Sarajevo
Sarajevo seems like a unique city. Not in the cliche sense that every city is unique, but in a way that has shown its uniqueness over time. I don't know how best to show it, but you can see a bit of this in its architecture, which was influenced by all the empires that ruled over it.
For example, the Gazi Husrev-bey mosque in the old town is clearly a piece of Ottoman architecture, but it was made of Croation stone by Christian Croation workers.
The city hall that the Austro-Hungarian's made is unique for that empire. Rather than create a traditional building that they typically did everywhere else, they made an exception for Sarajevo and mixed Islamic, Moorish styles with their own architecture to create a sort of fusion.
And there's an interesting story about how the city hall was built. Apparently, the man who lived where the city hall building is didn't want to give up his home where he and his family had grown up. So he refused to give it up to the Austro-Hungarians for a couple years. It's a bit wild for a single man to directly oppose one of the most powerful empires to ever exist. But he did.
Eventually, he acquiesced, but on the condition that they give him a bunch of gold, as well as take his house apart, brick by brick, and rebuild it, brick by brick, on the opposite side of the river. The house now has "inat kuca" written on it, which I think translates to "spite house." It evidently symbolizes the spite that the man felt towards the new conquering empire.
And the hajji mosque's minaret is visible directly behind it in my picture. That mosque is one of the oldest, and is referred to by locals as hajji mosque because it's where muslims would gather before they began their pilgrimage. Apprently, between the hills behind the mosque is the path to Istanbul and therefore Mecca.
But perhaps the building most difficult to comprehend for me is the Mount Igman mosque. Mount Igman is the mountain on the east side of the city which is where the UN airport was during the 90s siege. These Sarajevans had created a secret tunnel underneath the UN airport runway, about a kilometer long, and it was the main way that supplies were able to get past the Serbian siege. But in order to use it, they had to hold Mount Igman. As a consequence it was the site of many bloody battles.
During all this battle, they apparently had accumulated some tools for logging trees, as they'd need to burn them to stay warm. They then had the idea, in the middle of this brutal war, to make a mosque so they could pray. This is a kind of motivation and strength primarily religious people seem to have. Or it at least stems from a belief that is fundamentally religious in some sense.
It's just a few examples, but these are all strange kinds of stories spread out over 100s of years. Something seems foreign and noteworthy about them to me in a way that seems unique. I can't quite articulate why, but combined with it's history of successful multi-cultural coexistence, this city has piqued my curiousity in a way that other cities have not... I think I'll be back. Hopefully soon.