Sarajevo

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More background info: The origins of Sarajevo go way back but it wasn’t until the start of the Ottoman Empire’s presence in Europe that the place gained some significance. The fabled Old Town of Sarajevo still features many architectural remnants from that era.

 

That came to an end when Bosnia and with it Sarajevo were integrated into the Habsburg Austro-Hungarian Empire in the second half of the 19th century. The Habsburgs invested heavily in Sarajevo – including the first electric tram line in Europe (as a test run before introducing the same in Vienna), as any Sarajevo resident will proudly tell you (apparently only San Francisco’s tram system is older). The period of Habsburg rule also changed the look of the city, as plenty of typical Austrian-style buildings were erected, including some of then so fancied pseudo-Byzantine style (especially the City Hall).

 

Then Sarajevo entered the 20th century history books literally with a bang: when the heir to the throne of the Austro-Hungarian Empire Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sophie were shot dead near the Latin Bridge in Sarajevo in 1914 – which triggered the outbreak of World War One. A museum by the bridge commemorates the events today. It is, however, a relatively minor dark tourism destination compared to the sites related to the more recent war in Bosnia and Herzegovina, of which the Siege of Sarajevo was one of the most significant elements. In fact, it was the longest such siege in modern history and the worst since that of Leningrad in WWII.

 

It’s impossible to delve into details here (for that you should pay a visit to the various siege-related exhibitions in Sarajevo – see below – or consult the numerous specialist websites about this topic). Here only a very brief account has to suffice:

 

The siege started shortly after the declaration of Bosnia and Herzegovina's independence (following the previous secessions of Slovenia and Croatia from Yugoslavia). The Yugoslav central government under Slobodan Milošević opposed the new independence, and within Bosnia the Bosnian Serbs formed their own "Republika Srpska", intended to become part of a "Greater Serbia" – effectively seizing about half of Bosnia and Herzegovina's territory. Sarajevo, the capital, was right on the dividing line.

Bosnia and Herzegovina's population includes about 30% Serbs – and one of them in the early 1990s was the notorious Radovan Karadžić, a doctor at a Sarajevo hospital before the war, who became president and military commander of Republika Srpska. Its military inherited much of the Yugoslav army's arsenal – and received direct support from the remaining Yugoslav military – whereas the Bosniaks were seriously underequipped. However, they outnumbered the Serbian aggressors, and the city centre with its narrow streets was too difficult to capture outright. And so, on the orders of Karadžić, the Serb forces (under the command of General Mladić – cf. Srebrenica) surrounded Sarajevo and cut it off from the outside world. Tanks, mortars, rocket launchers etc. were deployed in the hills overlooking the city and they pounded it relentlessly and almost indiscriminately for the next few years.
  
Almost every building in Sarajevo sustained some degree of damage, even hospitals and cultural treasures, such as the National Library (now City Hall), were targeted. In addition, the city's civilian population was directly shot at by snipers. Especially the open and wide main thoroughfare through Novo Sarajevo, Ulica Zmaja od Bosne, became known as “Sniper Alley”, where improvised warning signs were put up saying “Pazi Snajper” (‘watch out, sniper’). The perhaps most tragic case of civilians thus killed was that of a couple, one a Bosniak, the other a Bosnian Serb, who tried to flee the besieged city and were gunned down on a bridge across the Miljacka River that runs through Sarajevo. This bridge has hence been dubbed “Romeo & Juliet Bridge”. In many cases victims were killed while queuing for bread or water. In total, over 10,000 Sarajevans were killed during the siege, including some 1500 children.
  
The worst incidents were the two "Markale Massacres". In february 1994, Bosnian Serbs fired fired a heavy 120mm mortar shell into a crowded open market, killing 68 people and wounding some 150. Then in August 1995 several shells were fired into the market, killing dozens and wounding hundreds more of innocent civilians. This atrocity, which came shortly after the Srebrenica massacres (later declared a genocide) slowly became known, was a turning point.

 

After the second Markale Massacre in August 1995, NATO reacted by launching systematic air strikes against Bosnian Serb positions – which eventually forced the Serbs to the negotiating table (well, that and the fact that Croatia had made significant advances against Serb forces and regained territory, and also in Bosnia the Bosniak side had gained strength despite its military disadvantages).

 

The Dayton Accords effectively ended the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina and the siege of Sarajevo was officially declared over in early 1996. On exactly what day it started and ended isn’t quite so clear but the duration of the siege is usually given as 1425 days.

