We knew little about Sarajevo – formerly the capital of Yugoslavia, now the capital of Bosnia-Hercegovina – until we arrived there. And there is an awful lot to know: more than most places, Sarajevo is a product of its history. The city itself is stunningly laid out, in a river valley surrounded by the Dinaric Alps.
Thanks to its strategic location, people have lived in Sarajevo for many centuries. But it first became a city of note during the 15th century, during the Ottoman occupation. That Ottoman core of the city, Baščaršija, remains among its most vibrant parts, with market stalls selling Turkish goods.
Sarajevo has long – with notable exceptions – been a place where different cultures could cohabitate: Baščaršija intermixes mosques, churches, and synagogues. Indeed, the famous Sarajevo Haggadah – a rare illustrated Jewish manuscript from the medieval period – is an example of the city’s multiculturalism: Muslims preserved it through several wars. The Haggadah is in the National Museum of Sarajevo, in a vault room with artefacts from other monotheistic religions. Unfortunately, it was not open during our visit.
Baščaršija owes its shape to the Ottoman Gazi Husrev Bey. He built a mosque there, and a medresa (a complex of buildings, often including a school, library, and soup-kitchen). We realised, for the first time, that places with snow can also house Muslims!
If you know Sarajevo, you probably know it for a few reasons. First, it is the location of Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand’s assassination by Bosniak Gavrilo Princip. This event precipitated World War I. Although Sarajevo is a city with a long history, few things that have happened there have been more influential on world history at large. Widespread anger at Austrian rule (or misrule) meant that security forces warned the Archduke they cound not guarantee his safety.
But he insisted on coming. There had been an attempt on his life earlier in the day, but the grenade thrown exploded behind his car and injured others. Undeterred, he went on to address a party of local figures at the Governor’s Residence. It was following this that he took his fateful trip. The date was 28 June 1914. A commemorative stone marks the spot, at the Latin Bridge (a stone’s throw from our hotel). For a time, a monument to the Archduke and his wife stood on the north bank of the Miljacka river. Today there is a plexiglass marker indicating the spot.
Second, it was the site of the 1984 Winter Olympics. As you would expect, there was a lot of building for the Olympics, including an Olympic village, an enormous bobsled and luge track, and lots of others. Some of these places were greatly damaged in the 1990s war (see below), though the track has been in restoration since 2014. A snowstorm prevented us from going up the mountain.
The last and most recent reason you might know Sarajevo was the siege of Sarajevo during the Bosnian War of the 1990s. It began on 5 April 1992 and ended on 29 February 1996. It lasted a total of 1,425 days, and is the longest siege in modern warfare. Bosnian Serb forces, located in the hills around Sarajevo, shelled the city relentlessly; virtually every building in Sarajevo suffered some damage. The city’s library was completely destroyed, as were about two million books inside it. Today, one mainly sees the reminders of this in the numerous Muslim cemeteries that one can see in the surrounding hills from almost anywhere in the city.
Our stay in Sarajevo was brief, and full of snow. We are unaccustomed to this nonsense, having lived in Florida for twenty years, and not having proper winter gear. The day before we departed, it snowed very heavily. But we had a delightful day watching the snow fall over the city, across the street from the Emperor’s Mosque and just down from the Latin Bridge. It was a very peaceful day in a city that has known far too much violence.
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