Sarajevo off the main path: houses, a bezistan and a bobsled track
An Ottoman house with courtyards, a bezistan from the 16th century, a museum open on Sundays and a concrete track above the city.
- Svrzo’s House
- €2.56 (5 KM), shut on Sundays
- Brusa Bezistan
- €2.56 (5 KM), shut on Sundays
- Jewish Museum
- €2.56 (5 KM), shut on Saturdays
Four places drop out of most Sarajevo plans because none of them stands on the bazaar street. Three are annexes of the Museum of Sarajevo: an old house, a covered market from the 16th century and a museum that opens on Sundays. The fourth is a concrete track on a hill that nobody guards. Together they fill a relaxed day, with the track kept for last.
Svrzo’s House
Svrzo’s House dates from the 18th century and stands at Glođina 8. It is really four houses: a men’s house, an older women’s house, a younger women’s house from 1832 and a bachelors’ house. Two courtyards and two gardens tie them together. The Glođo family lived here, and later the Svrzo family, who died out for lack of male heirs and sold the place to the city.
Entry is €2.56 (5 KM), and the house is shut on Sundays. The division by who lived where is the whole point of the visit. It is easier to follow with a few minutes in each courtyard than with a list of rooms, and the street outside feels a long way from the noise of the bazaar. Start here, because the other two annexes work as short stops after it.
hostel, dorm bed, per night
Brusa Bezistan
Brusa Bezistan is one of three bezistans from the 16th century that still stand, and today it belongs to the Museum of Sarajevo. Entry is €2.56 (5 KM), and it is shut on Sundays. On the way, Morića han is worth a pause rather than a visit. It dates from 1551 and is the only han in the city that survived, rebuilt after 1697, and it now holds a restaurant and shops. Sit down for a coffee there and the walk between the annexes becomes part of the afternoon instead of a gap in it.
Jewish Museum of Bosnia and Herzegovina
This is the annex that keeps working when the others rest. It opens on Sundays from 10 to 13 and Monday to Friday, and it is closed on Saturdays, so it is the answer to a Sunday plan. Entry is €2.56 (5 KM). The joint ticket covers all five annexes: €10.23 (20 KM). It pays off only if you really see all five, since five single entries add up to more than the joint price. With three annexes the arithmetic fails, so buy single tickets and stop worrying about the saving.
The bobsled track on Trebević
The Olympic bobsled track on Trebević was built for the 1984 Games, damaged in the war and left open. It is 1,300 m long. Entry is free, with no fence, no guard and no ticket, so nobody will tell you where to stand or where not to. Concrete, curves and silence make an odd monument to a good winter, and the only requirement for entry is the climb.
That freedom has a limit. The areas around the track are suspected of mines, so keep to the marked path. You reach it by cable car from the lower station at Bistrik: €15.34 (30 KM) return. From the upper station the walk down takes 5 to 10 minutes, the track itself 1 to 1.5 hours, and the whole visit 1.5 to 2 hours. Put it after the City Hall on the same day, because the combined ticket pays for both.
Where to next
What to eat in Sarajevo
→Ćevapi in a somun at lunch, burek only with meat in the morning, and Bosnian coffee and baklava for everything else.
Mostar · 71 km
→The Old Bridge, the cobbles of Kujundžiluk and the Neretva in its gorge, with Blagaj, Počitelj and Kravice within forty kilometres
How well does Sarajevo suit you?
→Six questions: a score for this place and others like it.
Nomadinho scores out of 100, the same ones behind “Where to go”.
If you like Sarajevo
Three places with the closest scores, from any country.
Ready for Sarajevo?
Front row for the next trip
Leave your email and we'll let you know when a new destination or story goes up.