Sarajevo

Sarajevo ( ), ; ''see names in other languages'' is the capital and largest city of Bosnia and Herzegovina, with a population of 275,524 in its administrative limits. The Sarajevo metropolitan area with its surrounding municipalities has a population of 592,714 people. Located within the greater Sarajevo valley of Bosnia, it is surrounded by the Dinaric Alps and situated along the Miljacka River in the heart of the Balkans, a region of Southeastern Europe.

Sarajevo is the political, financial, social, and cultural centre of Bosnia and Herzegovina and a prominent centre of culture in the Balkans. It exerts region-wide influence in entertainment, media, fashion, and the arts. Due to its long history of religious and cultural diversity, Sarajevo is sometimes called the "Jerusalem of Europe" or "Jerusalem of the Balkans". It is one of a few major European cities to have a mosque, Catholic church, Eastern Orthodox church, and synagogue within the same neighborhood. It is also home to the former Yugoslavia's first institution of tertiary education in the form of an Islamic polytechnic, today part of the University of Sarajevo.

Although there is evidence of human settlement in the area since prehistoric times, the modern city arose in the 15th century as an Ottoman stronghold when the Ottoman empire extended into Europe. Sarajevo has gained international renown several times throughout its history. In 1914, Sarajevo was the site of the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand by a local Young Bosnia activist Gavrilo Princip, a murder that sparked World War I. This resulted in the end of Austro-Hungarian rule in Bosnia and the creation of the multicultural Kingdom of Yugoslavia in the Balkan region. Later, after World War II, the area was designated the capital of the communist Socialist Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina within the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, leading to rapid expansion of its population and businesses with investment in infrastructure and economic development.

In 1984, Sarajevo hosted the 1984 Winter Olympics, which marked a prosperous era for the city. However, after the start of the Yugoslav Wars, the city suffered the longest siege of a capital city in modern history, for a total of 1,425 days, from April 1992 to February 1996, during the Bosnian War. With continued post-war reconstruction in the aftermath, Sarajevo is the fastest growing city in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The travel guide series '' Lonely Planet'' ranked Sarajevo as the 43rd best city in the world.Lonely Planet (March 2006). ''The Cities Book: A Journey Through The Best Cities in the World'', Lonely Planet Publications, . In December 2009, it recommended Sarajevo as one of the top ten cities to visit in 2010.

In 2011, Sarajevo was nominated as the 2014 European Capital of Culture. It was selected with Istočno Sarajevo to host the European Youth Olympic Festival. In addition, in October 2019, Sarajevo was designated as a UNESCO Creative City for having placed culture at the center of its development strategies. It is also ranked as one of the world's eighteen Cities of Film.

Etymology

The name ''Sarajevo'' derives from the Turkish noun , meaning "palace" or "mansion" (from Persian , , of the same meaning). Scholars disagree on the origin of the ''evo'' attached to the end. In Slavic languages, the addition of
evo
may indicate a possessive noun, thereby making the name of Sarajevo 'city of the palace'.

One theory is that the name may have been derived from the Ottoman Turkish term , first recorded in 1455, meaning "the plains around the palace" or simply "palace plains".

However, in his ''Dictionary of Turkish Loanwords'', Abdulah Škaljić maintains that the ''evo'' ending is more likely to have come from the widespread Slavic suffix used to indicate place names, than from the Turkish ending . The first mention of the name Sarajevo was in a 1507 letter written by Firuz Bey. The official name during the 400 years of Ottoman rule was ''Saraybosna'' ("Palace of Bosnia"), which remains the city's name in Modern Turkish.

Sarajevo has had many nicknames. The earliest is , the term Isa-Beg Ishaković used to describe the town he was going to construct—which is Turkish for "city" (), in turn coming from the Persian (, meaning "city"). As Sarajevo developed, numerous nicknames came from comparisons to other cities in the Islamic world, i.e. "Damascus of the North" and "European Jerusalem"; the latter being the most popular.

