Sarajevo City Guide

Baščaršija, Miljacka & the view

From the Ottoman Baščaršija bazaar with its Sebilj fountain to the great Gazi Husrev-beg Mosque and across the line in the pavement where the Orient meets the Austro-Hungarian city. On to the museum about the siege, down to the Miljacka and the Latin Bridge of 1914, then the rebuilt Vijećnica. Finally up to the Yellow Bastion, optionally by cable car onto Trebević.

1. Baščaršija & Sebilj – The 15th-century Ottoman bazaar is the heart of Sarajevo: narrow lanes where coppersmiths still hammer away, coffee shops, carpets and one ćevapi grill after another. In the middle stands the wooden Sebilj fountain, ringed by pigeons and by everyone meeting up here. Have a Bosnian coffee from the copper pot, with a sugar cube and rahatlokum on the side - it's meant to take longer than an espresso. The tram terminates right on the square, so this is exactly where you begin.
2. Gazi Husrev-beg Mosque – The country's largest historic mosque was endowed in 1531 by the Ottoman governor Gazi Husrev-beg and is still the religious centre of the bazaar quarter. In the courtyard the ablution fountain splashes away, next to the tombs of the founder and his steward. You can visit outside prayer times: shoes off, shoulders and knees covered, headscarves are provided at the entrance. There's a small fee, and the painted domes inside are worth it.
3. Sarajevo Meeting of Cultures – In the middle of the pedestrian street, a line in the pavement marks where Ottoman Sarajevo meets the Austro-Hungarian city. Turn once on the spot and you have low bazaar lanes with wooden shopfronts on one side and the stately facades of the Habsburg era on the other. It's the shortest route to understanding this city: 400 years of Ottoman rule and 40 years of Habsburg, one step apart. Two photos in opposite directions explain more than any guidebook.
4. Museum of Crimes Against Humanity – This small museum tells the story of the siege of Sarajevo from 1992 to 1995 through the people who lived it: photographs, video interviews, everyday objects from a city with no power, no water and no way out. Sarajevo was cut off for almost four years, the longest siege of a capital city in modern history. The visit takes about an hour and it weighs on you - but without it you'd only half understand the rest of the day. Plan a deliberate coffee break afterwards.
5. Latin Bridge – On the north side of this unassuming Ottoman stone bridge, Gavrilo Princip shot the Austrian heir to the throne Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sophie on 28 June 1914. A few weeks later the First World War began. A plaque on the corner building and a small museum inside it recall the day. You cross the bridge itself in two minutes - and yet this is one of the most consequential spots in European history.
6. Vijećnica (City Hall) – The red-and-yellow striped showpiece in pseudo-Moorish style was built in the 1890s as the city hall and later became the national library. On the night of 26 August 1992 it burned out completely after shelling, and some two million books and manuscripts were lost. After more than 20 years of reconstruction the Vijećnica reopened in 2014 - you can visit the atrium with its arches, ornament and glass roof. From the opposite bank you fit the whole facade in frame.
7. Yellow Bastion (Žuta Tabija) – The bastion is part of the old Vratnik fortifications and sits just high enough for you to take in the whole basin: minarets, red roofs, the Miljacka and the white gravestones on the slopes. The walk up goes through a steep residential quarter and past the Kovači cemetery, where the dead of the siege are buried. At the top there's a simple café with plastic chairs, and that's all it needs. During Ramadan the cannon announcing the breaking of the fast is fired from here - and at sunset it's the city's favourite spot.
8. Trebević Cable Car – If there's still time after the bastion, add the local mountain: the cable car from 1959 was destroyed in the war and reopened in 2018, and it now takes you up to Trebević in a good seven minutes. Up top there's forest, hiking trails and the derelict bobsleigh track of the 1984 Winter Olympics, now covered end to end in graffiti. The view over the basin is the widest you'll get in Sarajevo. Stick to the marked paths - off them, the mountain has not been cleared everywhere.