As a historic city,

Sarajevo Sarajevo ( ; cyrl, Сарајево, ; ''see Names of European cities in different languages (Q–T)#S, names in other languages'') is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Bosnia and Herzegovina, with a population of 275,524 in its a ...

has numerous

myth Myth is a folklore genre consisting of Narrative, narratives that play a fundamental role in a society, such as foundational tales or Origin myth, origin myths. Since "myth" is widely used to imply that a story is not Objectivity (philosophy), ...

s and

folklore Folklore is shared by a particular group of people; it encompasses the traditions common to that culture, subculture or group. This includes oral traditions such as tales, legends, proverbs and jokes. They include material culture, ranging ...

. The character

Nasrudin Nasreddin () or Nasreddin Hodja (other variants include: Mullah Nasreddin Hooja, Nasruddin Hodja, Mullah Nasruddin, Mullah Nasriddin, Khoja Nasriddin) (1208-1285) is a character in the folklore of the Muslim world from Arabia to Central Asia ...

Hodža is popular throughout the former lands of the

Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire, * ; is an archaic version. The definite article forms and were synonymous * and el, Оθωμανική Αυτοκρατορία, Othōmanikē Avtokratoria, label=none * info page on book at Martin Luther University) ...

, and Sarajevo is no exception. Numerous stories about him dealing with the city have been written over the years. A famous piece of Sarajevo folklore is the story of the

Eastern Orthodox Eastern Orthodoxy, also known as Eastern Orthodox Christianity, is one of the three main branches of Chalcedonian Christianity, alongside Catholicism and Protestantism. Like the Pentarchy of the first millennium, the mainstream (or "canonical") ...

Church Church may refer to: Religion * Church (building), a building for Christian religious activities * Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination * Church service, a formalized period of Christian communal worship * Chris ...

. It was said that when a request came to build it, authorities required that it be no higher than the tallest

minaret A minaret (; ar, منارة, translit=manāra, or ar, مِئْذَنة, translit=miʾḏana, links=no; tr, minare; fa, گل‌دسته, translit=goldaste) is a type of tower typically built into or adjacent to mosques. Minarets are generall ...

in Sarajevo. A wise old man was then said to have advised that the church be built into the ground. Thus the building reached a proper height but met the restrictions. Numerous other famous bits of Sarajevo folklore survive representing many different eras of Sarajevo's history. One of the earliest is the story of the Goat's Bridge. As the story goes, an old

goat herder A goatherd or goatherder is a person who herds goats as a vocational activity. It is similar to a shepherd who herds sheep. Goatherds are most commonly found in regions where goat populations are significant; for instance, in Africa and South A ...

was tending his goats by the river

Miljacka The Miljacka (Serbian Cyrillic: Миљацка) is a river in Bosnia and Herzegovina that passes through Sarajevo. Numerous city bridges have been built to cross it. Characteristics The Miljacka river originates from the confluence of the Palja ...

when one of them started ferociously digging at a certain spot of the ground. Mystified, he walked over for a closer look only to find numerous

sacks of gold A money bag (or money sack) is a bag normally used to hold and transport coins and banknotes, often closed with a drawstring.bridge A bridge is a structure built to span a physical obstacle (such as a body of water, valley, road, or rail) without blocking the way underneath. It is constructed for the purpose of providing passage over the obstacle, which is usually somethi ...

over the river that would for years be the main crossing for travelers on their way to

Istanbul Istanbul ( , ; tr, İstanbul ), formerly known as Constantinople ( grc-gre, Κωνσταντινούπολις; la, Constantinopolis), is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, serving as the country's economic, ...

. Far more recent is the story of Sarajevo's Romeo and Juliet. During the Serbian siege of Sarajevo the couple of a young Serb boy and Bosniak girl decided to flee the city. They got as far as the

Sniper Alley "Sniper Alley" (Serbo-Croatian and Bosnian: ''Snajperska aleja'' / Снајперска алеја) was the informal name primarily for streets such as Ulica Zmaja od Bosne ( Dragon of Bosnia Street) and Meša Selimović Boulevard, the main boul ...

's "no man's land" before the boy was shot dead and the girl wounded by the Serbs. Rather than flee alone however, she turned to stay by her lover's side, where she too eventually died. This is not a myth; their names were Boško Brkić and Admira Ismić, and they died on the Vrbanja bridge in May 1993.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Folklore Of Sarajevo Culture in Sarajevo European folklore Slavic mythology