Environment

Geography

Sarajevo is near the geometric center of the triangular-shaped Bosnia and Herzegovina and within the historical region of Bosnia proper. It is situated above sea level and lies in the Sarajevo valley, in the middle of the Dinaric Alps.

The valley was once an expansive, fertile, and green space, but considerable urban expansion and development took place following World War II. Forested hills and five major mountains surround the city. The highest of the surrounding peaks is Treskavica at , followed by Bjelašnica mountain at , Jahorina at , Trebević at , and Igman the shortest at . The last four are also known as the Olympic Mountains of Sarajevo.

When the city hosted the 1984 Winter Olympics, venues were constructed at these mountains for many winter sports events. The city is developed within hilly terrain; some steeply inclined streets and residences perch on the hillsides.

The Miljacka river is one of the city's chief geographic features. It flows through the city from east through the center of Sarajevo to the west part of the city, where it eventually meets up with the Bosna river. Miljacka River is also known as "The Sarajevo River". Its source (''Vrelo Miljacke'') is south of the town of Pale at the foothills of Mount Jahorina, several kilometers to the east of Sarajevo center. The Bosna's source, Vrelo Bosne near Ilidža (west Sarajevo), is another notable natural landmark and a popular destination for Sarajevans and other tourists. Several smaller rivers and streams, such as Koševski Potok, also run through the city and its vicinity.

Cityscape

Sarajevo is close to the center of the triangular shape of Bosnia and Herzegovina in southeastern Europe. The Sarajevo city consists of four municipalities: Centar (Center), Novi Grad (New Town), Novo Sarajevo (New Sarajevo), and Stari Grad (Old Town), while the Sarajevo metropolitan area (Greater Sarajevo area) includes these and the neighboring municipalities of Ilidža, Hadžići, Vogošća and Ilijaš.

The Metropolitan area was reduced in the 1990s after the war and the Dayton-imposed administrative division of the country, with several municipalities partitioned along the border of the newly recognized Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (FBiH) and Republika Srpska (RS), creating several new municipalities which together form the city of Istočno Sarajevo in the Republika Srpska: Istočna Ilidža, Istočno Novo Sarajevo, Istočni Stari Grad, Lukavica, Pale (RS-section), and Trnovo (RS-section), along with the municipality of Sokolac (which was not traditionally part of the Sarajevo area and was not partitioned).

The city has an urban area of . Veliki Park (Great Park) is the largest green area in the center of Sarajevo. It is nestled between Titova, Koševo, Džidžikovac, Tina Ujevića and Trampina Streets and in the lower part there is a monument dedicated to the Children of Sarajevo.

Climate

Sarajevo has an oceanic climate ( Köppen climate classification: Cfb) bordering on a humid continental climate ( Köppen climate classification: Dfb). Sarajevo's climate exhibits four seasons and uniformly spread precipitation. The proximity of the Adriatic Sea moderates Sarajevo's climate somewhat, although the mountains to the south of the city greatly reduce this maritime influence. The average yearly temperature is , with January ( on average) being the coldest month of the year and July ( on average) the warmest.

The highest recorded temperature was on 19 August 1946 and on 23 August 2008 (41.0), while the lowest recorded temperature was on 25 January 1942. On average, Sarajevo has seven days where the temperature exceeds and four days where the temperature drops below per year. The city typically experiences mildly cloudy skies, with an average yearly cloud cover of 45%.

The cloudiest month is December (75% average cloud cover), while the clearest is August (37%). Moderate precipitation occurs fairly consistently throughout the year, with an average 75 days of rainfall. Suitable climatic conditions have allowed winter sports to flourish in the region, as exemplified by the 1984 Winter Olympics that were held in Sarajevo. Average winds are and the city has 1,769 hours of sunshine.

