Selectively photographed, the fine buildings within a block of Trg Srpskikh Vladara could make the folks at home believe that Banja Luka was actually beautiful. The centrepiece is an iconic Orthodox Cathedral of Christ Saviour with a gilded dome and brick bell tower that looks like a Moroccan minaret on Viagara.
Its layered yellow and crab-pink stones rise to gilded domes in archetypal style, yet the structure was only started in 2000, nearly 60 years after the previous incarnation was bombed by Nazi Germany then demolished by their Ustashi stooges.
Flanking the cathedral, the Banski Dvor was once the 1920s palace of the Yugoslav royal governor. It now hosts the RS Assembly and a concert hall. The essentially identical Opština (City Hall) is better renovated and magically lit at night.
