Vraca Memorial
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A Yugoslav-era memorial complex in Sarajevo that dates back to the 1980s, at a location that had served as an execution site in WWII. The complex was badly damaged during the Bosnian war/Siege of Sarajevo and has been further vandalized and looted since the war. Some restoration work has taken place, but it’s still in a rather sorry state. The original memorial not only honours fallen partisans and the war dead of Sarajevo, but is also in part a Holocaust memorial.
More background info: The memorial park takes its name from the district it is located in. The strategic value of the location, a vantage point high above Sarajevo from where large parts of the city are visible, was first recognized by the Austro-Hungarian military when Bosnia was under Habsburg rule in the late 19th century.
In WWII, or the “National Liberation War” in the lingo of the Yugoslav partisans, Vraca was used as an execution site by the Nazis. Some 11,000 people are believed to have been murdered here between 1941 and 1945.
The Yugoslav memorial park at the site was rather late in the making. Initial ideas for a memorial at this spot date back to 1965, an open competition for its design was held, further planning and delays in funding and decision-making took over a whole decade and actual construction work didn’t commence until April 1980, shortly before the death of socialist Yugoslavia’s leader Tito. He thus didn’t live to see the memorial’s grand opening on 25 November (Bosnia’s National Day) in 1982. The Habsburg-era fort then also housed a museum about the war years, the partisans and Sarajevo’s liberation.
The park was used for many other ceremonies by pioneer organizations and the party, and was also a popular public space offering not just the park itself but also glorious views over Sarajevo.
Less than ten years later, those very same views attracted the Bosnian Serb military as they laid siege to Sarajevo from 1992 to 1995/96. The park was used as a vantage point for firing shells on to the city below, and also by snipers. During that time the memorial complex suffered considerable damage. The museum in the fort was completely looted and vandalized so that eventually nothing at all remained of its contents at the end of the Bosnian war. Vraca lay right on the front line and hence also received more damage from Bosniak counter-attacks.
After the war, the condition of the park deteriorated further and the place saw extensive vandalism and looting. It doesn’t help that the park lies right on the border between the Bosnian part of Sarajevo and Republika Srpska (see under BiH).
When I first saw the Vraca complex in 2009, as part of a longer war-and-siege-themed guided tour, it was in a bad shape. The former eternal flame was not just extinguished, but its apparatus bent and broken. The fountain was dry, there was graffiti everywhere as well as out-of-control vegetation encroaching on parts of the memorials and the walls of names. Parts of the monuments were broken and shifted, while looters had even helped themselves to metal manhole covers, so that you had to carefully watch your step.
In 2018, some restoration efforts were made, including the cutting back of vegetation, removing graffiti and repairing the memorial walls, the eternal flame and memorial fountain. The flame could then burn again, and some commemorative events were held with the flame on.
But when I revisited the site in April 2025, this time as part of a “Jewish Sarajevo” tour (run by Funky Tours), the eternal flame was not burning, the fountain was still dry, some new graffiti had appeared, and the vegetation, though less intrusive than it had been in 2009, was still very much in evidence, quite unlike when the memorial park was new.
Allegedly, more restoration work is in the pipeline. But I still got the impression that the Vraca Memorial Park is not much loved these days. It’s similar with so many Yugoslav-era monuments (‘spomeniks’). They generally don’t mean much to the general population any more in this day and age – even though many of them have national monument status.
This short summary shall have to suffice here – but if you want to learn more about the Vraca Memorial Park, the best place to look is in its entry in the “Spomenik Database” (external link, opens in a new tab), which is incredibly detailed. It even has English translations of all the inscriptions you can find at the memorials. I simply cannot compete with that …
What there is to see: From the main car park at the site, the larger portion of the complex is to the left (south-west). The first major element is the memorial fountain and “eternal flame”. The former was dry, the latter unlit when I visited. But you could see that the gas burner had been replaced and could in theory be functional. But I guess they only use it on special occasions. When I first visited the place the eternal flame burner was bent and broken. So it’s a partial improvement thanks to the restoration work undertaken in 2018 (see above).
Behind the “eternal flame” is the first of a series of memorial walls with names and some Tito quotes on them. At one spot there were some wilted bouquets of flowers, presumably from some ceremony held here not so long ago. I also noted that some earlier graffiti had clearly been painted over. But there was also new graffiti in evidence here and there.
