Explore Sarajevo / Destinations / Trebević
Destination · South ridge · 4 min read
Trebević
The mountain that watches the city. Nine minutes by cable car from a bazaar coffee to a pine ridge at 1,164 metres.
- Established
- 1959 (cable car); reopened 2018
- Altitude
- 1,164 m (top station); 1,627 m (summit)
- Length
- 2,087 m cable car
Address
Lower station — Hrvatin 92, Bistrik
Hours
Cable car typically 10:00 to 22:00. Verify seasonally.
Price
~20 BAM (~€10) return
Getting there
15 minutes' walk uphill from Bistrik tram stop to the lower station
Time needed
Half a day, longer if you hike
Best time
Two hours before sunset, in any season
Coordinates
43.8417° N 18.4533° E
Navigate
Trebević is the long mountain that closes Sarajevo to the south. The summit is 1,627 metres, the cable car station sits at 1,164 metres, and from the kitchen window of half the apartments in the centre you see the ridge first thing in the morning. It is the place locals retreat to whenever the valley gets too hot, too busy, or simply too valley. With Igman, Bjelašnica, and Jahorina it formed the natural amphitheatre that allowed Sarajevo to host the 1984 Winter Olympics, which is still here on the mountain, written in concrete and rust.
The cable car
The original cable car opened in 1959, climbing 2,087 metres from the Bistrik neighbourhood to the upper station. For thirty-three years it was the city’s beloved Sunday outing. It was destroyed during the siege of 1992 to 1995, when Serb forces held positions on Trebević and shelled the city from the slopes. For more than two decades it was simply gone. Pylons rusting in the forest. The lower station boarded up. Generations of children grew up in Sarajevo without riding it.
It reopened on 6 April 2018. The date is the same one the city marks as its founding under Ottoman rule and as the start of the siege. Reopening on that date was a civic statement. The first morning the cable car was free to any resident who wanted to ride. Queues stretched back through Bistrik. We have a dedicated page on the cable car if you want the longer version.
The ride takes about nine minutes and costs roughly 20 BAM return. The cabins are red, the cable hums, and at the top you step out into pine air at 1,164 metres.
The view
Unreasonable. The valley spreads at your feet: the cluster of minarets and church towers in the bazaar, the Habsburg grid of the centre, the long socialist apartments of Grbavica and Hrasno, the airport in the distance to the west, and the dark snake of the Miljacka tying it together. On clear days you see all the way to Igman and Bjelašnica. At sunset the light moves down the valley in a slow tide, and one by one the lights come on across the city.
The best photographs of Sarajevo are taken from this platform.
The bobsled track
A short walk from the top station brings you to one of Sarajevo’s strangest monuments. The abandoned Olympic bobsled and luge track was built in 1984 at a cost of more than eight million dollars and spirals 1,300 metres down the slope. It was used during the war as a defensive position. The curves provided cover for sniper teams. It is now slowly being reclaimed by the forest, with every wall painted thickly in graffiti.
You walk inside the track itself. It is wide enough to fit several people abreast. The acoustics are eerie, the artwork is in places good, and the experience sits somewhere between a ruin walk and an open-air gallery. Almost no railings, almost no signs. Wear real shoes.
A new documentary, The Track, follows three Sarajevan teenagers training as luge athletes on what remains of this very course. Directed by Ryan Sidhoo and co-produced by Chris Hemsworth’s Wild State, it premieres in Sarajevo at the SFF in August 2025. Worth watching before or after your visit.
Beyond the cable car
With time and stamina, Trebević offers more than the view:
- The summit hike from the top station to the true peak takes about 90 minutes round trip on a well-marked trail.
- Brus restaurant, a 10-minute walk from the upper station, serves traditional Bosnian food in a wooden cabin. Particularly good in cold months.
- The forest meadows beyond the bobsled track are excellent for picnics, blueberry-picking in late summer, and quiet wandering.
In winter the cable car still runs, the snow lies thick on the upper slopes, and the city below glows orange against white. There are few European capitals where you can ride a tram, then a cable car, and be on a mountain in under an hour. Sarajevo is one of them.
Sources & further reading
More views
From Trebević
Photographs: Aktron · source · CC BY 3.0
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Keep wandering
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Ph: Desemeus · CC BY-SA 4.0
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Ph: Julian Nyča · CC BY-SA 3.0
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Ph: Julian Nyča · CC BY-SA 3.0
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