Sarajevo: the back story

About Sarajevo: the back story

By the ULTIMATE Sarajevo Editorial Team

Few cities let you walk from one empire to another in a single step. In Sarajevo, the Ottoman bazaar ends and the Austro-Hungarian city begins at a line in the pavement, and mosques, churches and synagogues stand a few minutes apart.

The Ottoman city

Sarajevo was founded in the 15th century, after the Ottomans took Bosnia, when the governor Isa-beg Isaković built a mosque, a bridge, a hammam and a han by the Miljacka, and a town grew around them. In the 16th century Gazi Husrev-beg gave it its great mosque, the covered bazaar, a library and a madrasa. Baščaršija, the bazaar, was its commercial heart, with each street for a different craft.

Four faiths

Sarajevo became home to Muslims, Orthodox and Catholic Christians and, from the 16th century, Sephardic Jews who had come from Spain. Their places of worship stand a short walk apart, which is why the city is sometimes called the “Jerusalem of Europe”.

East and West meet here, quite literally, at a line in the pavement.

The Austro-Hungarian city

In 1878 Austria-Hungary took over the administration of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Sarajevo was transformed: trams, the cathedral, the National Museum, Vijećnica and grand façades along Ferhadija and the river, in styles from neo-Gothic to pseudo-Moorish.

28 June 1914

On 28 June 1914, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, and his wife Sophie were shot near the Latin Bridge by Gavrilo Princip. The assassination set off the chain of events that led to the First World War. The Museum Sarajevo 1878–1918 stands on the corner.

The 1984 Olympics

In February 1984 Sarajevo hosted the XIV Olympic Winter Games, the first Winter Olympics in a socialist country. Jahorina, Bjelašnica, Igman and Trebević became Olympic mountains, and Vučko the wolf became the city’s favourite mascot.

Remembering the 1990s

From 1992 to 1996 Sarajevo was under siege, the longest of a capital city in modern European history. The Tunnel of Hope, the Sarajevo Roses in the pavements and the War Childhood Museum remember those years and the people who lived through them.

Our advice: start at the Sebilj, walk west along Ferhadija to the Meeting of Cultures line, then cross to the Latin Bridge. Climb to the Yellow Fortress at sunset, take the cable car up Trebević, and give half a day to the Tunnel of Hope. Three days is ideal.

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