Karel Pařík

Who is Karel Pařík?

Karel Pařík was a Czech-born architect who spent most of his life in Sarajevo where he designed over seventy major buildings.

This Czech native, born near Jičín in 1857, moved to Sarajevo at the age of 26, after the Austro-Hungarian ascension 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: National Museum of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Sarajevo National Theatre, Sharia School, Sarajevo Synagogue, as well as house of government and schools.

He 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 Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina.