Museums

Museums

Bosnia & Herzegovina has an eclectic mix of Ottoman, Austro-Hungarian, and Yugoslavian influences, and a disproportionate share of global historical events of great importance, from the Ottoman occupation, the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand to the Siege of Sarajevo. You wouldn’t want to visit Sarajevo and Bosnia & Herzegovina without soaking up some of this history and culture. The best way to do it is to visit some of its museums. Museums in Bosnia & Herzegovina tell a colorful story of the rich and turbulent past of the country. 

The oldest museum in the country is located at the Franciscan Monastery in Humac, near Ljubuški, in Herzegovina. The monastery was founded around 1291 when friars came from Dalmatia (Croatia) to establish their presence in this region. The museum was founded in 1884, four years before the National Museum of Bosnia & Herzegovina in Sarajevo. The museum exhibits artefacts from the past 16,000 years found in Herzegovina, the oldest dating from the Old Stone Age.

Among other things, the museum preserves a 14,000-year-old necklace found near Stolac, Illyrian warrior equipment from the 8th century BC, knight’s swords from the Middle Ages, money from various eras, and even the Humac Plate – the oldest medieval inscription in Bosnia and Herzegovina, written in Bosančica, the old Bosnian alphabet. Here is a video about this museum from Bosnian N1 News (in local language):

There is a number of other museums in Bosnia and Herzegovina, many of them worth visiting if you are a foreign tourist. Here is a short list of such museums:

• National Museum of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Sarajevo – founded in 1888
• National Gallery of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Sarajevo
• Historical Museum of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Sarajevo
• The Herzegovina Museum, Trebinje
• Museum of Sarajevo
• Museum of the Old Bridge, Mostar
• Museum of the National Struggle for Liberation
• Museum of Modern Art of Republika Srpska, Banja Luka
• Sarajevo War Tunnel Museum
• Svrzo House (Svirzina Kuća), Sarajevo
• Despić House (Despića Kuća), Sarajevo
• Muslimbegović House, Mostar
• War Childhood Museum, Sarajevo
• Jewish Museum of Bosnia & Herzegovina, Sarajevo
• Tito’s Bunker, Konjic
• AVNOJ Museum, Jajce (WW2 Resistance Museum)
• Olympic Museum, Sarajevo – currently under reconstruction
• Gallery 11/07/95, Sarajevo
• Brusa Bezistan Museum, Sarajevo
• The Hamam Museum, Mostar
• Mak DIzdar Museum, Stolac
• War Photo Exhibition, Mostar
• Ivo Andrić Birth House Museum, Travnik

The Bistrik Railway Station, one of symbols of Sarajevo, has been renovated at the cost of about 2.9 million BAM (1.45 Euros). The building of great historical value, especially known to the general public for scenes from the cult film by Hajrudin Siba Krvavac “Walter Defends Sarajevo”, houses a museum exhibition commemorating this film. You can read more about this here.