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Sarajevo

Western Balkans Travel Guide

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Overview

Ringed by mountains, Sarajevo is a singular city with an enticing East-meets-West vibe all of its own. It was once renowned as a religious melting pot, earning it the epithet 'the Jerusalem of Europe'. Within a few blocks you can still find large Catholic and Orthodox cathedrals, Ashkenazi and Sephardic synagogues, and numerous mosques. However, the Jewish population was decimated during WWII and Sarajevo is now a divided city, with most of the Orthodox Christians living in Istočno Sarajevo (East Sarajevo) on the Republika Srpska side.

Attractions

Must-see attractions

  • War damaged National Library, Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina

    Sarajevo City Hall

    Sarajevo

    A storybook neo-Moorish striped facade makes the triangular Vijećnica (1896) Sarajevo's most beautiful Austro-Hungarian–era building. Seriously damaged…

  • War Childhood Museum

    Sarajevo

    This affecting museum had its genesis in a 2013 book edited by Jasminko Halilović, in which he asked a simple question of survivors of the Sarajevo siege:…

  • Galerija 11/07/95

    Sarajevo

    This gallery uses stirring photography, video footage and audio testimonies of survivors and family members to create a powerful memorial to the 8372…

  • Sarajevo Cable Car

    Sarajevo

    Reopened in 2018 after being destroyed during the war, Sarajevo's cable car once again shuttles people on a nine-minute ride, climbing 500m to a viewpoint…

  • The beginning of the Sarajevo Tunnel, an 800m stretch under the airport.

    Tunnel of Hope

    Sarajevo

    During the 1992–95 siege, when Sarajevo was surrounded by Bosnian Serb forces, the only link to the outside world was an 800m-long, 1m-wide, 1.6m-high…

  • National Museum of BiH

    Sarajevo

    Bosnia's biggest and best-endowed museum of ancient and natural history is housed in an impressive, purpose-built quadrangle of neoclassical 1913…

  • History Museum of BiH

    Sarajevo

    Somewhat misleadingly named, this small yet engrossing museum occupies a striking, still partly war-damaged 1960s socialist-modernist building originally…

  • Muzej Sarajevo 1878–1918

    Sarajevo

    On 28 June 1914, Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sophie were shot dead in their car by 18-year-old Gavrilo Princip directly outside this building…

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