Air quality

Air pollution is a major issue in Sarajevo. According to the 2016 World Health Organization's Ambient Air Pollution Database, the annual average PM2.5 concentration in 2010 was estimated to be 30 μg/m³ based on PM10 measurement, which is 3 times higher than recommended by WHO Air Quality Guidelines for the annual average PM2.5. There are no recent direct long-term PM2.5 measurements available in Sarajevo and only estimates can be made from PM10, which is less health-relevant than PM2.5. Real-time air quality data in the form of PM10, ozone, NO₂, CO and SO₂ by th
Federal Hydrometeorological Institute
.

History

Ancient times

One of the earliest findings of settlement in the Sarajevo area is that of the Neolithic Butmir culture. The discoveries at Butmir were made on the grounds of the modern-day Sarajevo suburb Ilidža in 1893 by Austro-Hungarian authorities during the construction of an agricultural school. The area's richness in flint was attractive to Neolithic humans, and the settlement flourished. The settlement developed unique ceramics and pottery designs, which characterize the Butmir people as a unique culture, as described at the International Congress of Archaeologists and Anthropologists meeting in Sarajevo in 1894.

The next prominent culture in Sarajevo was the Illyrians. The ancient people, who considered most of the Western Balkans as their homeland, had several key settlements in the region, mostly around the river Miljacka and the Sarajevo valley. The Illyrians in the Sarajevo region belonged to the '' Daesitiates'', the last Illyrian people in Bosnia and Herzegovina to resist Roman occupation. Their defeat by the Roman emperor Tiberius in 9 AD marks the start of Roman rule in the region. The Romans never built up the region of modern-day Bosnia, but the Roman colony of Aquae Sulphurae was near the top of present-day Ilidža, and was the most important settlement of the time. After the Romans, the Goths settled the area, followed by the Slavs in the 7th century."Sarajevo", ''New Britannica'', volume 10, edition 15 (1989). .

Middle Ages

During the Middle Ages, Sarajevo was part of the Bosnian province of Vrhbosna near the traditional center of the Kingdom of Bosnia. Though a city named ''Vrhbosna'' existed, the exact settlement in Sarajevo at this time is debated. Various documents note a place called ''Tornik'' in the region, most likely in the area of the Marijin Dvor neighborhood. By all indications, Tornik was a very small marketplace surrounded by a proportionally small village and was not considered very important by Ragusan merchants.

Other scholars say that ''Vrhbosna'' was a major town in the wider area of modern-day Sarajevo. Papal documents say that in 1238, a cathedral dedicated to Saint Paul was built in the area. Disciples of the notable saints Cyril and Methodius stopped in the region, founding a church near Vrelo Bosne. Whether or not the town was somewhere in the area of modern-day Sarajevo, the documents attest to its and the region's importance. There was also a citadel Hodidjed north-east to the Old City, dating from around 1263 until it was occupied by the Ottoman Empire in 1429.

Ottoman era

Sarajevo was founded by the Ottoman Empire in the 1450s upon its conquest of the region, with 1461 used as the city's founding date. The first Ottoman governor of Bosnia, Isa-Beg Ishaković, transformed the cluster of villages into a city and state capital by building several key structures, including a mosque, a closed marketplace, a hamam, a caravansarai, a bridge, and of course the governor's palace ("Saray"), which gave the city its present name in conjunction with “evo”. The mosque was named "Careva Džamija" (the Emperor's Mosque) in honor of Sultan Mehmed II. With the improvements, Sarajevo quickly grew into the largest city in the region. By the 15th century the settlement was established as a city, named ''Bosna-Saraj'', around the citadel in 1461.

Following the expulsion of Jews from Spain at the end of the 15th century, and the invitation from the Ottoman Empire to resettle their population, Sephardic Jews arrived in Sarajevo, which over time would become a leading center of Sephardic culture and the Ladino language. Though relatively small in size, a Jewish quarter would develop over several blocks in Baščaršija.

Many local Christians converted to Islam at this time. To accommodate the new pilgrims on the road to Mecca, in 1541, Gazi Husrev-beg's quartermaster Vekil-Harrach built a pilgrim's mosque which it is still known to this day as the Hadžijska Mosque.

