Tag Archives: gavrilo princip

Footsteps of the famous in Falmouth and Sarajevo

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IN THE 1980s when Yugoslavia existed, I used to visit the Bosnian city of Sarajevo regularly. In the centre of the town there was (and might still be) a museum about the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in 1914. Near this, there were impressions of two footprints in the pavement. These mark the supposed spot from which Gavrilo Princip fired the shots that killed the Archduke. You could stand in that very spot if you wished. I have no idea whether this curious memorial still exists but I was reminded of it when walking along the waterfront in Cornwall’s Falmouth.

On the 14th of June 1968, Sir Robin Knox-Johnson (born in 1939) set sail from Falmouth as a competitor in the Sunday Times Golden Globe race. In his small boat, the 32-foot Suhaili (a Bermudan ketch), he circumnavigated the World non-stop. Having won the race, he disembarked at Falmouth on the 22nd of April 1969.

Just as Princip’s exploit was commemorated by imprints of footprints, so was Sir Robin’s. However, at Falmouth there are two sets of footprints embedded in brass plates. One set has its toes pointing towards the sea, and the other, commemorating Sir Robin’s return, has its toes pointing towards the land (away from the sea).

Whereas the impressions of Princip’s footsteps make us remember the terrible consequences of his actions, those of Sir Robin celebrate a great achievement.

Buried in Madeira

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IN CENTRAL SARAJEVO, there used to be a pair of footprints carved on the corner of a pavement where two roads met. I do not know whether these impressions, which I saw in the 1980s, still exist. They marked the spot where a young sharpshooter, Gavrilo Princip, took aim and assassinated Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria-Hungary in 1914. Had his aim not been so accurate, the last Emperor of Austria might not have been buried in a church high above the city of Funchal in Madeira.

Emperor Karl of Austria-Hungary

Had Princip’s aim not been so good,  his victim, Franz Ferdinand, would have been successor to the imperial throne. With the Archduke eliminated, his nephew, Karl (1887-1922), succeeded Emperor Franz Joseph when he died in 1916.

Following the end of WW1 in 1918, Austria’s last Emperor, Karl, fled to Switzerland. After a couple of attempts to regain his throne,  the British exiled him and his wife to Madeira in 1921.

In 1922, Karl died of pneumonia.  He was interred in a chapel on the north side of the nave in the Igreja Nossa Senhora in the Monte district high above Funchal.

Plenty of tourist gawp at Karl’s simple tomb in the lovely church, which overlooks the city and the Atlantic Ocean far below.  I wonder whether Madeira would have been the final home of the Archduke had he not been so unlucky in Sarajevo.

Curiously, Karl was beatified in 2004. Equally strange was the British choice of a Portuguese island for Karl’s exile. After all, Napoleon Bonaparte was eventually exiled to a British possession: St Helena.