Things to do
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Baščaršija
Ottoman Sarajevo still trades here, in a grid of lanes where coppersmiths hammer trays within earshot of grill houses serving ćevapi. Founded in the fifteenth century as the city bazaar, the quarter lost much of its area to fire and later rebuilding, and what remains is dense and walkable. Mornings are calm; by evening the courtyards fill and the smaller workshops, which prefer cash, stay open late.
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Gazi Husrev-beg Mosque
Built in 1531 for the Ottoman governor whose endowment also raised a madrasa, a clock tower and a bathhouse, this is the largest historic mosque in the country and still the centre of Muslim worship in the city. Visitors are admitted outside prayer times, ticketed, with scarves lent at the door. The courtyard fountain and the surrounding complex reward more time than the prayer hall alone.
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Latin Bridge
Franz Ferdinand was shot at the north end of this Ottoman span in June 1914, and the killing set the First World War in motion. Four arches cross the Miljacka in pale stone, restored after floods and much photographed from the embankment. A small museum on the corner covers the assassination and Austro-Hungarian Sarajevo. The crossing itself takes a minute, so pair it with Baščaršija.
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Sarajevo Tunnel Museum
A house in Butmir hides the surviving stretch of the hand-dug tunnel that kept Sarajevo supplied through the siege, running under the airport runway to free territory beyond. Around twenty metres can be walked, low and braced with timber, alongside film from the years of the blockade. It sits near the airport, so a taxi or the tram plus a short walk is the usual approach.
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Sarajevo War Childhood Museum
Objects donated by those who grew up during the siege carry the exhibition: a ballet shoe, a bicycle, a diary, each with its owner account of what it meant. The approach is personal and unsparing, and the collection has since expanded to conflicts beyond Bosnia. Rooms are small and the reading is slow, so allow an hour. It stands a short walk from the cathedral in the centre.
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Sebilj
Pigeons, coffee and arranged meetings gather around this wooden fountain at the heart of Baščaršija square, an Ottoman form rebuilt in 1913 after fire took the original. Local lore holds that anyone who drinks from it returns to Sarajevo. It serves as the city landmark rendezvous and its busiest photo stop, ringed by cafes pouring Bosnian coffee. The water is drinkable.
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Trebević Cable Car
Eight minutes of gondola lift riders from the edge of Baščaršija onto Mount Trebević, a wooded ridge that was a front line during the siege and is mined off the marked paths. At the top, walking trails lead to the abandoned 1984 Olympic bobsleigh track, now covered in graffiti and open to wander. Cafes cluster near the upper station, and the cable car runs through the year unless high wind halts it.
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Vrelo Bosne
At the foot of Mount Igman, springs surface in dozens of channels and form the source of the river Bosna, laid out as a park of islets, bridges and plane trees. Families come out from the city on warm weekends, and horse-drawn carriages work the long avenue that leads in from Ilidža. Trams and buses reach Ilidža from the centre. In winter the carriages stop running, though the paths through the park stay open.
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Yellow Fortress
Sunset draws a crowd to this eighteenth-century bastion above Vratnik, where the old walls give an open view down over the rooftops, minarets and the white hillside cemeteries. The climb from Baščaršija takes around twenty minutes on steep cobbles and stairs. During Ramadan a cannon is fired from here to mark iftar, and the terrace fills well before dusk. Access is free and the gate stays open well into the evening.