Under leaders such as the second governor Gazi Husrev-beg, Sarajevo grew at a rapid rate. Husrev-beg greatly shaped the physical city, as most of what is now the Old Town was built during his reign. Sarajevo became known for its large marketplace and numerous mosques, which by the middle of the 16th century numbered more than 100. At the peak of the empire, Sarajevo was the biggest and most important Ottoman city in the Balkans after Istanbul. By 1660, the population of Sarajevo was estimated to be over 80,000. By contrast, Belgrade in 1683 had 100,000, and Zagreb as late as 1851 had 14,000 people. As political conditions changed, Sarajevo became the site of warfare.

In 1697, during the Great Turkish War, a raid was led by Prince Eugene of Savoy of the Habsburg monarchy against the Ottoman Empire, which conquered Sarajevo and left it plague-infected and burned to the ground. After his men had looted thoroughly, they set the city on fire and destroyed nearly all of it in one day. Only a handful of neighborhoods, some mosques, and an Orthodox church were left standing. Numerous other fires weakened the city, which was later rebuilt but never fully recovered from the destruction. By 1807, it had only some 60,000 residents.

In the 1830s, several battles of the Bosnian uprising had taken place around the city. These had been led by Husein Gradaščević. Today, a major city street is named ''Zmaj od Bosne'' (Dragon of Bosnia) in his honor. The rebellion failed and for several more decades, the Ottoman state remained in control of Bosnia.

The Ottoman Empire made Sarajevo an important administrative center by 1850. Baščaršija became the central commercial district and cultural center of the city in the 15th century when Isa-Beg Ishaković founded the town. The toponym Baščaršija derives from the Turkish language.

Austria-Hungary

Austria-Hungary's occupation of Bosnia and Herzegovina came in 1878 as part of the Treaty of Berlin, and complete annexation followed in 1908, angering the Serbs. Sarajevo was industrialized by Austria-Hungary, who used the city as a testing area for new inventions such as tramways, which were established in 1885 before they were later installed in Vienna. Architects and engineers wanting to help rebuild Sarajevo as a modern European capital rushed to the city. A fire that burned down a large part of the central city area (''čaršija'') left more room for redevelopment. As a result, the city has a unique blend of the remaining Ottoman city market and contemporary Western architecture. Sarajevo also has some examples of Secession- and Pseudo- Moorish styles that date from this period.

The Austro-Hungarian period was one of great development for the city, as the Western power brought its new acquisition up to the standards of the Victorian age. Various factories and other buildings were built at this time, and a large number of institutions were both Westernized and modernized. For the first time in history, Sarajevo's population began writing in Latin script.
For the first time in centuries, the city significantly expanded outside its traditional borders. Much of the city's contemporary central municipality ( Centar) was constructed during this period.

Architecture in Sarajevo quickly developed into a wide range of styles and buildings. The Sacred Heart Cathedral, for example, was constructed using elements of neo-gothic and Romanesque architecture. The National Museum, Sarajevo brewery, and City Hall were also constructed during this period. Additionally, Austrian officials made Sarajevo the first city in this part of Europe to have a tramway.

Although the Bosnia Vilayet '' de jure'' remained part of the Ottoman Empire, it was '' de facto'' governed as an integral part of Austria-Hungary with the Ottomans having no say in its day-to-day governance. This lasted until 1908 when the territory was formally annexed and turned into a condominium, jointly controlled by both Austrian Cisleithania and Hungarian Transleithania.

The event that triggered World War I was the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, along with his wife Sophie, Duchess of Hohenberg in Sarajevo on 28 June 1914 by Gavrilo Princip, a Bosnian Serb and self-declared Yugoslav, and member of Young Bosnia. This was followed by the Anti-Serb riots in Sarajevo, which resulted in two deaths and destruction of property.

