Sarajevo Centar

Centar is the Habsburg layer. After 1878 the Austro-Hungarian administration laid a grid west of Baščaršija: Ferhadija as the pedestrian spine, the Sacred Heart Cathedral on one side, the Orthodox Cathedral on the other, the Latin Bridge holding the south-east corner where the Miljacka turns. The architecture shifts from Neo-Moorish at the Meeting of Cultures line to Vienna Secession by the time you reach Markale. The brass line in the pavement marks the boundary exactly. This is where Sarajevans do their evening walk. Ferhadija fills between five and eight, the cafes on the side streets stay open later, and the Eternal Flame burns at the western end without comment. Galerija 11/07/95 is on Trg fra Grge Martića, five minutes south of the pedestrian zone. The Museum of Sarajevo 1878--1918 sits at the Latin Bridge itself.

Destinations in Centar

8 destinations.

Ph: Julian Nyča · CC BY-SA 3.0

Marijin Dvor / Centar

Sarajevo Avaz Twist Tower

The Avaz Twist Tower is Sarajevo's tallest building (142 metres, completed 2008). A small public observation deck on the 35th floor costs around 5 BAM and gives you the full valley. Skip the café at the top. Take the view.

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Ph: Mark Chorlton · CC BY-SA 2.0

Centar

Sarajevo Ferhadija

Ferhadija is the broad pedestrian street that begins at the Sarači–Sarači transition (marked by the *Meeting of Cultures* line in the pavement) and runs west through the 19th-century Habsburg quarter to the Eternal Flame. It's the city's other working spine, flatter, wider, more Vienna than Istanbul.

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Ph: PeppermintSA · CC BY-SA 4.0

Centar

Sarajevo Galerija 11/07/95

A small, deliberately unflashy memorial museum to the Srebrenica genocide of July 1995. Founded by photographer Tarik Samarah in 2012, on a quiet square at the western edge of the bazaar. Take the audio tour. Allow two hours.

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Ph: Mister No · CC BY 3.0

Centar (just behind the Sebilj)

Sarajevo Hotel Europe

Founded in 1882 to a design by Karel Pařík, Hotel Europe (Hotel Evropa) was the first purpose-built hotel of the Austro-Hungarian period in Sarajevo and the building where the city's transition from Ottoman to Habsburg was first hosted in commercial form. The 1914 riots that followed the assassination of Franz Ferdinand burned much of the original; the hotel was rebuilt, partially destroyed again in the 1992–95 siege, and restored in 2008 to roughly its Habsburg-era proportions. Still the city's grand-old-hotel address.

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Ph: Scott Edmunds · CC BY 2.0

Centar

Sarajevo Markale Market

A working open-air food market on Ferhadija, in the centre of Sarajevo. Locals call it Markale (a Bosnianisation of the Austro-Hungarian Markthalle). Two mortar attacks on this market, 5 February 1994 and 28 August 1995, killed 111 civilians and helped trigger the NATO intervention that ended the war.

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Ph: Miha Peče · CC BY-SA 4.0

Centar

Sarajevo Latin Bridge

A small 1798 stone bridge across the Miljacka. The Habsburgs called it Princip's Bridge after the assassination of Franz Ferdinand on 28 June 1914 here. Now plain Latinska Ćuprija again. The river still runs, children still kick footballs against the parapet.

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Ph: Sebastian Müller · CC BY-SA 2.0

Centar

Sarajevo Sacred Heart Cathedral

Sarajevo's Roman Catholic cathedral, built between 1884 and 1889 by the Austro-Hungarian administration in a neo-Gothic style. The seat of the archbishop of Vrhbosna. Three minutes' walk from the Ottoman bazaar, on the western side of the Meeting of Cultures line.

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Sarajevo Cathedral of the Nativity of the Theotokos

Ph: Michael Goodine · CC BY 2.0

Centar

Sarajevo Cathedral of the Nativity of the Theotokos

Sarajevo's main Serbian Orthodox cathedral, consecrated in 1872, the older of the two cathedrals on opposite sides of central Sarajevo. Byzantine-revival exterior, gold iconostasis, frescoes from across the Orthodox world. One of the four religious buildings inside Sarajevo's 400-metre faith radius.

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Hidden gems in Centar

5 hidden gems.

Ph: Café Barometar · Used with permission

Centar

Sarajevo Café Barometar

A café-bar with one of the best-looking interiors in central Sarajevo, exposed brick walls, metal piping, vintage machinery as decor, handmade furniture, and unusual hanging lamps. Strong Bosnian coffee by day, craft beer and cocktails by night.

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Ph: Buiobuione · CC BY-SA 4.0

Centar / Stari Grad border

Sarajevo Meeting of Cultures

A small brass marker on Ferhadija street where the cobbles change. East of the line is Ottoman Sarajevo. West of the line is Habsburg Sarajevo. The whole architectural argument of the city, in two steps.

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Ph: CeeGee · CC BY-SA 4.0

Centar

Sarajevo Museum 1878–1918

A single ground-floor museum at the north foot of the Latin Bridge. The building was Moritz Schiller's Delicatessen in 1914; Princip stood at this corner and fired the two shots that killed Franz Ferdinand and Sophie Chotek. The museum, which opened on the 39th anniversary of the assassination in 1953, documents the Austro-Hungarian period in Sarajevo (1878–1918) and the assassination itself.

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Ph: Natalino7 · CC BY-SA 3.0

Centar

Sarajevo Viennese Café

The Viennese Café at Hotel Europe is the city's oldest continuously-running coffeehouse, wood-panelled walls, mirrored bar, marble-topped tables, and a menu that takes the Vienna coffee-house tradition seriously. A quiet, formal room in the centre of the Habsburg quarter.

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Ph: Erikjheeres · CC BY 3.0

Centar

Sarajevo Zlatna Ribica

Zlatna Ribica is a tiny bar near Sarajevo Cathedral with a museum-like interior, good coffee and drinks, friendly service, and very little room to spare. Bring cash, and be prepared to wait.

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On the map