík fought for maintaining historical parts of Sarajevo and proposed construction of new parts of the city away from the old town. Karel Pařík placed his personal mark and made great contributions to the urbanization of Sarajevo and Bosnia and Herzegovina during the Austro-Hungarian Empire. He is buried in the Kosevo cemetery in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Works
Among many other Karel Pařík's works, a few that particularly stand out are:
Hotel Europe - Karel Pařík also designed one of the Sarajevo's first modern hotels, this being Hotel Evropa. It was constructed in 1882 and opened December 12, 1882. For 110 years this was the most spacious hotel in Sarajevo, from its opening until its destruction August 1, 1992. Many poets, painters, and artists of all types and politician stayed in this hotel during the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Kingdom of Yugoslavia, and later in the time of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. The hotel was reconstructed and officially reopened on December 12, 2008, on its 126th birthday.
Sharia School - Among Pařík's first projects was the Sarajevo Sharia School. It was constructed in 1887 in a rich pseudo-Moorish decorative style with elements and details collected from various regional Islamic art schools. The Museum of the City of Sarajevo was opened in the building in 1949 which contained archaeological, historical, ethnographic and art collections. Today this building is used as the Faculty of Islamic Sciences.
National Museum of Bosnia and Herzegovina - The National Museum building is one of the most significant works of Karel Pařík in Sarajevo. The Museum was founded in 1885 and was open to the public on March 1, 1888. The building consists of 4 pavilions joined by a terrace and a botanical garden in the centre. The whole building of the National Museum was constructed in the spirit of the Neo-Renaissance and work on the building lasted until 1913.
National and University Library of Bosnia and Herzegovina - In 1891, Pařík worked on another major building in the pseudo-Moorish style – The Municipal Hall. Pařík did not want to accept the request of the governor Benjamin Kallay to make it very large and therefore Pařík's proposal was rejected. The construction was turned over to Alexander Wittek who was inspired by used the Mosque of Kemal II in Cairo. After Wittek's death, the construction was completed under Čiril Iveković's supervision in 1896. However, the building was built in the style originally conceived by Karel Pařík. During the period of Yugoslavia, this building functioned as the National and University Library of Bosnia and Herzegovina. In the Bosnian war of the 1990s the building was destroyed and reconstruction was completed in 2014.
Landesbank – Originally this building housed the Grand Hotel. After World War Two the hotel was known as Landesbank, then as a Service of Social Accounting, and today it houses the Department of payment processing. The building was erected in 1893 and the hotel opened in 1895. It was designed by Karel Pařík and his colleague Josip Vancaš. The façade was built in the spirit of early Renaissance and in 1946 Eternal Flame monument was added in front of its main entrance. The flame serves as a memorial monument for the Liberators of Sarajevo, and victim of fascism, who have fallen during the World War II.
Academy of Fine Arts – Today's Academy of Fine Arts building originally housed the Evangelical Church. It was the only Evangelical church built during the Austro-Hungarian government and it was constructed in 1899. Pařík's design was inspired by the Romanic-Byzantine style. Additional wings of the building were completed in 1911.
Ashkenazi Synagogue – During the Austro-Hungarian condominium Sephardic and Ashkenazy communities lived in Sarajevo. The Ashkenazy community came to Sarajevo after 1878 and began constructing a synagogue in 1901. The form of the temple is bejewelled with sharp-angled domes over large “drums” and covered with pseudo-Moorish decorations. During the construction, changes were made by Pařík and the building was completed in 1902.
