WHERE OLYMPIC SPIRIT MEETS MODERN COMFORT

Hotel Holiday was originally built to host the Olympic family—officials and distinguished guests attending the 1984 Winter Olympics in Sarajevo. It was inaugurated by Juan Antonio Samaranch, then President of the International Olympic Committee, who received the hotel’s first Golden Key. That year, the hotel welcomed many notable figures, including King Olaf V of Norway, King Carl XVI Gustaf and Queen Silvia of Sweden, as well as ambassadors, UNESCO’s Director-General Amadou Mahtar M’Bow, and Hollywood legends Kirk Douglas and Lee Marvin. The Olympic spirit still lives on: the snowflake-shaped fountain in the lobby and the Olympic logo embedded in the building’s design stand as lasting symbols. Original items made for the opening—plates, cups, and other pieces bearing the Olympic emblem—are carefully preserved as part of the hotel’s heritage.

Hotel Holiday was built on land once known as Bulgaren Acker, affectionately called the “Circus Grounds” by locals during the Austro-Hungarian era. It was a place where traveling circuses, including the famous Moira Orfei Circus, set up their tents—leaving behind memories of joy, play, and childhood wonder. When architect Ivan Štraus designed the hotel, he sought to preserve that spirit. In the main lobby, above the gallery, he placed a large green canopy, symbolizing the old circus tent. This gesture fused modernist architecture with nostalgia, turning Hotel Holiday into a space where Sarajevo’s past and present beautifully intertwine.

Designed by celebrated architect Ivan Štraus, Hotel Holiday stands as a landmark of modernist and brutalist architecture in Sarajevo. Its striking yellow aluminum façade shocked builders at the time but became an unforgettable symbol of the city. Štraus drew inspiration from Bosnian architectural heritage, particularly the layout of Morića Han, blending local tradition with the global idea of a “city within a hotel.” The central atrium, filled with light, features Boško Kućanski’s wooden sculpture Heavenly Chariot and original artworks by Mersad Berber, Dževad Hozo, and Alija Kučukalić. The hotel’s interiors include iconic yellow Iskra ETA 80-86 telephones by Davorin Savnik—later displayed at MoMA—and “Groovy Chair” armchairs by French designer Pierre Paulin, also exhibited in Paris’s Centre Pompidou. Štraus’s Hotel Holiday remains a bold fusion of local identity and international design, a timeless testament to creativity and vision.