This garishly-yellow Holiday Inn was built for the 1984 Winter Olympics. However, on April 6, 1992, this hotel seemingly-innocuous hotel became the scene of horror when gunmen loyal to Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karazdic, opened fire on a crowd of protesters in front of the Bosnian Parliament from their top-floor suite.
During the siege, the Holiday Inn was the city's only functioning hotel, which housed foreign journalists and visiting dignitaries. Despite deals worked out between the Bosnian and Serb forces, the hotel came under constant fire, especially the sides of the hotel facing the mountains, destroying many of the hotel's 49,000 beds. For $62 US a night, you would have a relatively safe place to sleep and three meals. The hotel also had its own electrical generator, thus providing a few hours of power each day in an otherwise powerless city.
After the war ended, the hotel received a much-needed facelift and now a room will run you about $200 US a night.
Also see my review of the film "Welcome to Sarajevo".
