This place challenges every notion of what a European city feels like

If you had to guess where in the world you were by looking at a single street, you’d have little chance of identifying Sarajevo.

The old town of Sarajevo has craft shops, unique artefacts, intriguing food and enduring coffeehouses.Credit: Getty Images

Its compact old town, topped by minarets, could easily be in Turkey. Around that stands a ring of other buildings to confound you.

Art deco apartments are Austro-Hungarian. The Serbian Orthodox Church has Russian architectural influences. You’ll come across a synagogue, then a Catholic cathedral with a crater punched into it by a mortar shell.

Sarajevo is associated with two wars. The assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand here in 1914 ignited World War I. In the 1990s Bosnian War, it was under siege for nearly four years.

That and the 1984 Winter Olympics are all that I know of Sarajevo. Fortunately, I’ve joined a Collette tour of the Balkans, which is leading me to unexpected places. The tour company presents big-name destinations – we’ve already visited Dubrovnik and Kotor – but also teases out the lesser-known.

Sarajevo’s Ottoman-era Latin Bridge over the River Miljacka – Archduke Ferdinand was assassinated nearby. Credit: Getty Images

Some apartment blocks in Sarajevo still bear the pockmarks of shrapnel, and memorials to the Bosnian War are everywhere. Yet, I rapidly revise my assumptions of the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and the surprises are all pleasant.

A curious blend of East and West, the city is undergoing a cheerful revival. It has a beautiful valley setting. No matter what way I look, forested mountains loom.

Not everything is perfect. This city is still divided, with most Orthodox Christians living in East Sarajevo. For visitors, though, that makes the city core even more distinctively different because centuries of Ottoman architecture are matched by a predominantly Muslim population.

The century-old wooden fountain, or sebilj, in Bascarsija square is a symbol of old Sarajevo.Credit: Getty Images/iStockphoto

Old Sarajevo is called Bascarsija, from the Turkish for “market”. Shops and street stalls decorate its alleys with cliche carpets and copper pots. Impressive Ottoman monuments include a caravanserai, a madrasa topped by pointed chimneys and a large 18th-century wooden fountain.

The 16th-century Gazi Husrev-beg Mosque is lovely, its courtyard lively with kids, its tombs topped by stone turbans. In the late afternoon, its pale golden stonework glows.

Bascarsija’s informal restaurants are crammed with people tucking into cevapcici, or pita, enfolding sausage, onions and cream cheese. Lamb roasts on spits. Shops sell baklava and ratluk (Turkish delight).

The 16th-century Gazi Husrev-beg Mosque in Bascarsija is among the world’s finest examples of Ottoman architecture. Credit: Getty Images/iStockphoto

In busy coffee shops, old men swirl worry beads and drink thick, short coffees. Women in headscarves drink yoghurt. I gorge on custard-filled Bosnian desserts – and Austrian-style pastries.

A pedestrian avenue takes me out of Bascarsija. A plaque embedded in the flagstones invites me to look in two directions. Bazaar behind, Austro-Hungarian shopping drag ahead. The coffeehouses scented with hookah smoke give way to cafes. In the evenings, families come out to stroll here, and couples drink cocktails and flirt in the park by the cathedral. I stop at intervals to soak it all in.

We do an interesting tour with local guide Achmed before being let loose to explore. With three nights in Sarajevo, we have time for a side trip up the mountain to the abandoned Olympic bobsled track, now so graffitied it looks like a strange contemporary artwork.

Sarajevo isn’t all historical. Sprawling beyond the core are communist-era apartment blocks and new office buildings and hotels. The skateboard ramps at Hastahana Park are a hangout of the young and restless.

The population is youthful and energetic. People spill out of mosques, watch soccer on giant screens in the town square, and slurp ice-creams as they stroll by the river. It’s good to join them in this agreeable and unusual capital, far from the tourist crowds.

The details

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Tour
Collette’s 16-day “A Taste of the Balkans” tour between Dubrovnik and Ljubljana spends three nights in Sarajevo and visits destinations in Croatia, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Slovenia. An optional extension takes you to Belgrade in Serbia.

The next tours depart in April and May 2025. From $5699 a person twin-share, including accommodation, transport, select meals and tour guides. See gocollette.com

The writer travelled as a guest of Collette.