The Roads of Friendship: Ravenna-Sarajevo

The project “Roads of Friendship” was launched on 14 July 1997 by building a bridge between Ravenna and the opposite shores of the Adriatic Sea. Ravenna Festival carried the strains of Ludwig van Beethoven’s Eroica and Franz Schubert’s Spirit song over the waters to Sarajevo, at the Skenderija Centre. Conducted by Maestro Riccardo Muti, music became the spark that reawakened the pride and vitality of Bosnia’s martyr city.
The author Zlatko Dizdarevic, Bosnia-Herzegovina’s former ambassador to Croatia – he was awarded the Sacharov Prize by the European Parliament - was the event’s exceptional testimonial. He expressed words of gratitude charged with emotion for the excitement of the first concert organised by Ravenna Festival to invoke peace in the world and to celebrate brotherhood among men of every faith and every race: “…for the first time since our tragedy commenced, we felt with all our senses that the hope of the world lay in culture without borders, in lifting up our spirits and in the power of music, which you conducted so masterly. […] restored dignity is much more than reconstructed houses. We shall never forget it. Let me add that history will never forget it.”