Sarajevo
Sarajevo is the capital and largest city of Bosnia and Herzegovina, set in a valley of the Dinaric Alps along the Miljacka River.
Ottoman Empire: A multiethnic empire that ruled much of southeastern Europe, western Asia, and North Africa from the late thirteenth century to 1922. Ottoman rule began Sarajevo’s development as a regional city in the fifteenth century.
Baščaršija: Sarajevo’s historic bazaar district, developed during Ottoman rule and known for its crafts, mosques, and market streets. Its lanes preserve the commercial core of Ottoman Sarajevo.
Siege of Sarajevo: The 1992–1996 encirclement and bombardment of Sarajevo during the Bosnian War, the longest siege of a capital in modern warfare. The siege devastated the city and remains central to its recent history.
Bosnia and Herzegovina: A country in southeastern Europe, comprising two entities and the Brčko District, with Sarajevo as its capital. Sarajevo is the country’s capital and largest city.
Gazi Husrev-beg: A sixteenth-century Ottoman governor of Bosnia whose endowments built major religious, educational, and commercial institutions in Sarajevo. His foundations established landmarks and institutions in Sarajevo’s historic center.
Latin Bridge: A historic stone bridge across the Miljacka River in Sarajevo, near the site of Franz Ferdinand’s assassination. The bridge anchors the city’s best-known connection to the 1914 assassination.
Bosnian War: An armed conflict in Bosnia and Herzegovina from 1992 to 1995, following the breakup of Yugoslavia. The siege formed one of the war’s defining campaigns.
Miljacka: A short river that flows through Sarajevo before joining the Bosna River. The Miljacka runs through the city’s central valley and divides its neighborhoods.
Austro-Hungarian rule in Bosnia and Herzegovina: The administration of Bosnia and Herzegovina by Austria-Hungary from its occupation in 1878 until the empire’s collapse in 1918. Austro-Hungarian administration added European-style institutions and architecture to Sarajevo.
Sarajevo City Hall: A late nineteenth-century building in Sarajevo, designed in a Moorish Revival style and now used as a cultural venue. Its architecture expresses the Austro-Hungarian era’s selective use of Islamic motifs.