In the ensuing war, however, most of the Balkan offensives occurred near Belgrade, and Sarajevo largely escaped damage and destruction. Following the war, Bosnia was annexed into the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, and Sarajevo became the capital of the Drina Province.

Yugoslavia

After World War I and pressure from the Royal Serbian Army, alongside rebelling Slavic nations in Austria-Hungary, Sarajevo became part of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. Though it held some political significance as the center of first the Bosnian region and then the Drinska Banovina, the city was no longer a national capital and saw a decline in global influence.

During World War II, the Kingdom of Yugoslavia's army was overrun by German and Italian forces. Following a German bombing campaign, Sarajevo was captured on 15 April 1941 by the 16th Motorized Infantry Division. The Axis powers created the Independent State of Croatia and included Sarajevo in its territory.

Immediately following the occupation, the main Sephardi Jewish synagogue, Il Kal Grande, was looted, burned, and destroyed by the Nazis. Within a matter of months, the centuries-old Sephardi and Ashkenazi Jewish communities of Sarajevo, comprising the vast majority of Bosnian Jewry, would be rounded up in the Old Synagogue (Stari hram) and deported to their deaths in Croatian concentration camps. Roughly 85% of Bosnia's Jewish population would perish at the hands of the Nazis and the Ustaše during the Holocaust in the region. The Sarajevo Haggadah was the most important artifact which survived this period, smuggled out of Sarajevo and saved from the Nazis and Ustaše by the chief librarian of the National Museum, Derviš Korkut.

On 12 October 1941, a group of 108 notable Bosniak citizens of Sarajevo signed the Resolution of Sarajevo Muslims by which they condemned the Genocide of Serbs organized by the Ustaše, made a distinction between the Bosniaks who participated in such persecutions and the rest of the Bosniak population, presented information about the persecutions of Bosniaks by the Ustaše, and requested security for all citizens of the country, regardless of their identity. During the summer of 1941, Ustaše militia periodically interned and executed groups of Sarajevo Serbs. In August 1941, they arrested about one hundred Serbs suspected of ties to the resistance armies, mostly church officials and members of the intelligentsia, and executed them or deported them to concentration camps. By mid-summer 1942, around 20,000 Serbs found refuge in Sarajevo from Ustaše terror.

The city was bombed by the Allies from 1943 to 1944. The Yugoslav Partisan movement was represented in the city. In the period February–May 1945, Maks Luburić set up a Ustaše headquarters in a building known as Villa Luburić and used it as a torture and execution place whose 323 victims were identified after the war. The resistance was led by Vladimir Perić Valter, who died while leading the liberation of the city on 6 April 1945.

After the war, Sarajevo was the capital of the Socialist Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina within the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. The Republic Government invested heavily in Sarajevo, building many new residential blocks in the municipalities of Novi Grad and Novo Sarajevo, while simultaneously developing the city's industry and transforming Sarajevo into a modern city. Sarajevo grew rapidly as it became an important regional industrial center in Yugoslavia. Between the end of the war and the end of Yugoslavia, the city grew from a population of 115,000 to more than 600,000 people. The Vraca Memorial Park, a monument for victims of World War II, was dedicated on 25 November, the " Statehood Day of Bosnia and Herzegovina" when the ZAVNOBIH held their first meeting in 1943.

A crowning moment of Sarajevo's time in Socialist Yugoslavia was the 1984 Winter Olympics. Sarajevo beat out Sapporo, Japan, and Falun/Gothenburg, Sweden, to host the Olympic Games. The games were followed by a tourism boom, making the 1980s one of the city's most prosperous decades.

Bosnian War

The Bosnian War for independence resulted in large-scale destruction and dramatic population shifts during the Siege of Sarajevo between 1992 and 1996. Thousands of Sarajevans lost their lives under the constant bombardment and sniper shooting at civilians by the Serb forces during the siege, the longest siege of a capital city in the history of modern warfare. Bosnian Serb forces of the Republika Srpska and the Yugoslav People's Army besieged Sarajevo from 5 April 1992 to 29 February 1996.

