Moorish Revival architecture in Bosnia and Herzegovina

Moorish Revival architecture in Bosnia and Herzegovina arose after the Austro-Hungarian occupation began in 1878, when the new administration used the style as a deliberate political choice for public buildings over the following four decades, especially in areas with predominantly Bosniak populations. Architects drew on Moorish and Mudejar architecture from Spain as well as Mamluk architecture from Egypt and Syria to create what has been described as an Islamic architecture of European fantasy, intended to promote a distinct Bosnian identity while avoiding association with either the Ottoman Empire or the pan-Slavic movement, using ornamental decoration, pointed arches and sharp-angled domes that had no roots in indigenous Bosnian building traditions. The most famous example is the Vijecnica in Sarajevo, built from 1891 to 1896 and now the city's reconstructed city hall, along with the Mostar Gymnasium of 1898 to 1902, which combines Andalusian and Mamluk elements and is a protected national monument, and Sarajevo's Ashkenazi Synagogue of 1902, decorated with pseudo-Moorish ornament and angled domes.