🇧🇦 Sarajevo - Baščaršija (Arab market)

Like the other cities of the Balkans that were under Ottoman Impere, Sarajevo also has a very large market in the central streets of the city, where in the past merchants traveling between Asia and Europe could rest and exchange goods. Today Baščaršija is visited by many tourists and is a popular meeting place.

In the center of the Baščaršija there is the "Sebil", one of the symbols of the city. It is a wooden fountain typical of Ottoman/arab countries where people could take fresh water for the purification ritual and for drinking.

Every step in this city brings to mind an episode of XXth century.
A few meters away, in 1994 the Serbian forces bombed from the mountains the civilians present in the market (Markale), killing almost 50 of them. This was the casus belli of NATO intervention in Bosnia, which finally led to the Dayton peace agreements and to the stabilized Bosnia that we can visit today.Read more