SARAJEVO, Nov. 12 (Xinhua) -- Sitting in a cafe near the Latin Bridge in Sarajevo, Edo Kapetanovic, 68, as usual, watched tourists passing by and stopping at a full-size drivable Graf & Stift -- Double Phaeton limousine replica to take photos.
In 1914, it's here that Archduke Ferdinand, crown prince of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, was assassinated in a Double Phaeton limousine, which triggered the First World War (WWI).
Kapetanovic owns the replica car. He built it with the help of his son eight years ago.
One day in early 2014, Kapetanovic was having a coffee in a bar near the WWI museum when he saw a group of tourists taking photos near Ferdinand's two-dimensional car made of cardboard. It gave him the idea to build a full-size, drivable replica of Ferdinand's car and use it to remember the history of Sarajevo.
It took him three months to hand-build the car.
"I used the body and the engine of an old series 3 Land Rover I bought for the purpose. I stripped the rest off, and then I started to figure out how to make the exact replica by using anything available," he said.
The engine crank handle at the front of the car was from an old meat grinding machine. Two copper bowls and two copper trays, which were usually used for serving traditional Bosnian food and coffee, were used for building headlights. Kapetanovic searched many scrap yards and garages for parts before finally managing to finish his project.
To finish the replica in time to commemorate the 100 anniversary of WWI in June 2014 gave him too much pressure and put him in hospital for two weeks.
"I figure that my health was my most expensive investment in this project," said Kapetanovic.
The replica car made him a celebrity in town. Since 2014, Kapetanovic has been usually hanging around the museum where he parks Ferdinand's car, and waiting for tourists willing to pay for a historic ride around the city.
He charges one euro for the photo inside the car and fifty euros for an hour of driving around town, except on special occasions like this Friday, the anniversary of the end of WWI.
Kapetanovic is also running an old-timer car club. On his business card, Kapetanovic's title is "Car Creator". He knew it all came from Sarajevo's dark past.
Kapetanovic said he abhors war. When the Bosnia war broke out in 1992, Kapetanovic, then 38, shut down his transportation company in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), fled Sarajevo with his family and lived as a refugee in Croatia and Slovenia. He returned to his hometown in 2000, only to find that the family house had been reduced to rubble in the war.
"Most of the world's wars are to blame, they leave nothing but bloodshed and hatred", said the old man.