Up the steps follow a series of further walls with names. As I visited the place in April 2025 as part of a half-day “Jewish Sarajevo” tour (see below), my guide was keen to especially point out the walls with names of Jews killed in WWII (some sources say between 7000 and 8000, so the vast majority of Sarajevo’s then sizeable Jewish community), in fact they form the majority of all names inscribed here at Vraca. So it’s this part that makes the Vraca Memorial Park double up as a Holocaust memorial too.
After the stack of walls of names (ca. a dozen) connected by eight flights of stairs, an open square features another of the core elements of the complex: the symbolic Tomb of National Heroes (26 of them, to be precise). Their names are engraved on the ring of stones that surrounds the central monument, which is a simple marble cube. The graffiti on the cube had been removed but there was still some structural damage to be seen.
Moving on, past some more Tito quotes on stone slabs, you come to the next major element of the complex: the old fort from the Austro-Hungarian Empire days. When the memorial park was new, the fort housed a museum about WWII and the partisans, but that fell victim to the Bosnian war and Siege of Sarajevo, when Bosnian Serbs trashed and looted the museum, so that nowadays nothing at all of it remains and the building stands empty and locked.
Compared with my first visit in 2009, some vegetation has been removed and some of the damage repaired – back then I had to watch my step because even manhole covers had been stolen, leaving gaping holes in the paving.
On the other side of the fort/castle lies another open square and from there a path leads to the final element in this part of the complex, the Tito Monument. This features a bas-relief of Josip Broz Tito as a young partisan leader, a socialist five-pointed star and yet another Tito quote.
In the eastern part of the complex is one more core element, namely the section that commemorates female resistance fighters involved in the liberation of Sarajevo in WWII. The central component here is a semi-abstract sculpture of a woman raising both arms in the air … except these days it’s only one. In 2013 some vandals toppled the statue and went on to saw her right arm off. The statue has since been re-erected, but the arm is still missing. Ironically this makes the sculpture appear even more like a socialist work of art, as the single raised arm looks like the communist raised-fist gesture, except it’s the left arm/fist, not the right one.
All in all, the memorial complex has been somewhat restored, but far from fully renovated, and it still remains in an overall rather sorry state. Locals clearly no longer connect to the chapter of history the park commemorates. More restoration work may still be coming, but most likely there will also be further vandalism, especially given the site’s location right on the border between the Bosnian and Republika Srpska parts of Sarajevo …
Location: on a hilltop in the Vraca district of Sarajevo, ca. 1.8 miles (2.8 km) from the Old Town (as the crow flies, that is, by road it’s much more), between the R446 trunk road and Husinjska Street.
Google Maps locator: [43.8446, 18.3996]
Access and costs: ideally visited as part of a guided tour, rather than on an individual basis; the latter would be free, but guided tours obviously cost.
Details: Getting to the memorial complex independently would be tricky and involve a long uphill trek. If you don’t want to go on a tour, it’s probably better to organize a taxi.
Theoretically the complex is freely accessible at all times (but you definitely don’t want to be here at any time other than during daylight hours).
Going by guided tour has the advantage that the guide can bring the place to life and provide some background information – because the memorial complex as such has next to nothing – there are no info panels, just the old Tito quotes (in Serbo-Croat) and the walls of names.
When I first went there it was as part of an all-day siege-themed tour (which no longer exists in that form), the second time in April 2025 it was with Funky Tours (see their sponsored page here), namely on their “Jewish Sarajevo” tour. This costs from 45 EUR per person (as a private tour for just my wife and myself it came to 120 EUR in total), for a half-day tour that also includes the Jewish Museum in the Old Town, a working synagogue, a converted one, the Jewish Cemetery and finally Vraca.
Time required: at the Vraca Memorial Park itself you won’t need more than half an hour or so. That’s about as long as we spent there as part of the “Jewish Sarajevo” tour (see above), which altogether lasted 3 to 4 hours
Combinations with other dark destinations: On the “Jewish Sarajevo” tour that had Vraca as its last stop, it came combined with the Jewish Cemetery and various Jewish-related sights within Sarajevo.
In general see under Sarajevo.
Combinations with non-dark destinations: see under Sarajevo.
