Sarajevo

Sarajevo is the capital city of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

It is in a valley. Green mountains rise all around it. A river called the Miljacka flows through the city, under its bridges.

Sarajevo is the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina, a country in southeastern Europe. The city's own website calls it the country's center for government, business, culture, universities and sport.

The City of Sarajevo is made up of four municipalities: Stari Grad (the Old Town), Centar, Novo Sarajevo and Novi Grad. The last census, in 2013, counted 275,524 people in them, and an official estimate for 30 June 2026 gives 270,608. The city lies in a valley along the Miljacka River, with mountains on every side.

Sarajevo is the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina and, as the City of Sarajevo describes itself, its administrative, economic, cultural, academic and sporting center. The City is a unit of local self-government made up of four municipalities: Stari Grad, Centar, Novo Sarajevo and Novi Grad.

The 2013 census, the most recent, counted 275,524 people in the City. The Institute for Statistics of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina estimated 270,608 on 30 June 2026 (Centar 51,598, Novi Grad 124,111, Novo Sarajevo 61,796 and Stari Grad 33,103). Its population has changed a great deal over time: the city's history pages record 111,087 people in the inner city area in 1948 and 527,049 in the wider city in April 1991, areas that are not the same as today's four municipalities.

The oldest part of Sarajevo has a big market square called Baščaršija.

Nearby is the City Hall, more than 100 years old. An old stone bridge crosses the river.

The heart of old Sarajevo is the Baščaršija, the city's main market square. It was already there before 1462, and shops selling cloth, saddles and leather grew up around it. Close by stands the Gazi Husrev-beg Mosque, built in 1530–31.

Beside the river is City Hall, or Vijećnica, which opened in 1896. It is built in a style called pseudo-Moorish. Not far away, the Latin Bridge is a stone bridge built in the 1500s.

Baščaršija, the "main market," grew from a square that existed before 1462, around Isa-beg Isaković's han (an inn with shops), where textiles were the main trade; streets of saddlers and other crafts formed around it. Gazi Husrev-bey, governor of the Bosnian sanjak three times between 1521 and 1541, built the Gazi Husrev-beg Mosque in 1530–31, then a madrasah whose 1537 charter also founded a library that still exists.

City Hall (Vijećnica) opened on 20 April 1896 as the seat of the city government. It is in the pseudo-Moorish style, with architects Karel Pařík, Alexander Wittek and Ćiril Iveković involved in its design and building. The Latin Bridge across the Miljacka dates from the 16th century.

Sarajevo has trams that run on rails through the streets.

A cable car carries people up a mountain called Trebević. Little cabins hang from a long cable.

Sarajevo has had trams for a long time. Horses pulled the first ones in 1885, and the first electric tram ran in 1895. In 2025 the city celebrated 140 years of public transport.

To get up Mount Trebević, people ride a cable car. It opened in 1959 and climbs from Bistrik, 583 meters above sea level, to 1,160 meters. After 26 years out of use, it reopened on 6 April 2018, the day Sarajevo celebrates as the city's birthday.

Public transport in Sarajevo began with a horse-drawn tram in 1885; the first electric tram followed in 1895, and the 140th anniversary was marked at City Hall in November 2025.

The Trebević cable car first carried passengers in 1959, linking Bistrik (583 m) with a viewpoint at 1,160 m; its cabins held four people and passed between about 5 and more than 50 meters above the ground. After 26 years out of service it reopened on 6 April 2018, which the City of Sarajevo describes as the city's birthday, helped by private donations of close to four million euros.

Sarajevo has a museum with a botanical garden.

It has a library that is almost 500 years old. In 1984, Sarajevo hosted the Winter Olympics.

The National Museum of Bosnia and Herzegovina was founded in Sarajevo in 1888. Its home, four pavilions and a botanical garden, opened in 1913. The Gazi Husrev-bey Library goes back to 1537. During the war of the 1990s, its books were moved from place to place several times, and the whole collection was saved.

In February 1984 Sarajevo hosted the Winter Olympic Games. In the old town, mosques, churches and a synagogue have stood a short walk apart since the 1500s.

The National Museum of Bosnia and Herzegovina, founded on 1 February 1888, is the country's oldest modern cultural and scientific institution; its purpose-built complex of four pavilions and a Botanical Garden was completed in 1913. The Gazi Husrev-bey Library traces its start to the 1537 madrasah charter; in 1992 its holdings were moved to several places in turn and were completely preserved, and since 2014 it has had a new building beside the Kuršumli madrasah. It holds about 200,000 items, including more than 10,500 manuscript volumes.

The City of Sarajevo notes that mosques, churches and a synagogue within about a hundred meters of one another have been in use since the 16th century. Jews began to settle in Sarajevo in the early 1500s, and the Jewish Cemetery has been on UNESCO's Tentative List since 2018, as has the city itself ("Sarajevo – continual open city") since 1997.