Sarajevo: The Miljacka River Walk.

Sarajevo: The Miljacka River Walk.

October 2021.

In my last article I wrote about Sarajevo’s Old Bazaar and what an essential experience it is, no matter how short of time one might be when visiting the Bosnian capital. While we clearly enjoyed exploring the bazaar, our self-guided walks along the handsome Miljacka River just about stole its thunder.

There is something quietly alluring about the Miljacka. At barely 38 kilometres long and famously shallow in places, it is not a grand waterway. Yet it traces the very spine of one of Europe’s most layered and storied capitals, and is cherished by locals.

Take the name itself. Milja roughly translates as “the dear one.” I’m certainly no expert, but perhaps that nickname speaks to its standing as the ultimate survivor. The Miljacka has borne witness to the full sweep of Sarajevo’s extraordinary past: its Ottoman founding, and its years under Austro-Hungarian administration.

Moreover, it watched the catastrophic 1914 assassination that sent the world spiralling toward war. And it suffered the devastating siege of the 1990s, when its bridges and surrounding streets became one of Europe’s most dangerous stretches of ground.

Sarajevo: The Miljacka River Walk.

This absorbing history, combined with the river’s genuine visual appeal, makes it such a privilege to explore. We didn’t bother with walking tours or set routes. Rather, we set off on a number of unhurried, self-directed wanderings.

The mountains seem to press into the valley that the Miljacka occupies. The water itself, meanwhile, is clear and quick-moving. The riverbanks shift in character as you move through them. For a stretch it is formal and broad, lined with the confident architecture of successive eras.

One of the first I stopped to photograph was the Bank on the Obala, a branch of the Austro-Hungarian Bank dating back to 1913. Designed by the famed architect Rudolf Tönnies, it is a rare example of classical architectural elements with Sarajevo Secession style.

Check out its grand columns, sculpted keystones, and ornate ironwork balconies. Designated a National Monument of Bosnia and Herzegovina in 2009, today the building houses Privredna Banka Sarajevo.

Next, we paused to admire the National Theatre, a Neo-Renaissance landmark built in 1897. Originally constructed as a social club, the government repurposed it as a theatre in 1922. This time the architect was a Czech by the name of Karel Pařík, a man so prolific in the Bosnian capital locals came to call him “the builder of Sarajevo.”

Sarajevo National Theatre.

It wasn’t long before we came upon City Hall (Vijećnica). Easily the riverside’s grandest structure, it is a spectacular example of pseudo-Moorish architecture, and a tribute to the Muslim heritage of the city. Over the decades it has also served as a parliament house, and eventually the National University Library of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

In its heyday the building housed around 1.2 million books, though only an estimated 10–15 percent survived the siege of 1992. Painstakingly restored from old photographs and architectural plans, it reopened in 2014; its terracotta and cream striped façade, horseshoe arches and ornate atrium once again the pride of the city. Walk up to the entrance steps and you’ll find a stark plaque that references the siege directly.

The building truly comes into its own after dark when it is floodlit against the night sky, its arches reflected in the Miljacka below. In fact, Sladja and I made a point of returning one evening just to see it in night mode.

Another beauty worth stopping for is the Faculty of Law, one of numerous buildings belonging to the University of Sarajevo. Founded in 1946, it originally served as the Austro-Hungarian Palace of Justice. It has a suitably imposing facade, a mix of warm ochre and terracotta, along with classical Corinthian columns and a lead-grey dome.

Sarajevo: The Miljacka River Walk.

Among its most famous alumni is none other than Alija Izetbegović, who earned his law degree here in 1956 prior to becoming the first Chairman of the Presidency of an independent Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Soon after, we came upon the striking Academy of Fine Arts, which at first glance can easily be mistaken for a cathedral. That’s because it was actually constructed as a cathedral back in 1899. Built in a Romanesque-Byzantine style, this was the first and only Evangelical church throughout Sarajevo’s Austro-Hungarian era.

It has been home to the Fine Arts Academy since 1981. Today, there are statues and sculptures peppered around the building and art installations hanging over the river. Definitely one of the Miljacka’s most eye-catching spots.

It’s well worth seeking out one particular statue in order to take in an extraordinary life story. The statue in question honours Mica Todorović, the renowned Bosnian painter whose works covered socially engaged realism and renaissance, as well as vivid colourist painting. Known as “the first lady of Bosnian and Herzegovinian painting,” she enrolled in the Academy of Fine Arts in 1920, the only woman in her class. 

Mica Todorović.

After graduation, she studied renaissance art in Italy. During WWII the Nazis imprisoned her in the Stara Gradiška Concentration Camp, before sending her off to forced labour in Germany. In 1945 she was the only artist to testify at the State Commission for the Establishment of War Crimes in Belgrade. What’s more, her series of drawings The Last Victims of Jasenovac and Gradiška, depicting life in the concentration camps, were used as evidence.

