S Y M B O L S many casualties. They succeeded. It was in 1737. The Kastel was the last defense of the Turks before the Austrians. Austrian maps kept in the Museum of Srpska testify about the looks of the Kastel at the time. Numerous legends are passed on from generation to generation. The most famous is certainly the one about Juliette of Banjaluka, whose name was Safikada. The story goes that she was “as beautiful as a dream”. While taking a walk with her mother near the Banjaluka fortress, a young and handsome Turkish soldier caught her eye. He also fell in love with her, but alas, the girl’s parents were against their love. They said that he was a soldier and soldiers are here today, but tomorrow who knows where. It all depends on the emperor’s orders. So one day the orders came and the young man had to go to far away Anatolia. They pledged faithfulness until their death and the young Two views over man went away. Not much time passed and news about his death arrived. Keeping her the city from the promise, Safikada crept to the cannon anfortress
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nouncing noon. While the fuse was burning down, she quickly ran in front of the cannon. Dressed in the most beautiful clothes, passing away, she cried: “I am faithful to you till death!” The entire Banjaluka wept. The story has several versions. The inscription on a marble plate across the street from the Kastel states the one according to which the girl fell in love with an Austrian soldier, and their love was disapproved of due to different origin and religion. Each of the stories, however, has the same ending. Even today, candles are lit in the place where Safikada died. The tragic love eternally lives in the city on the Vrbas. Even the first opera of Banjaluka, directed by Nenad Bojić and composed by Muharem Insanić, which had its premiere in 2011, was named after the girl. POSSIBLE NEW SURPRISES After the Turks, Austro-Hungarians came to Banjaluka in 1878. Arms were again rattling in the Kastel, new colorful uniforms were seen, new languages heard. The walls were fixed, rebuilt, new military objects appeared. And the times that came brought new wars. The fortress was mostly damaged during the World War II bombing. After the war, the walls were renewed, and then again destroyed in the big earthquake in 1969. They were just slightly repaired and then left to waiting and oblivion for decades. Until they got bored of it. They began collapsing on promenades, warning that their time of death has come. And finally, in March this year, the renewal has begun.