The history of Sarajevo

Sarajevo does not sit quietly in history. It leans forward, listening, absorbing, enduring. Few cities in Europe have been shaped so intensely by the collision of empires, religions, ideas, and wars, and fewer still have transformed that turbulence into a distinctive urban soul. Sarajevo’s past is not a straight line but a woven fabric, threaded with Ottoman minarets and Austro-Hungarian façades, socialist apartment blocks and scarred hillsides. To write the history of Sarajevo is not merely to recount events; it is to follow the pulse of a place that has repeatedly stood at the crossroads of worlds.

Before the City: Ancient Roots in the Valley

Long before Sarajevo had a name, the valley of the Miljacka River was already a site of human presence. Archaeological findings suggest Neolithic settlements in the broader Sarajevo region, particularly in areas such as Butmir, where distinctive ceramics testify to early agricultural communities. These prehistoric inhabitants recognized the valley’s advantages: fresh water, fertile land, and natural protection provided by surrounding hills.

The Romans later incorporated the region into the province of Dalmatia. Roads, villas, and trading posts connected the area to the wider Roman world, though no major urban center emerged precisely where Sarajevo now stands. After the decline of Roman authority, Slavic tribes settled the Balkans in the early medieval period, gradually forming the foundations of Bosnian identity. By the Middle Ages, the Bosnian state had taken shape, characterized by its political independence and religious diversity, including the enigmatic Bosnian Church, Catholicism, and Orthodoxy.

The settlement known as Vrhbosna existed near present-day Sarajevo, serving as a modest commercial and administrative point. Yet it remained relatively small, lacking the defining features of a true city. That transformation would come abruptly and decisively in the fifteenth century.

Ottoman Foundations: The Birth of Sarajevo

Sarajevo as a city was born under Ottoman rule. In 1463, the Ottomans conquered the Bosnian Kingdom, and within decades, the region was fully integrated into the empire. One man, Isa-Beg Ishaković, played a central role in Sarajevo’s founding. As an Ottoman governor, he established the core institutions that would define the city: a mosque, a marketplace, a public bath, a bridge, and a caravanserai. This was not accidental urban growth but deliberate city-making, guided by Ottoman principles of administration and commerce.

The city’s original name, “Saraj-ovasi,” roughly meaning “the field around the palace,” reflected its administrative origins. Sarajevo quickly grew into a bustling provincial center. The Baščaršija marketplace became the heart of the city, filled with craftsmen, traders, and travelers from across the empire. Artisans organized themselves into guilds, each street devoted to a specific trade—coppersmiths, leatherworkers, silversmiths—many of which still exist today.

Ottoman Sarajevo was remarkable for its pluralism. Muslims, Orthodox Christians, Catholics, and Jews lived in close proximity, each community maintaining its own institutions while participating in shared economic and social life. The arrival of Sephardic Jews, expelled from Spain in 1492, added another layer to the city’s cultural mosaic. Sarajevo became one of the most important Sephardic centers in the Balkans, preserving Ladino language and traditions for centuries.

Architecturally, the Ottomans left an enduring imprint. Mosques such as Gazi Husrev-beg’s Mosque, completed in 1531, represented the height of classical Ottoman design. Gazi Husrev-beg himself was a transformative figure, endowing the city with schools, libraries, water systems, and charitable foundations. His waqf (endowment) shaped Sarajevo’s urban and intellectual life so profoundly that his influence is still felt today.

By the sixteenth century, Sarajevo had grown into one of the largest cities in the Balkans, rivaling Belgrade and Sofia. Fires, earthquakes, and occasional rebellions punctuated its growth, but the city remained resilient, continually rebuilding itself.

Decline and Challenge: The Late Ottoman Era

From the seventeenth century onward, Sarajevo faced mounting challenges. The Ottoman Empire began to lose territory and influence, and Bosnia became a frontier province exposed to warfare and instability. The city suffered devastating fires, notably in 1697, when Prince Eugene of Savoy led a Habsburg raid that burned much of Sarajevo to the ground.

Economic stagnation followed as trade routes shifted and imperial resources dwindled. Local elites, including powerful janissaries and landowners, often resisted reforms from Istanbul. Tensions between central authority and local interests erupted into periodic unrest. Yet even in decline, Sarajevo retained its role as a regional hub and a symbol of Bosnian urban life.

The nineteenth century brought reform efforts known as the Tanzimat, aimed at modernizing the empire. New administrative structures, legal reforms, and limited attempts at equality among religious communities altered Sarajevo’s social landscape. Schools and printing presses appeared, and ideas of nationalism and reform circulated more widely. Still, Ottoman reforms came too late to reverse the empire’s broader decline.

