National Assembly Building
History of the National Assembly Building
The National Assembly Building of the Republic of Srpska is located at Jasenovac Victims Square 1 in Banja Luka. After the catastrophic earthquake that hit Banja Luka in 1969, several buildings were built in the very center of the city, and one of the most beautiful is the former Army House, which is today the seat of the National Assembly of the Republic of Srpska.
The Army House was officially opened on June 30, 1973, as part of the celebration of Warrior's Day (July 4) in the presence of numerous prominent officials and artists. It was awarded the status of the most beautiful cultural building in Banja Luka, with more than 7,000 m² of space, including a concert hall with 500 seats, a large meeting and conference hall, several classrooms, a reading room and library, a gallery with an exhibition space, a summer cinema-garden with 400 seats, an atrium, a dance floor and other facilities.
The JNA House building was a place where culture was nurtured and the educational mission was spread until the war in our area in 1992.
The then Army House, with its layout and horticultural arrangement with a fountain, was a very successful architectural achievement by the Banja Luka architect Kasim Osmančević.
The wall of the building and the fountain are decorated with a relief made by the distinguished academic sculptor Marijan Kocković.
Since 2000, after the initial phase of interior reconstruction, the building has become the seat of the National Assembly of the Republic of Srpska, which has provided far better conditions for parliamentary activities, both in terms of a modernly equipped hall for plenary sessions and for the work of parliamentary clubs and committees.
The space where numerous cultural and entertainment events were held is today the Hall for Plenary Sessions of the Parliament, and the former library on the 2nd floor are offices and rooms for sessions of the National Assembly committees.
Since then, the space has been adapted for the needs of the National Assembly on the one hand, and to the imperatives imposed by civilizational standards on the other, such as a modernly equipped rostrum with space for representatives of the media, and the removal of architectural obstacles.
In front of the National Assembly building in 2007, in memory of the victims of the Jasenovac Ustasha death camp, a monument called "Topola užasa" was built. The sculpture is registered as part of the environmental unit of Kralj Petar I Karađorđević and Mladen Stojanović streets and is included in the provisional list of national monuments of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which is located in the first protection zone.
The hall where the sessions of the National Assembly are held is equipped with a modern conference system with electronic voting that enables, from a technical point of view, fast and efficient work.
The built-in equipment supports the work of 114 participants, allows the display of voting results and discussion time, displays the position of active conference units, and also provides sound reinforcement in the space. The computer conference system provides the possibility of efficient work, storage and printing of necessary data. Additional built-in equipment allows recording audio and video on appropriate media.
Next to the hall where the session of the National Assembly is held, there is a press hall and a press room that are at disposal to representatives of the media for monitoring the work of the National Assembly of the Republic of Srpska.