When Bosnia and Herzegovina declared independence from Yugoslavia and achieved United Nations recognition, Serbian leaders declared a new Serbian national state Republika Srpska (RS) which was carved out from the territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The Army of Republika Srpska encircled Sarajevo with a siege force of 18,000 stationed in the surrounding hills, from which they assaulted the city with artillery, mortars, tanks, anti-aircraft guns, heavy machine guns, multiple rocket launchers, rocket-launched aircraft bombs, and sniper rifles. From 2 May 1992, the Serbs blockaded the city. The Bosnian government defense forces inside the besieged city were poorly equipped and unable to break the siege.

During the siege, 11,541 people were killed, including over 1,500 children. An additional 56,000 people were wounded, including nearly 15,000 children. The 1991 census indicates that before the siege, the city and its surrounding areas had a population of 525,980.

When the siege ended, the concrete scars caused by mortar shell explosions left marks that were filled with red resin. After the red resin was placed, it left floral patterns, which led to them being dubbed Sarajevo Roses. Division of the territory according to the Dayton Agreement resulted in a mass exodus in early 1996 of some 62,000 Sarajevo Serbs from the city and its suburbs, creating today's more monoethnic post-war city.

Present

Various modern buildings now occupy Sarajevo's skyline, most significantly the Bosmal City Center, ARIA Centar, Sarajevo City Center (all three by architect Sead Gološ) and the Avaz Twist Tower, which at the time of its building was the tallest skyscraper in former Yugoslavia.

In 2014, the city saw anti-government protests and riots and record rainfall that caused historic flooding. Recent years have seen population growth as well as increases in tourism.

The Sarajevo cable car, also known as the Trebević cable car, Sarajevo's key landmark during the 1984 Winter Olympics, was rebuilt in 2017 and reopened on 6 April 2018. The cable car runs from Sarajevo at Bistrik station to the slopes of Trebević at Vidikovac station.

Administration

Largest city of Bosnia and Herzegovina

Sarajevo is the capital of the country of Bosnia and Herzegovina and its sub-entity, the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, as well as of the Sarajevo Canton. It is also the ''de jure'' capital of another entity, Republika Srpska. Each of these levels of government has its parliament or council, as well as judicial courts, in the city. All national institutions and foreign embassies are in Sarajevo.

Sarajevo is home to the Council of Ministers of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Parliamentary Assembly of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the operational command of the Armed Forces of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Bosnia and Herzegovina's Parliament office in Sarajevo was damaged heavily in the Bosnian War. Due to damage, the staff and documents were moved to a nearby ground-level office to resume work. In late 2006, reconstruction work started on Parliament and was finished in 2007. The cost of reconstruction was 80% funded by the Greek Government through the Hellenic Program of Balkans Reconstruction (ESOAV), and 20% by Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Municipalities and city government

The City of Sarajevo comprises four municipalities: Centar, Novi Grad, Novo Sarajevo, and Stari Grad. Each operates their own municipal government, while united they form one city government with its constitution. The executive branch () consists of a mayor, with two deputies and a cabinet.

The legislative branch consists of the City Council, or ''Gradsko vijeće''. The council has 28 members, including a council speaker, two deputies, and a secretary. Councilors are elected by the municipality in numbers roughly proportional to their population. The City Statute requires the city council to include at least six councilors from each constituent people and at least two from the ranks of Others.

Sarajevo's Municipalities are further split into "local communities" (Bosnian, ''Mjesne zajednice''). Local communities have a small role in city government and are intended as a way for ordinary citizens to get involved in city government. They are based on key neighborhoods in the city.

Economy

Sarajevo's large manufacturing, administrative, and tourism sectors make it the strongest economic region of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Sarajevo Canton generates almost 25% of the country's GDP. After years of war, Sarajevo's economy saw reconstruction and rehabilitation programs. The Central Bank of Bosnia and Herzegovina opened in Sarajevo in 1997 and the Sarajevo Stock Exchange began trading in 2002.

