Very few cities in the world can offer such a variety of interesting things in such a small area as Sarajevo does. Historical attractions, natural beauty and unique experience of a place where „East meets West“ are all reasons which attract and continue to bring so many visitors to Sarajevo.

Sarajevo is the capital and the largest city in Bosnia and Herzegovina with about 400 000 inhabitants, the administrative, commercial, cultural and university center of the country. Since the establishment in 1462, Sarajevo was the seat of the province within the Ottoman Empire for over four centuries, monarchy seat of the Provincial Government of Bosnia and Herzegovina during the Austro-Hungarian occupation, and since 1945 the capital of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Since 1995, Sarajevo is the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Sarajevo is a multicultural city, unique in terms of religion in Europe, often compared to Jerusalem or New York, a city of friendship and cordiality, with open and straightforward people. The religious buildings of four of the most important religions in the world are located in the center itself, within only a few minutes walk of each other. It is a city where historical buildings of Ottoman, Austro-Hungarian and modern times intertwine. The city will be remembered by all of those who visited Sarajevo in 1984, when the magnificent winter Olympic Games where held there, which were then proclaimed as the best ones organized ever.

Apart from this, Sarajevo is a paradise for meat-lovers. Traditional restaurants offer excellent Bosnian meals including sarma (cabbage wrapped meat), begova čorba (chicken stew), veal dishes, filled peppers, čevapčiči (minced meat) to name but a few. Must visit sights are: Baščaršija, the Tunnel Museum, the National museum and the Latin Bridge.

The Bascarsija Square had been here from the Middle Ages, as a central place of commerce where people from the surrounding villages used to trade. Visiting Baščaršija, really is a visit to the past times away from the fast pace of today. It was built in the 15th century, when Sarajevo was founded. The word “Bas” in Turkish means – the principal, so the translation of its name meant “Main Street”. In the 19th century it experienced a great fire when flames engulfed half of Baščaršija. Its present appearance dates mainly from that time.

Among numerous historical monuments most famous are those from the endowment of Gazi Husrefbeg: mosque, madrasa, market, baths and imaret. And there are many other important structures such as numerous mosques, Orthodox Church from the 16th century, khans, covered markets and the fountain Sebilj.

Imagine walking through a tunnel just over 1.5-metres high, carrying a 50kg load, between a live electricity cable on one side and an oil pipeline on the other.

The tunnel runs for 800 metres, emerging at either end in a war zone. This is how a lot of supplies got into Sarajevo, through the tunnel that proved a lifeline during the three-and-a-half-year siege.

A city of stone on stone, historical, political and cultural centre of Herzegovina lies at the foot of the slopes of Velez Mountain, in the Neretva River valley

The Old town of Mostar, the city of contrasts, wide roads, narrow streets, the traditional Kujundziluk (old bazaar) and a contemporary centre. Next to modernly built edifices there rise the towers of churches and the minarets of mosques. Small but elegant, both from an architectural and a cultural point of view in a wider sense, these are buildings that are well worth visiting not only for the beauty of their interiors but also for tangible evidence of the life and culture of the Ottoman period in Bosnia Herzegovina.

The Karadjoz-Beg mosque, slightly outside the city centre, is one of the most representative monuments of sacred Islamic architecture in the 16th century. Built in 1557 according to a project of the Turk-ish architect Kodža Mimar Sinan, it is internally decorated with sumptuous arabesques and phytomorphic drawings. According to the style and tradition of the period, the mosque is flanked by other buildings in its courtyard: a fountain for washing (sadrvan), an Islamic school (madrasa), a library and even a public kitchen for the poor. Damaged during the war, the Karadjoz-Beg mosque and its minaret have now been re-opened to the public for visiting, after a long and careful restoration. Behind the mosque there is the most antique Muslim cemetery of the city.

The Tabačica mosque was built between the 16th and 17th centuries, as desired by Hajji Kurt, member of the ancient Mostar Kurt family. Standing on the right bank of the Neretva River, about 100 metres from the Old Bridge, this mosque was next to the antique Tabhana, the district where leather processing workshops were once found; and this fact reveals the mystery of its name, deriving actually from the term Tabaci (leather tanners). A row of small shops and its location make the Tabačica mosque one of the most frequently visited in Mostar.

Nonetheless, the most magnificent stone monument is the Stari Most (Old Bridge), which was built during the Ottoman period by the Turkish architect Hajrudin and commissioned by the sultan Soliman the Magnificent; it was completed in 1566 after nine years’ work. Right from the start, the bridge became part of various local legends, one of which narrates the stubbornness of Hajrudin who stopped underneath it for three days and three nights in order to demonstrate its absolute solidity. And it remained so for 427 years, until 1993, the tragic year when the bombing of the bridge became not only a strategic, political and military objective but also the most vicious way to strike the heart of the town’s unity and beauty. The reconstruction of the Bridge lasted almost ten years and it was truly a notable enterprise for it was decided to use the same antique building techniques. The Old bridge joins the two banks of the Neretva River together and is situated between the Herceguša and Tara Towers, on the left bank, and the Halebija on the right: it is 28.7 metre long, 4.49 metre wide and is characterized by a single stone arch which, in summer, stands 21 metres above the water. In July 2005, the Old Bridge and the entire old city became officially a part of the Cultural Heritage of the UNESCO.

The pilgrimage village of Međugorje, 27 km from Mostar, has become one of the most popular pilgrim attractions in the Catholic world since 24th June 1981, when a group of teenagers witnessed the apparition of the Virgin Mary, near the village of Podbrdo, in that very place that was afterwards called the Hill of the Apparition.The “Miracle of Mary of Međugorje” has radically transformed this small town into a sort of ‘global city’, constantly visited by Catholics arriving from all over the world. The busiest periods are around Easter (when the anniversary of the first apparition is celebrated with a procession known as the ‘Walk of Peace’), the Day of the Assumption (15th August) and the Birth of the Virgin (first Sunday after 8th September).

The Church of St. James, built in 1969, is a centre for various religious activities. Behind the building itself, there is a path that leads to the Resurrected Saviour, a statue from which constantly fl ow drops of blessed water. On the way leading to the Hill of the Apparition there are the 14 Stations of the Way of the Cross, where pilgrims stop in prayer. The Križevac Mount, at 2.5 km south-west of Međugorje, features a large stone cross that was erected in 1934.

Medjugorje turned into Europe’s third most important apparition site where each year more than one million people come to visit. It has been estimated that almost 30 million pilgrims have come to Medjugorje since the apparition began in 1981.