1. The Idea of assassinating top Austro Hungarian royalty wasn’t Gavrilo Princip’s – In 1910 an unsuccessful attempt was made to kill the Emperor, Franz Josef, on his visit to Mostar, and the same year five shots were fired at the Governor of Bosnia and Herzegovina who survived.
2. Gavirlo Princip’s grandfather took part in a Bosnian uprising against the Ottoman Empire in the war from 1875 to 1878. His experiences were described in a bestselling book, Through Bosnia and Herzegovina, written by the English historian Arthur Evans.
3. Gavrilo Princip applied to become an officer in the Austro Hungarian Army, but his plan was foiled by a patriotic shopkeeper in Sarajevo who scolded Princip’s brother for buying him new clothes for the interview. If you haven’t got a better choice then take him back home to live like the rest of his family, he was told. Gavrilo Princip instead went to work for a local merchant.
4. Princip was a member of Young Bosnia (Mlada Bosna), a revolutionary movement whose aim was the unification of all Slavs in one country. Another member of Young Bosnia was the writer Ivo Andric, the only Nobel Prize winner from the former Yugoslavia.
5. Gavrilo Princip was a shy and not very good poet. He really wanted to get fellow revolutionary Andric’s views but never had the guts to show him his work. The only poem he left is the one engraved by a spoon in the walls of his prison cell.
6. His journey to Sarajevo started from a cafe in Belgrade called Zlatna Moruna (the Golden Sturgeon) near the train station. The café has recently been refurbished by its owner who is hoping to cash in on the anniversary of WWI
7. The assassination happened on 28th June 1914 – on St Vitus Day which is the most important day in the history of Serbs. On that day in 1389 the Kosovo battle took place between the Ottomans and the Serbs – you can see some real stuff from the battle in Istanbul’s Military Museum where there is a room dedicated to the Kosovo Battle including a bloody Ottoman flag. Opinion is divided who won the Battle of Kosovo but proud Serbs are keen to say that “The Ottomans fled. “
8. Each member of Mlada Bosna including Gavrilo Princip had an out of date cyanide capsule, so most of them were arrested alive.
9. WWI started in the 28th Jul 1914 but the trial of Gavrilo Princip started on 12th October The court case lasted until 23rd October and Gavrilo Princip was found guilty and received the maximum sentence of 20 years.
10. The charges against Gavrilo were based on his and Mlada Bosnia’s intention to secede Bosnia from the Austro-Hungarian Empire and annex it to Serbia, not for the murder of Franz Ferdinand and his wife.
11. The duration of the court case was short because all the defendants admitted the charges to avoid innocent people being arrested and killed.
12. Gvarilo Princip was aiming his gun at Pocorek not the Archduke’s wife and he expressed sorrow at his trial for “killing a mother of three kids”.
13. Gavrilo Princip was saved from the death penalty by a mistake made by the priest when originally recording his birth in the church records so he was legally underage at the time of his crime. The prosecutor asked the priest who made a mistake to correct his date of birth but the priest refused and was executed.
14. He was transferred to the top prison in Austro Hungary, Teresin Fortress, in today’s Czech Republic. The conditions in prison were harsh and worsened during WWI, and Princip caught TB. The illness was so bad that his right arm had to be amputated.
15. He died on 28th April 1918, a few months short of seeing the unification of “all Slavs in one country” which happened on the 1st December 1918 when Yugoslavia was created. In light of concerns that his grave could become a place of pilgrimage, Princip was buried secretly to an unmarked grave. Thankfully one of the Czech soldiers who buried him remembered the location, and later Princip’s body was exhumed and transferred to Sarajevo together with the rest of the group who took part in Sarajevo assassination, and reburied at St Marks Cemetery in Sarajevo.
16. After WWI the house where Gavrilo Princip lived in Sarajevo was established as a museum. It lasted until WWII when Yugoslavia was conquered by the Germans and Sarajevo become part of the independent State of Croatia. The Museum was destroyed by the Croatian Ustasa. The engraved plaque commemorating the place from where Princip fired the shots was taken down and given as a birthday present to Adolf Hitler in 1941.
17. The Museum was reestablished after WWII during Communist Yugoslavia but again destroyed during the Yugoslav wars of the 1990s.
18. The gun, which is called Archibicope, and his shirt are at the Museum of Military History in Vienna.
19. Today kids in Bosnian schools learn about Princip as a terrorist but in Republic Srpksa which is a part of Bosnia and Hercegovina, Princip is a hero.
20. Srbija won’t take part in the main commemoration of 100 years of WWI in Sarajevo.
If you are heading to Sarajevo for the commemoration of WWI ReadyClickAndGo can arrange a walking tour of Sarajevo with visits to Gavilo Princip hot spots. Please email tara@readyclickandgo.com
About the author: Tara
The travel professional with years of experience in the travel industry – in guiding, reservations, operations, contracting, customer service and product development – and have travelled extensively in Asia and Eastern Europe not just on holiday but also for work, inspecting hotels, visiting attractions and seeing exactly what each destination has to offer. The only way I could do this properly was with my own guide, car and driver and this inspired me to create my own range of customised private day tours for other people to be able to explore in-depth and learn to love their destination as much as I do.
Website: www.readyclickandgo.com
Website: http://www.readyclickandgo.com
