Sarajevo Wears Its History in Plain Sight, and That's Exactly Why It's Having a Moment

Sarajevo has spent the last few years climbing more European city-break shortlists, and it has done so without sanding down the parts of its history that make other cities uneasy. Ottoman bazaar streets run into Austro-Hungarian boulevards within a few hundred metres, mosques, a Catholic cathedral, an Orthodox church and a synagogue sit close enough together to have earned the city an old nickname, the Jerusalem of Europe, and the physical marks of the 1990s siege are still visible on some building facades rather than quietly restored away.

Baščaršija, the old bazaar

Founded in the 15th century under Ottoman rule, Baščaršija remains Sarajevo's old commercial heart, a compact grid of stone lanes selling coffee, copperware and pastries around the Sebilj, a wooden Ottoman-style fountain that has become the square's unofficial meeting point.

The bridge that started a war

A short walk from Baščaršija, the Latin Bridge over the Miljacka river marks the spot where Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria was assassinated on 28 June 1914, an event that set off the chain of alliances leading to the First World War. A small museum on the corner covers the assassination and the city's Austro-Hungarian period in more detail.

A siege that lasted nearly four years

Between 1992 and 1996, Sarajevo endured what is widely described as the longest siege of a capital city in modern warfare, lasting close to four years. The Tunnel of Hope, a hand-dug passage built beneath the airport runway to connect the besieged city to free territory, survives in part as a small museum on its original site, and remains one of the more sobering stops on any visit.

A 1984 Olympic legacy, half-reclaimed

Sarajevo hosted the 1984 Winter Olympics, the first Winter Games held in a socialist country, and several venues from that era still stand in various states of use. The abandoned bobsled and luge track on Trebević mountain above the city, its concrete run now layered in graffiti, has become an unlikely draw for hikers and photographers, a piece of 1980s infrastructure left to the elements rather than demolished.

Traveller tips

• Sarajevo International Airport connects to a growing number of European cities; the old town is a short taxi or tram ride away.
• The Tunnel of Hope museum sits a little outside the centre, near the airport, and is best reached by taxi or a short organised tour.
• Reaching the Trebević bobsled track is easiest by cable car, itself rebuilt in 2018 after being destroyed during the war, followed by a short walk.
• Spring and early autumn offer milder weather for walking the old town and the hillside viewpoints above it than the height of summer.