 

During the siege, the population not only had to live through the hell of constant shelling and the threat of sniper fire, but also had to deal with food shortages, and electricity and water supplies being as good as cut off. But they held out, partly through internal ingenuity and assets (e.g. the Sarajevo Brewery was able to provide drinking water from its own water supply), partly through supplies brought into the city through mainly two channels: UN food rations flown in to Sarajevo airport, which was held by UN forces, and, more spectacularly, through a tunnel dug under the airport connecting the city to the outside world and Bosnian free territory. The Sarajevo War Tunnel is often seen as the most heroic and admirable achievement of the Bosniak Sarajevans during the siege.

Remarkably, their persevering resistance also involved an enduring cultural life, including underground theatre performances. In fact, the prestigious Sarajevo Film Festival was founded while the city was still under siege in 1995. Schooling also continued underground. It is truly remarkable how the city coped with the situation – while it now seems almost incomprehensible that the outside world did so little to help for so long.

After the war, the city underwent extensive reconstruction – but still many scars from the war remain very visible in many parts of the city (see war ruins). What is also still visible is the fact that the division of the country's population continues to be very much a fact of life, even though it also underwent a significant shift, with the Serb population now at a much lower proportion than before the war. As soon as you venture out of central Sarajevo, however, especially past the "Welcome to the Republic of Srpska" signs, you see that the conflict continues as a kind of linguistic war. The Serbs use a different script, a variant of the Cyrillic alphabet, so place names on signs are written in both that and the Latin script used by Bosnian Muslims. Often, however, you see the Latin script equivalent sprayed over – and occasionally resprayed on. But at least in this graffiti war fought with spray cans rather than guns, no one gets physically hurt. But witnessing this does underscore the presence of the continued tensions in the country.

 

Many mainstream tourists won’t notice any of this so much, especially those who hardly ever venture out of the picturesque Old Town. But for the dark tourist, the psychological element of Bosniak vs. Serb confrontation only just about kept at bay is quite palpable.

 

You also notice it in the choice of language in the narrative of the war, in brochures, tourist guides, museum exhibitions and memorial plaques: the agreed terminology amongst Bosniaks is quite clear and outspoken. Here the war is commonly referred to as the "Serbian aggression", and the opponents as "Serbian criminals", or quite often as “Chetniks” (a pejorative expression for Serbs in general). Conversely, the heroism of the Bosniak Sarajevans is routinely emphasized – probably rightly so, but occasionally it is at least narrowly bordering on glorification. Little wonder that the Serbs who still live in Sarajevo mostly keep to their own quarter – in what is commonly referred to accordingly as "Serb Sarajevo", a new town in the south-east of the city which is part of Republika Srpska – marked by those "Welcome" signs (even though the border is otherwise not so visible). this Serb part of Sarajevo is even served by a separate public transport network and ambulance services that do not overlap with the rest of Sarajevo!

 

Another perhaps only indirectly dark aspect of Sarajevo is that its geology, being surrounded by hills, makes for very low air quality from pollution that gets trapped in the valley where the city sits. This geology was of course also something that made it so easy for the Bosnian Serbs to lay siege to Sarajevo. These days its “only” an environmental downside – but people with respiratory problems (like myself with chronic sinusitis) may well feel the air pollution.

 

In general, tourism takes place overwhelmingly in the larger Bosniak parts of the city, which despite being BiH’s largest (at just under 300,000 residents) and the country’s political and economical hub, doesn’t feel like a metropolis. Its “Centar” and “Stare Grad” (= ‘Old Town’) districts are compact and tourism is concentrated there. Most of the properly commodified dark-tourism attractions (most museums/exhibitions with dark themes) are also to be found there, except for a few a bit to the west in Novo Sarajevo, still easily reachable, plus some yet further out. Those places really require guided tours and transport provided by several local operators (see below). But dark tourism is exceptionally well catered for here.

 

Indeed, Sarajevo is today one of Europe's foremost dark-tourism destinations. It is also one of the few places on Earth where dark tourism is firmly integrated into the general tourism industry (see also Belfast or Berlin) and much less frowned upon than elsewhere. And it started as a kind of grass-roots development. The people of Sarajevo wanted to tell their story to visitors and for these visitors to take that story with them and to tell it to others, even at an early stage when this caused controversy resulting in criticism from abroad. I remember that well from before my first visit to Sarajevo in 2009 when I read up on this. By the time I went on my return visit in April 2025, Sarajevo’s dark-tourism offerings had not only consolidated themselves but even proliferated. For once dark tourists are on the “right” side here, as it were.

 

  
What there is to see: Lots. The main dark attractions of Sarajevo which are also well commodified and marketed for tourism are given their own separate entries here.