Sarajevo Favorites

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Favorite thing: Many bridges span the river Miljacka, which flows from the east to the west through Sarajevo's city centre.

The most famous bridge is probably the Latin Bridge (Latinska Cuprija), formerly known as Princip Bridge. The current structure was built in 1798 and rebuilt in 2003. On June 28th 1914 its northern end was the site of the assassination of the Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand. The bridge is situated just in front of the Sarajevo Museum.

Another historic bridge is the Seher Cehajin Most, which was built in the late 16th century. The bridge connects Sarajevo's Alifakovac district with the historic old town (Bascarsija) near the National Library.

Sarajevo's first bridge was the Emperor's Bridge whose history dates back to about 1462. It leads from the historic old town (Bascarsija) to the main entrance of the Emperor's Mosque (Careva dzamija).

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Favorite thing: One of the very best vantage points from where you can enjoy excellent views of Sarajevo can be found at the so called Yellow Bastion (Zuta Tabija).

It is situated in the district Vratnik, just east of the historic old town (Bascarsija).

From the right side of the river Miljacka it takes a 20 minutes uphill walk along the street Jekovak to get to the Yellow Bastion.

The views of the old town and the surrounding hills are spectacular from here.

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Favorite thing: The wide multilane boulevard which connects the historic old town (Bascarsija) in the east with the newer residential and industrial districts of Sarajevo in the west was known as "Sniper Alley" (Snajperska aleja) during the 1990's war.

The boulevard is lined with mainy high rise buildings which were perfect for sniper posts, so it was said that especially this street was dangerous to cross.

I just assume that it was probably also dangerous to cross any other street in Sarajevo during that time.

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Favorite thing: Already on arrival by plane to Sarajevo I noticed many large cemeteries all around the town:

One of the largest is probably the Kosevo Cemetery Complex which consists of seperate sections for Muslim, Orthodox and Catholic people. Especially in the Muslim part of the cemetery most of the tombstones carry dates between 1992 and 1995. The Kosevo Cemetery is situated in the vicinity of the Asim Ferhatovic Hase Stadium, just 3 km north of the city centre.

A more centrally located cemetery which is mainly dedicated to Muslim soldiers and civilians who died during the recent war is Kovaci Cemetery. Here also the grave of the 1st president of Bosnia and Herzegovina Alija Izetbegovic can be found. The cemetery is situated just a 15 minutes uphill walk north of the old town (Bascarsija).

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Favorite thing: Many buildings in and around Sarajevo's historic old town (Bascarsija) are beautifully illuminated at night.

So after sunset a stroll through the narrow alleys is highly recommended to soak up the special atmosphere.

Among the worth seeing illuminated sights are the National Library, the Sebilj Fountain, the Clock Tower, the Catholic Cathedral as well as most bridges.

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Favorite thing: There's not much choice when it comes to guidebooks on Bosnia and Hercegovina, and I could find nothing in English that was Sarajevo-specific. We used Tim Clancy's "Bosnia & Sarajevo" (pub: Bradt - latest edition 2007)) which wasn't bad, though it doesn't give opening times and other specifics and has only one, rather inadequate, map of the city included. I wish I had found this free download guide to the city before we set off. Be aware though that Sarajevo is growing fast and changing rapidly and this guide was put out in 2004, so there will be some things that are out of date, as is the case in any guide.

The Tourist Information Office on Zelheni Beretki (the street between pedestrian Ferhadija and riverside Obala Kulina Bala) has a sheet of current opening times for the museums, churches, etc, which is very handy, especially if your time in the city is limited. They also have a nice little booklet titled "A Day Through Sarajevo" which is free, has a basic map (they will sell you a better one) and fairly general information about the main sights. You can book tours here but not accommodation.
If you want to take the siege tour, you should go to see them as soon as you can on your arrival, numbers are limited to 12 and there's only one tour a day. You don't need to take a tour to visit the Tunnel Museum.

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Favorite thing: Backpacking has a specific meaning in Sarajevo: During the almost 4 years siege 1992 - 1995 citizens got large parts of their provisions carried into town in backpacks. After the 800 m long tunnel under the airport from Dobrinja on the city side to Butmir, was opened in 1993, through the up to 1.60 meter tall tunnel. At times they had to wade through knee high water seeping through the soil, they had to avoid the high voltage power line and the gas line, and most of them could not walk upright.

The tunnel was dug out with hand tools only, from both sides of the airstrip. The only communication between the two digging teams, was brave people running across the field while avoiding snipers bullits from the hills. On the city side 45 tons of metal from factories was used to support tunnel walls and roof, on the other side 170 cubic meters of wood from the mountains. A total of 2800 cubic meters soil was dug out, and reused to build protection against snipers.

The tunnel was used for military purposes by night, and by day to let citisens through to buy supplies on the country side. At the beginning everything was carried on their backs or in their hands, but after a while metal tracks were laid down, and different kinds of wagons built. Wounded and sick people were brought through, too.

Fondest memory: Only the first 20 meters of the Butmir side of the tunnel is preserved. The preservation and establishment of the museum is done by father and son Bajro and Edis Kolar. Digging of the tunnel started in the back yard of their bombed house in the village Donji Kotorac. Both father and son were enrolled in the Bosnian army, and were after a while assigned tasks concerning the tunnel. The grandparents of the family moved back to the house, father and son made themselves a shack in the remains of the garage. Grandmother Šida was regularly seen providing tired tunnel wanderers with water and sometimes bread, and she also invited people into her house to get warm during winter.

One day maybe a larger and more up to date museum will be built, and more of the tunnel preserved. But if it wasn`t for the Kolar family, all of it would have been lost by now.

Pic. 2: Tunnel
Pic. 3: Map with front lines
Pic. 4: Backpacks and pictures from the tunnel
Pic. 5: Tools used to dig the tunnel

More pictures in the TL

Favorite thing: This is one of my favorite areas, this part of Sarajevo (stari Grad) has so much to do. One of those things is feeding the pegions (who are always there) You pay the guy sitting there-not alot (the guy who has the bird food) and then you put it in your hands and then just watch all the pegions land on you :)
It's not as scary as it seems