Sarajevo Art, Architecture & Culture: the back story

About Sarajevo Art, Architecture & Culture: the back story

By the ULTIMATE Sarajevo Editorial Team

Editor-in-Chief: Jai Michael

Sarajevo is a city of thresholds. Step across a line in the pavement on Ferhadija and the low Ottoman bazaar gives way to the grand façades of Austria-Hungary; walk ten minutes and you pass a mosque, a cathedral, an Orthodox church and a synagogue. Add a famous film festival, a lively theatre scene and a contemporary art collection built from artists’ gifts, and you have one of the most rewarding cultural cities in the Balkans.

Where East meets West

Baščaršija, founded in the 15th century, was the commercial heart of Ottoman Sarajevo, and each of its lanes was named after the craft practised there: Kazandžiluk for the coppersmiths, Sarači for the saddlers, Bravadžiluk for the locksmiths. Many of those workshops are still open, and the hammering of copper is part of the soundtrack of the old town.

On the main square stands the Sebilj, a wooden fountain rebuilt in its present form in 1891 by the architect Alexander Wittek; legend says that whoever drinks from it will return to Sarajevo. A few steps away, the Gazi Husrev-beg Mosque, built in 1530–31 by the architect Acem Esir Ali, is the largest historic mosque in the country, with the Gazi Husrev-beg madrasa opposite and the clock tower nearby.

On Ferhadija a simple line in the pavement marks where two worlds meet: look one way, then the other.

Walk west along Ferhadija and you reach a line in the pavement marked Sarajevo Meeting of Cultures. Behind you, the low roofs of the bazaar; ahead, the tall, ornate streets built after 1878 under Austria-Hungary, with the Sacred Heart Cathedral, the Orthodox Cathedral and, across the river, the Ashkenazi Synagogue all within a short walk.

Vijećnica

On the riverbank at the eastern edge of the old town stands Sarajevo’s most spectacular building. Vijećnica, the former City Hall, was built in a pseudo-Moorish style and officially opened on 20 April 1896. It later became the National and University Library.

After a complete reconstruction from 1996 to 2014, carried out to the original plans, Vijećnica reopened on 9 May 2014. Today it hosts ceremonies, cultural and art events, museum exhibitions and the sessions of the City Council. Step inside for the great stained-glass ceiling over the central hall.

Museums and treasures

The National Museum of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Zemaljski muzej, was founded in 1888 and has occupied four pavilions around a botanical garden since 1913. Its collections run from prehistoric archaeology and the medieval stećci tombstones to ethnography and natural history, and its most famous treasure is the Sarajevo Haggadah, a 14th-century illuminated Jewish manuscript.

Two old houses of the Museum of Sarajevo show how the city lived. Svrzo’s House is the home of a well-off Muslim family of the Ottoman period, with separate quarters for men and women, wooden ceilings and a courtyard garden; Despić House, near the Latin Bridge, belonged to an Orthodox merchant family and shows the move from Ottoman to European furnishings in the 19th century.

The Museum of the Jews of Bosnia and Herzegovina occupies the Old Synagogue, first built in the 16th century near the bazaar, and the Bosnian Cultural Centre, a grand former Sephardic synagogue of 1930, now hosts concerts and dance. The History Museum, in a modernist building of 1963, and the Art Gallery of Bosnia and Herzegovina, with the national collection of painting, sculpture and prints, complete a museum day.

Ars Aevi: art as a gift

Ars Aevi, whose name is a partial anagram of Sarajevo and means art of the epoch in Latin, is a contemporary art collection built from works donated by international artists from 1992 onwards, as a gesture of support for the city. It is shown at the Skenderija centre.

In 2002 the Ars Aevi footbridge over the Miljacka, designed and paid for by the architect Renzo Piano, was opened to lead visitors towards the planned site of the Ars Aevi museum, for which Piano also made the design. Walk across it on a summer evening, when the promenade along the river fills with families.

Film, theatre and music

Each August, Sarajevo becomes the film capital of the region. The Sarajevo Film Festival, founded in 1995, fills the city with screenings, red carpets and open-air cinema, and its opening is held at the National Theatre, a neo-Renaissance building of 1899 facing the river, home to drama, opera and ballet.

Sarajevo’s theatre scene is remarkable for a city of its size. Kamerni Teatar 55, founded in 1955, is one of its most loved stages; SARTR, founded in 1992, is now a lively contemporary company; and the Youth Theatre puts on puppet shows and plays for children as well as productions for adults. For film year-round, try Kino Meeting Point and the little Kriterion art cinema on the riverside.

Cultural calendar

The 32nd Sarajevo Film Festival ran from 14 to 21 August 2026; next year’s dates will be published on the festival’s website. MESS, the International Theatre Festival, held its 66th edition from 2 to 10 October 2026, with performances from the National Theatre to the New Theatre in Novo Sarajevo.

Jazz Fest Sarajevo returns from 4 to 7 November 2026. Always check the festival’s own website before you travel: programmes and dates are announced there first.

What’s new

Jazz Fest Sarajevo (checked October 2026): the 2026 festival runs from 4 to 7 November; see the festival’s website for the line-up and tickets.

MESS (checked October 2026): the 66th International Theatre Festival closed on 10 October 2026, after nine days of theatre across the city.

Our advice: begin with Bosnian coffee in Baščaršija, cross the Meeting of Cultures line on foot, spend the afternoon at the National Museum and Vijećnica, and finish with an evening at Kamerni Teatar 55 or the National Theatre.

Opening hours, prices and seasonal openings change, so please check with Sarajevo Art, Architecture & Culture: the back story before you go.