Sarajevo

Sarajevo is the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina, in the valley of the Miljacka River among the Dinaric Alps. The Turkish word saray, a governor's palace, lies behind its name, and in 1984 the city held the Winter Olympics.

Isa-Beg Isaković, the Ottoman governor, founded the town in 1461 with a mosque, a bridge, a public bath and the palace that gave the town its name. Gazi Husrev-beg, a governor of the 16th century, endowed the mosque that bears his name along with a library and a religious school. After Austria-Hungary took over the province in the late 19th century, Sarajevo built a pseudo-Moorish city hall, the Vijećnica, and became one of the first cities in Europe with an electric tram running all day.

Sarajevska pivara brews Sarajevsko beer from the spring water beneath its brewery. Bosnalijek, a drug maker based in Sarajevo, produces medicines sold across the Balkans. Ćevapi, small grilled meat rolls served in flatbread with chopped onion, and burek, a pie of thin pastry filled with meat, are sold in the shops of the old bazaar.

Baščaršija, the old bazaar, has narrow lanes of coppersmiths and coffee houses around the wooden Sebilj fountain. A mosque, a Catholic cathedral, an Orthodox church and a synagogue stand within a few streets of each other in the old town, which earned it the name Jerusalem of Europe. The National Museum keeps the Sarajevo Haggadah, an illuminated Jewish manuscript made in Spain in the 14th century. Each August the Sarajevo Film Festival brings directors and actors from across Europe to open-air screenings in the city.