Austro-Hungarian Rule: A European Facade

In 1878, following the Congress of Berlin, Bosnia and Herzegovina came under Austro-Hungarian administration. Though formally still part of the Ottoman Empire, real power shifted decisively. For Sarajevo, this marked another dramatic transformation.

The Habsburg authorities sought to modernize Sarajevo rapidly, turning it into a showcase of imperial governance. Wide boulevards, electric street lighting, trams, and new administrative buildings reshaped the city. Austro-Hungarian architects introduced eclectic styles—neo-Renaissance, neo-Gothic, and pseudo-Moorish—creating a striking contrast with Ottoman structures. The City Hall (Vijećnica), completed in 1896, symbolized this era, blending imperial ambition with orientalist aesthetics.

Education expanded, newspapers flourished, and industrial enterprises emerged. Yet modernization came with tension. The imperial administration attempted to suppress South Slavic nationalism while promoting a carefully managed Bosnian identity. Many locals felt alienated by foreign rule, despite its material benefits.

Sarajevo became a focal point of revolutionary sentiment, especially among young intellectuals influenced by nationalist and socialist ideas. These undercurrents would soon thrust the city onto the world stage.

1914: A Shot That Echoed Worldwide

On June 28, 1914, Sarajevo entered global history in a singular and tragic way. The assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sophie by Gavrilo Princip on the Latin Bridge triggered a chain reaction that led to the First World War. Though the causes of the war were complex and far-reaching, the event cemented Sarajevo’s symbolic place in modern history.

For the city itself, the aftermath was harsh. Anti-Serb riots erupted, and wartime repression followed. The war disrupted economic life and deepened ethnic divisions. When the Austro-Hungarian Empire collapsed in 1918, Sarajevo became part of the newly formed Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes, later Yugoslavia.

Between Wars: A Provincial Capital

The interwar period was one of relative stagnation for Sarajevo. Political power shifted to Belgrade, and the city lost some of its former prominence. While cultural life continued, economic development lagged behind other Yugoslav centers. Still, Sarajevo remained a place of coexistence, with its diverse communities maintaining a fragile balance.

This era ended violently with the outbreak of the Second World War.

War and Resistance: Sarajevo in World War II

During World War II, Sarajevo fell under the control of the fascist Independent State of Croatia, a Nazi puppet regime. The city witnessed persecution, deportation, and murder, particularly targeting Jews, Serbs, and Roma. Sarajevo’s once-vibrant Jewish community was nearly destroyed.

At the same time, resistance movements emerged. Partisans operated in and around the city, and Sarajevo became a site of underground struggle. In 1945, the Partisans liberated the city, and a new chapter began under socialist Yugoslavia.

Socialist Sarajevo: Unity and Modernity

Under Josip Broz Tito’s leadership, Sarajevo experienced renewed growth. Industrialization, urban expansion, and social programs transformed the city. New neighborhoods rose, universities expanded, and Sarajevo regained cultural importance. The city became known for its relaxed, cosmopolitan atmosphere, embodied in its music, humor, and everyday multiculturalism.

Hosting the 1984 Winter Olympics marked the high point of socialist Sarajevo. The event showcased the city to the world, symbolizing Yugoslavia’s openness and diversity. For many residents, this period remains a nostalgic memory of stability and optimism.

Siege and Survival: The 1990s

That optimism collapsed with the breakup of Yugoslavia. In 1992, Sarajevo became the site of the longest siege of a capital city in modern history. For nearly four years, the city was encircled, shelled, and starved. Civilians endured sniper fire, shortages of food and water, and constant fear.

Yet Sarajevo also became a symbol of resilience. Cultural life persisted underground; concerts, theater performances, and newspapers continued despite the danger. The city’s survival became an act of defiance against destruction.

The siege ended in 1995, leaving deep physical and psychological scars.

After the War: Memory and Continuity

In the post-war period, Sarajevo has struggled to rebuild amid political fragmentation and economic challenges. Reconstruction restored much of the historic center, while memorials and cemeteries testify to recent trauma. The city today is shaped as much by memory as by architecture.

Yet Sarajevo endures. Its cafes are full, its streets alive with conversation. The call to prayer still echoes alongside church bells. Sarajevo’s history is not a closed book but an ongoing story, written daily by those who live there.

To understand Sarajevo is to accept contradiction: beauty and pain, harmony and conflict, continuity and rupture. It is a city that has been many things at once and remains, above all, unmistakably itself.