Museums

The National Museum of Bosnia and Herzegovina (Zemaljski muzej), founded in 1888, and is the oldest museum of Western type in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The museum houses the Department of Archaeology, Department of Ethnology, Department of Natural History and a stunning Botanical garden containing some of the region’s most precious species. It is also a home to one the world’s greatest treasures, the Jewish manuscript Haggada held in the so called Blue Room.

The Historical Museum of Bosnia and Herzegovina was founded in 1945 under the name of the Museum of National Revolution of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The museum features the history of the two world wars and an impressive permanent display of the 1992-1995 war photos which tells a story about the longest city siege of the modern world.

The Monumental Complex “Tunnel of Salvation” locally known as Tunnel D-B was built on July 30, 1993 as the only window of Sarajevo under siege into the world. It has become a symbol of resistance of unarmed people. The permanent display includes photos, 20-m of the original tunnel and movies about the Sarajevo Siege.

Sarajevo Museum 1878 – 1914 is one of the annexes of the Sarajevo Museum. It is located on the exact spot of the assassination of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand and is dedicated to the period of the Austro-Hungarian reign over Bosnia and Herzegovina and the assassination of Franz Ferdinand, his wife Sophy and their unborn child which triggered World War I.

The Museum of Contemporary Art “Ars Aevi” features one of the important international contemporary art collections in South-East Europe, founded in 1992. This permanent contemporary display consists of the masterpieces donated to Sarajevo by world famous artists like Marina Abramovic, Michelangelo Pistoletto, Jannis Kounellis, James Rosenquist, Gianni Dessi’, Daniel Buren, Louise Bourgeois, Jeff Koons, Robert Rauschenberg, Joseph Kosuth, Jan Fabre, Sandro Chia.

Other museums of Bosnia and Herzegovina include the Museum of Herzegovina in Mostar, the museums of Eastern Herzegovina in Trebinje, the Franciscan Monastery with a Museum in Humac – Ljubuški, the Museum of the City of Zenica, the Franciscan monasteries in Kraljeva Sutjeska, Fojnica and Bugojno, the Regional Museum in Travnik and Doboj, the Museum of Semberija in Bijeljina, and in Livno, Prijedor, Foča, Banja Luka and Konjic.