Famous Landmarks in Sarajevo
Ottoman mosques and fountains sit beside Austro-Hungarian civic grandeur on the Miljacka.
Sarajevo's landmarks trace two layers pressed onto the same narrow valley. The Gazi Husrev-beg Mosque and the wooden Sebilj fountain sit around Baščaršija, the historic marketplace at the city's core, both begun in the centuries after Sarajevo grew into an Ottoman stronghold; the mosque in cut stone, the fountain in timber and rebuilt once already after a fire. The Latin Bridge, a stone arch raised in 1798, carries that same Ottoman engineering over the Miljacka River. Sarajevo City Hall stands apart: a large civic building raised in the 1890s under Austro-Hungarian administration, built to outdo anything the Ottoman city had produced, and now serving again as the seat of the mayor and city council.
Sebilj
1891 · Alexander Wittek
A small, free-standing wooden fountain pavilion in Ottoman style marks the centre of Baščaršija Square, the marketplace it has anchored — through a fire and a rebuild — since the eighteenth century.
The Sebilj is a wooden Ottoman-style drinking fountain at the centre of Baščaršija, Sarajevo's old market square. The Ottoman governor Mehmed Pasha Kukavica had the first one built in 1753; it burned down in an 1852 fire. The Austrian architect Alexander Wittek designed its replacement in 1891, moving it a few metres from where the original had stood. Local tradition holds that drinking from its taps promises a return to the city. It remains a gathering point in the old town today.
- Local legend claims that drinking from the fountain guarantees a return to the city.
- The fountain standing today is an 1891 replacement; a fire destroyed the 1753 original in 1852.
Photo: xiquinhosilva (CC BY 2.0)
Sarajevo City Hall
1896 · Karel Pařík
A large formal public building that served as the largest and most representative structure of the Austro-Hungarian administration, combining a city hall and a library before reopening as a civic seat in 2014.
Sarajevo City Hall, known as Vijećnica, was designed in 1891 by the Czech architect Karel Pařík as the largest and most representative building of the Austro-Hungarian administration in the city. Criticism from the minister Baron Béni Kállay led Pařík to abandon the project partway through, and construction was not completed until 1896. It combined the roles of city hall and library. After renovation, the building reopened on 17 July 2014 and now serves as the seat of the mayor of Sarajevo and the city council.
- The architect, Karel Pařík, abandoned the project partway through after criticism from a government minister.
- It served as a library as well as a city hall.
Photo: Ladislav Boháč (CC0)
Gazi Husrev-beg Mosque
1531 · Mimar Sinan
Built as part of a larger religious complex, or külliye, this is the largest historical mosque in Bosnia and Herzegovina, standing beside the mausoleum of the patron who founded it.
The Gazi Husrev-beg Mosque, completed in 1531, is the largest historical mosque in Bosnia and Herzegovina and one of the most representative Ottoman religious buildings in the Balkans. It has served as Sarajevo's central mosque since construction and remains the main congregational mosque for the country's Muslims. Standing in the Baščaršija neighbourhood of the Stari Grad municipality, it forms part of a wider religious complex, a külliye, and takes its name from its founder, Gazi Husrev-beg, who is buried in an adjoining mausoleum.
- It is the largest historical mosque in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
- Its founder, Gazi Husrev-beg, is buried in a mausoleum next to it.
Photo: Adam Harangozó (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Latin Bridge
1798
A stone arch bridge crossing the Miljacka River, its northern end marking the site of the 1914 assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand — the event that triggered the July Crisis and the outbreak of the First World War.
The Latin Bridge is an Ottoman-era stone arch bridge across the Miljacka River in Sarajevo, built in 1798. During the Yugoslav era it was renamed Princip's Bridge after Gavrilo Princip, who assassinated Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria at its northern end in 1914. That killing set off the July Crisis, the sequence of diplomatic failures that led, within weeks, to the outbreak of the First World War.
- During the Yugoslav era it was renamed Princip's Bridge.
- The assassination at its northern end in 1914 set off the July Crisis that led to the First World War within weeks.
Photo: sundeviljeff (CC BY 2.0)
History
The city grew from the fifteenth century as an Ottoman stronghold, and its oldest standing landmarks date from the two centuries that followed: the Gazi Husrev-beg Mosque, completed in 1531 as the city's central mosque, and the Latin Bridge, a stone arch raised over the Miljacka in 1798. Baščaršija's wooden Sebilj fountain also began in this period, in 1753, though a fire destroyed it in 1852, and the version standing today was rebuilt by the Austrian architect Alexander Wittek in 1891, on a site a few metres from the original. That reconstruction fell within Austro-Hungarian rule, which also produced Sarajevo City Hall, designed in 1891 and completed in 1896 as the administration's largest and most representative building. It later became the seat of the mayor and city council, reopening in 2014.