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Sarajevo — a short definition, in plain English

Sarajevo is the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina — a mid-size European city of about 275,000 in the Dinaric Alps, founded in 1462. The name comes from Turkish saray, meaning palace. Currency is the Bosnian convertible mark (KM), pegged to the euro. Language: Bosnian, Croatian, and Serbian, all mutually intelligible. Best known for four faiths in a 400-metre radius, the 1914 assassination of Franz Ferdinand, the 1984 Winter Olympics, and the 1,425-day siege of 1992–1996.

By Nedim Hadzimahmutovic · Sarajevo

Sarajevo is the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina, a country in southeast Europe. The city has about 275,000 residents in the city proper and around 400,000 in the metropolitan area (2013 census). It sits in a long east-west valley in the Dinaric Alps, at 43.8563° N, 18.4131° E, roughly 550 metres above sea level. It was founded around 1462 by the Ottoman commander Isa-beg Ishaković. The name means, literally, “the place around the palace” — from Turkish saray (palace) plus the Slavic suffix -evo.

That is the encyclopaedia opening. What follows is a one-page overview of the rest.

Where is Sarajevo?

In southeast Europe, in the middle of the western Balkans. The country is bordered by Croatia to the north and west, Serbia to the east, and Montenegro to the south-east. Nearest large cities: Zagreb (~400 km north-west), Belgrade (~300 km east), Split (~230 km west). Nearest coastline: the Adriatic at Neum (~150 km south). The city itself is roughly equidistant between Vienna (~600 km north) and Athens (~1,000 km south-east).

Is Sarajevo the capital of Bosnia?

Yes. Sarajevo is the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and also the capital of the country’s larger constituent entity, the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (one of the two entities established by the 1995 Dayton Peace Agreement; the other is the Republika Srpska, whose administrative centre is Banja Luka).

For the fuller answer — and the story of how Sarajevo held the capital role across four different states (Ottoman, Habsburg, Yugoslav, and independent Bosnia) — see the capital-of-Bosnia post.

What does Sarajevo mean?

The name is a compound of Turkish saray (meaning palace or governor’s residence) and the Slavic suffix -evo. Literally: “the place around the palace.” The palace in question was the residence built in the 1450s–1460s by Isa-beg Ishaković, the Ottoman frontier commander who founded the city. His vakufnama (endowment deed), the founding document, is dated 1462.

Local slang shortens the city’s name to Rajvosa — the syllables reversed (Sa-ra-je-vo → Vo-je-ra-sa → Rajvosa), a reverse-slang tradition called šatrovački. Locals who are from Sarajevo call themselves Sarajlija (masculine) or Sarajka (feminine); the plain English form is Sarajevan.

What language is spoken in Sarajevo?

Three official languages — Bosnian, Croatian, and Serbian — all mutually intelligible. In everyday use in Sarajevo, the working variety is Bosnian, written in the Latin alphabet. Cyrillic (used for Serbian in some contexts) is understood but rarely used in the city.

English is spoken widely by anyone under 40 and by hospitality staff. Older speakers may not have English. German is a common second language due to the Bosnian diaspora in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. Turkish, Arabic, and Italian are also fairly common.

What currency is used in Sarajevo?

The Bosnian convertible mark, abbreviated KM (locally) or BAM (international/ISO code). It is pegged to the euro at a fixed rate of 1.95583 KM = €1 — a hangover from the mark’s original 1998 introduction as a currency board pegged to the Deutsche Mark. Euros are informally accepted in many hotels and tourist-facing places but change comes back in KM. ATMs are everywhere; cards are accepted at hotels, restaurants, and larger shops; small cafés and markets prefer cash.

What is Sarajevo known for?

Four things, in rough order of world-history weight:

  1. The Franz Ferdinand assassination. On 28 June 1914, on the corner beside the Latin Bridge, the Bosnian Serb Gavrilo Princip shot Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria and his wife Sophie Chotek. Six weeks later, Europe was at war. Sarajevo is the corner where the twentieth century started.
  2. The 1984 Winter Olympics. The last major sports event of communist Yugoslavia and the moment Sarajevo entered the world tourism map. Twelve days of skiing, skating, and ceremony. Eight years later the Olympic bobsled track sat on the front line of the siege.
  3. The 1992–1996 siege. The longest siege of a capital city in modern European history — 1,425 days, roughly 11,541 killed, of whom 1,601 were children. Bosnian Serb forces surrounded the city and shelled it for nearly four years. The city held.
  4. The four faiths in a 400-metre radius. The Gazi Husrev-beg Mosque (1531), the Orthodox Cathedral (1868), the Sacred Heart Catholic Cathedral (1889), and the Ashkenazi Synagogue (1902) all sit within five minutes’ walk of each other in the old town. No other European capital has that density of faith in that small a space. It is why Sarajevo is sometimes called the Jerusalem of Europe.

For the full chronology of these moments in one page, see the Sarajevo Timeline.

What time zone is Sarajevo in?

Central European Time (CET, UTC+1), or Central European Summer Time (CEST, UTC+2) during daylight saving (late March to late October). Same time zone as Vienna, Berlin, Rome, and Paris.

Is Sarajevo safe?

Yes, by European standards. Violent crime is low. Pickpocketing exists in the summer high season in Baščaršija and on the main tram line at rush hour. Landmines from the war exist outside the city but the central urban area is fully cleared. For a fuller honest overview, see is Sarajevo safe.

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