Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
(Just uphill, inside an old tower from the city wall, is a small museum dedicated to Izetbe-
govi
ć
.)
Just above this area is a neighborhood called
Vratnik
(roughly “Gateway”), the oldest
part of town.
If you'd like to tour a traditional home from the Ottoman period, hike five minutes uphill
from the Old Town to see this well-preserved, sprawling estate, built in the 17th century
by a wealthy local Bosniak family. It's similar to the “Turkish houses” you'll see in
Mostar—except that it's made of wood, as is typical of Bosnia, while Herzegovinian homes
(like those in Mostar) are made of stone. First, you'll head upstairs to see the men's sitting
room
(halvat),
the women's room (where the ladies of the house did their embroidery), and
thediningroom(whereguestssatontheflooraroundthelowtable,oruponthelongdivans
all around the room). The
kamarija
(balcony) overlooks the inner courtyard, with its garden
andwell.Thenheaddownstairstoseethebigkitchenandlarge
halvat
—forbigfamilygath-
erings.
Cost and Hours:
3 KM, 5-KM guidebook, Mon-Fri 10:00-18:00—or until 16:00 off-
Immediately west of the Ottoman quarter is the more modern part of town, built at the end
of the 19th century after Bosnia became part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. While sev-
eral of the sights scattered through this area are much older, most of the buildings here are
evocative of those in the capital at the time, Vienna.
Combining a classic old 16th-century synagogue with an excellent and insightful museum
chronicling the Jewish faith in this country, this building was modeled after a synagogue in
Toledo, Spain. Soon after the Jews were expelled from that kingdom in the late 15th cen-
tury,SephardicJewsmadetheirwaytoBosnia,whichtheyfoundtobeanunusuallytolerant
place (typical of its entire history). Unlike many Central and Eastern European cities, Sara-
jevo did not relegate its Jews to a ghetto; they lived amid their non-Jewish neighbors. Local
Sephardiused“Ladino,”auniquelanguagemixingSpanishandHebrew(eventoday,rabbis
greet each other not with
Shalom,
but with
Buenos días
).
