Sarajevo, like many other cities has its fair share of legends and mysterious stories.
One of those stories is tied to an infamous “Seven Brothers Mausoleum”. Located in the Old Town, relatively close to the City Hall, The Seven Brothers Mausoleum is place where for centuries, citizens of Sarajevo go when they are having dilemmas about their life decisions, and there is a particular ritual that is believed to relive you of your struggles when it comes to decision making.
This is how it goes. The mausoleum has seven tiny doors. You walk up to them and throw in a coin in every door as you are saying a small prayer. After you finish, you go around the mausoleum and come back using a different path, not the one that you used to get there. The first words that you hear from the first person that walks by you on the street is the answer to your dilemma.
The legend says that seven men who were wrongfully convicted for a crime that they didn’t commit were buried here. They were not brother by blood, they were brothers by their misfortune.
Even though the Mausoleum dates back to 1815, the tombstones are much older.
The first tomb stone belongs to a man called who lived in the 15th century and was actually the owner of the property where Seven Brothers are located today.
A couple of centuries later, four Beys (Counts) from the northern part of Bosnia called Posavina were assigned to watch the border on the river Sava to see if Austrian soldiers are attacking.
Despite spying on them, Austrian prince Eugen Savojski entered Bosnia and burned Sarajevo to the ground just s few days later.
Beys were brought to Sarajevo to explain how did this happen, and why didn’t they send out a warning. They tried to explain that Savojski was preparing his army deep inside Austrian territory, which is something they couldn’t see or predict. He crossed the Sava River in the middle of the night in a small, unobvious place and no one realized it untill they started hearing news from Sarajevo. They had many witnesses to back up their statements, but they were still found guilty of treason and executed. They were buried along with others who wrongfully died.
It’s an interesting place to visit, and if you have any life dilemmas, try the ritual. You never know,it might just work.