Of the many handsome townhouses that line the river, a special mention goes to the so-called Madame’s House (Gospođicina). Its northern facade is a delight: decorated with a number of gorgeous sgraffito frescoes that have somehow managed to survive two world wars in addition to the 1990’s siege.

According to local historians, this one-storey Austro-Hungarian villa once belonged to an elegant young woman who left the house each morning in a different fancy dress and hat. Interest in the pretty young lady became so great that the writer Ivo Andrić drew on her reputation for his novel Gospođica (The Woman from Sarajevo).

As for the most peaceful riverside spot, top marks go to a lovely green space known locally as At Mejdan. Also referred to as Mejdan Park and Horse Square Park, its story begins in the 15th century when the Ottomans created it as a site for public executions. Later, it became a horse market and then a hippodrome.

Sarajevo: The Miljacka River Walk.

Today it is a tranquil, shaded and unhurried corner of the city where locals come to sit, read, smoke and listen to music.

If one fancies a cup of coffee, just head to the cafe housed in an historic wooden music pavilion. Designed by Josip Pospišil in 1913, the original structure unfortunately didn’t survive the Second World War. It was painstakingly rebuilt in 2004 from original drawings. Live music performances still take place here from time to time.

On the western edge of the park, a small archaeological garden preserves the remains of the 16th-century Bakr-Baba Mosque complex. Somewhat tucked away, it’s easy to miss, but certainly worth finding. The mosque dates back to 1544 and is one of the oldest surviving Ottoman buildings in Sarajevo.

Beside it sit the remains of a mekteb, the religious primary school that once served the surrounding neighbourhood. There’s a cemetery too, with dozens of weathered Ottoman headstones. The government designated it a protected archaeological area in 2015.

Our wanderings led us to what looked like an important headstone. And so it proved. Hadži Hafiz Halid ef. Hadžimulić was a scholar, polyglot, and chief imam of Sarajevo’s Emperor’s Mosque for over thirty years. He also oversaw the restoration of the Bakr-Baba Mosque and made it his express wish to be buried within its grounds. He died in 2011, aged 95, and here he remains.

Bakr-Baba Mosque.

Finally, a word on the bridges that span the Miljacka. First up is the Šeher-Ćehaja Bridge, known to locals as Šeherija, which translates as Mayor’s Bridge. Standing since 1585, mayor Hajji Husein commissioned its construction, hence the name. Today this restored four-arch beauty is Sarajevo’s oldest surviving Ottoman bridge.

Sladja and I got quite the surprise when we heard there was an Eiffel’s Bridge in Sarajevo. Wait, Gustav Eiffel rocked up in Bosnia in 1893? The truth is rather more prosaic: the bridge’s official name is Skenderija, and the Eiffel nickname is nothing more than a charming local legend, entirely unverified and without a single supporting document. Locals embrace it anyway, and honestly, who can blame them.

It’s easy to see why. With its delicate latticed ironwork and slim profile, it carries a distinctly Eiffelian—yes, I just made that word up—elegance that briefly teleported us to Paris. The bridge is a popular spot for couples and often strung with love-locks, which feels fitting given the romantic mythology surrounding it.

In contrast to the previous bridges, there is a modern and sleek feel to Festina lente Bridge. Its name is Latin for “make haste slowly,” and the bridge lives up to that. Sitting directly alongside the Academy of Fine Arts, it was designed by three local students from the institution itself.

Sarajevo: The Miljacka River Walk.

Adnan Alagić, Amila Hrustić and Bojan Kanlić won a city competition in 2007 and saw their vision realised when the bridge opened in August 2012. At 38 metres long, it is modest in scale but radical in concept. Midway across, the walkway loops back on itself in a full circle, creating an enclosed knot with benches inside. Built from steel and clad in polished aluminium, it glows at night under white LED lighting.

At this point you might be wondering: what about Sarajevo’s most famous bridge? Well, I’ve been saving it for last. The Latin Bridge was first recorded in 1541, though its current form dates from a rebuild in 1798 following flood damage. Its name comes from the Catholic quarter it once connected to the rest of the city, known in Ottoman times as the Latinluk, (Latin Quarter.)

On the morning of June the 28th, 1914, Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sophie were shot dead at the street corner just north of the bridge, not on the bridge itself as many assume. The killer was a 19-year-old Bosnian Serb student named Gavrilo Princip. It was the shot that triggered the First World War, and for years afterwards locals called it Princip’s Bridge.

As for Princip, he died of tuberculosis in a Bohemian prison in 1918, aged just 23. He had been too young at the time of the assassination to receive the death penalty. Standing on the bridge that day, watching people stroll by and glancing over at that infamous street corner, it was hard not to feel the weight of it all.

The Latin Bridge.

A plaque on the wall of the Sarajevo 1878–1918 Museum marks the actual spot of the assassination. I’ll be covering the site itself in my roundup of Sarajevo’s excellent museums; watch this space.

Like this? Don’t miss my detailed travel guide to Sarajevo, with reports from all over the city.

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