Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
behind the mosque, a short walk from here, is the
Sarajevsko Pivo
brewery, a huge facil-
ity that churns out every Bosniak's favorite brew. Because it's fed by a natural spring, this
was one of the few factories that was able to keep working through the siege. It's also a fine
place for a meal in their atmospheric old beer hall (see “Eating in Sarajevo,” later). Those
intrigued by Sarajevo's spiritual history might consider a five-minute detour from here to
the
Tomb of the Seven Brothers
(described later; go straight across the river and up the
hill,pasttheparkwiththecharminglittlemusicpavilion/teahouse,tothetopoftheparking
lot).
• Backtrack all the way past the covered market to the main drag where we started, turn
left, and continue along this strip. This street has now changed its name from Sara
č
i to Fer-
hadija. Without the slightest transition, you step from the extremely Ottoman-feeling “little
Istanbul” of the Baš
č
aršija into the Viennese-feeling Habsburg Quarter.
Part 2: Habsburg Sarajevo (Ferhadija Street)
(See “Sarajevo Self-Guided Walk Old Town Section” map,
here
.)
With the precipitous decline of the Ottoman Empire in the late 1800s, the Habsburgs—who
ruled the vast Austro-Hungarian Empire from Vienna—saw an opportunity to fill the vacu-
um left in this part of Europe. With the swirl of a pen in 1878, Bosnia went from Ottoman
to Austrian rule. As they had throughout their realm, the Habsburgs stepped in and immedi-
ately began to modernize Sarajevo, rolling out new infrastructure and buildings like crazy.
While they ruled Sarajevo for only 40 years, the Habsburgs left it a far more modern city
than they'd found it.