While Sarajevo had a large industrial base during its communist period, only a few pre-existing businesses have successfully adapted to the market economy. Sarajevo industries now include tobacco products, furniture, hosiery, automobiles, and communication equipment. Companies based in Sarajevo include BH Telecom, Bosnalijek, Energopetrol, Sarajevo Tobacco Factory, and Sarajevska pivara (Sarajevo Brewery).

In 2019, the total export for the Sarajevo Canton was worth about 1,427,496,000 KM. Most of Sarajevo's exports (20.55%) head to Germany, with Serbia and Croatia following behind at 12% respectively. The largest amount of imported goods comes from Croatia, at 20.95%. With a worth of total import of about 4,872,213,000 KM, the total import is almost 3.4 times the total export.

In 1981, Sarajevo's GDP per capita was 133% of the Yugoslav average. Gross pay in Sarajevo in March 2023 was or , while net salary was or , indicating stable growth.

Tourism and recreation

Sarajevo has a wide tourist industry and a fast-expanding service sector thanks to the strong annual growth in tourist arrivals. Sarajevo also benefits from being both a summer and winter destination with continuity in its tourism throughout the year. The travel guide series, '' Lonely Planet'' named Sarajevo as the 43rd best city in the world, and in December 2009, listed Sarajevo as one of the top ten cities to visit in 2010.

In 2019, 733,259 tourists visited Sarajevo, giving 1,667,545 overnight stays, which was 20% more than in 2018. Sports-related tourism uses the legacy facilities of the 1984 Winter Olympics, especially the skiing facilities on the nearby mountains of Bjelašnica, Igman, Jahorina, Trebević and Treskavica.

Sarajevo's 600 years of history, influenced by both Western and Eastern empires, makes it a tourist attraction with splendid variations. The city has hosted travellers for centuries, because it was an important trading centre during the Ottoman and Austro-Hungarian empires and because it was a natural stop for many routes between East and West. Examples of popular destinations in Sarajevo include the Vrelo Bosne park, the Sarajevo cathedral, and the Gazi Husrev-beg Mosque. Tourism in Sarajevo is chiefly focused on historical, religious, and cultural sites and winter sports.

There are many parks throughout the city and on the outskirts. A popular activity among locals is street chess, usually played at Trg Oslobođenja - Alija Izetbegović. Veliki Park is the largest green area in the centre of Sarajevo. It is nestled between Titova, Koševo, Džidžikovac, Tina Ujevića and Trampina Streets and in the lower part, there is a monument dedicated to the Children of Sarajevo. Hastahana is a popular place to relax in the Austro-Hungarian neighborhood of Marijin Dvor. Goat's Bridge, locally known as ''Kozija Ćuprija'', in the Miljacka Canyon is also a popular park destination along the Dariva walkway and river Miljacka. On 24 December 2012, a park hosting two brass sculptures resembling two mourning mothers was dedicated as the Friendship Park, commemorating over 45 years of friendship between Sarajevo and Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan.

Sarajevo is also famous for its city lookouts; including an observation deck on the Avaz Twist Tower, Park Prinčeva restaurant, Vidikovac lookout (Mt. Trebević), Zmajevac lookout and Yellow/White fortresses lookouts (in Vratnik) as well as numerous other rooftops throughout the city (i.e. Alta Shopping Centre, ARIA Centar, Hotel Hecco Deluxe). A symbol of Sarajevo is the Trebević cable car which was reconstructed in 2018, also it is one of the most popular tourist attractions in the city taking visitors from the city centre to Mount Trebević.

There is also a UNESCO tentative monument, the Old Jewish Cemetery, an almost 500 years old site that is the second-largest Jewish sepulchral complex in Europe, the one in Prague being the largest. It is also one of the most significant memorial complexes in the world. It represents the eternal proof of the coexistence of two or more different confessions under different administrations and rules, and the proof of mutual respect and tolerance.

Demographics

Jerusalem