How Cities Can Help Other Cities in Wartime
In the ’90s, Barcelona Adopted Sarajevo as Its Own. The Partnership Endures, Offering Lessons for Today
In 1995, Barcelona, Spain, announced the creation of a new, 11th district of the city.
This District 11 wasn’t carved out of Barcelona’s 10 existing districts. In fact, it wasn’t within or anywhere near city limits. It was 1,000 miles away. District 11 was the Bosnian capital city of Sarajevo, then under siege by Serb forces, who shelled the city for nearly four years, killing thousands of civilians.
Three decades later, the wartime Barcelona-Sarajevo partnership endures as a model of the mutual aid and close connections cities will need to forge if …
