Sarajevo: history, culture, and significance of Bosnia and Herzegovina’s capital

The city stretches in a west-east direction on the Sarajevo plain in the middle of the Dinaric Mountains. The Miljacka River flows through the city; the Bosna River rises west of the city in the municipality of Ilidža from a karst spring. The plain is overlooked by the mountains of Bjelašnica and Igman to the southwest and Jahorina and Trebević to the southeast.

The city center is 511 meters above sea level. The suburbs reach up to over 900 meters. The mountains around the city are mostly forested and up to 2,000 meters high.

Directly east of Sarajevo is the town of Pale, which was a centre of the Bosnian Serbs during the war from 1992 to 1995.

Climate

The climate in Sarajevo is temperate and slightly continental. The average annual temperature is 9.5 °C; the average annual precipitation is 932 mm. The warmest month is August, the coldest is January. Most precipitation falls in June and November; February is the driest month. Snowfall is possible until April.

The lowest temperature ever measured was -21.8 °C (on 24 January 1963), the highest 37.4 °C (on 24 July 1987).

Air quality

In the winter months, particulate matter levels are regularly up to ten times the EU limits. Sarajevo is one of the world's dirtiest capitals at this time of year, ahead of Beijing, New Delhi and Mumbai. According to the environmental organisation Eko-Akcija, one of the main reasons for this is that many households still use wood and coal for heating, an estimated 35,000 to 40,000. Sarajevo is located in a valley basin from which the smoke can only be removed with difficulty, especially in inversion weather conditions. The smoke then lies over the city for days, which also has health consequences. According to the World Bank, 3,300 people die each year in Bosnia and Herzegovina as a result of air pollution, and according to the European Environment Agency, as many as 5,400.

In 1238/39, a Slavic settlement called Vrhbosna was mentioned for the first time in a document of the Croatian-Hungarian King Béla IV in connection with the construction of Saint Peter's Cathedral. From 1463, with the beginning of Ottoman rule under Isa-Beg Ishaković, a Bosnian convert to Islam, the expansion of the town took place. Towards the end of the 15th century, a Turkish governor had set up his domicile on the banks of the Miljacka. A little later, the rapidly flourishing city of Sarajevo was named after this saray (Turkish palace). The Turkish sarây or saray ova is also the name of the seraglio.

In the Ottoman Empire, Sarajevo was the capital of the province of Bosnia since 1850. In 1878, the city was occupied by the Austro-Hungarian Empire along with the entire country.

On 28 June 1914, the city was the scene of the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his pregnant wife Sophie, which was one of the main triggers of the First World War. After 1918, Sarajevo became part of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes along with Bosnia.

During the Second World War, Bosnia was part of the Independent State of Croatia. In Sarajevo, from 1941 to 6 April 1945, Villa Luburić was converted into an internment and execution camp, where hundreds of Serbs and Jews were interned, tortured and murdered by the fascist Ustasha. After the collapse of the Ustasha state and the end of the SecondWorld War, Sarajevo became the capital of the constituent republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina within Yugoslavia in 1945.

One of the most significant events of the Yugoslav era was the 1984 Winter Olympics, which took place in the mountains surrounding the city and brought Sarajevo worldwide attention. After the declaration of independence in the wake of Yugoslavia's disintegration, Sarajevo became the capital of the sovereign state of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Shortly after the declaration of independence, the three-year Bosnian War began.

War in Bosnia

During the Bosnian War, Sarajevo was divided into a Bosniak-Croat part controlled by the Government of Bosnia and Herzegovina and a Serb part controlled by the Republika Srpska. The part controlled by government forces, which included the city centre and the Old Town, was besieged for 1,425 days by troops of the then Bosnian Serb army.

The siege of Sarajevo began on 5 April 1992 and was the longest siege in the history of the city. The city centre of Sarajevo was completely surrounded. According to the government of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the siege and the fighting claimed the lives of 10,615 people of all ethnic groups, including 1,601 children. Around 50,000 people were injured, some seriously, by grenades, mines or snipers.

The barracks "Viktor Bubanj" served during the Bosnian war as a military prison of the Bosnian government troops, where civilians were also tortured, abused or killed.