Sarajevo Through Its Legends: A Walk Around the Old Town

They say that if you drink water from Baščaršija, life will eventually bring you back to Sarajevo.

As a child, I often drank from the old fountains of Sarajevo. I grew up hearing this legend, but only years later did I start paying attention to the stories connected to Sarajevo’s streets and buildings. Years later, I ended up living in the city for almost a decade.

The idea itself fits Sarajevo.. The city gives you water and, before you even leave, Sarajevo has already promised that your goodbye is not forever.

Sarajevo has always been a city shaped by arrivals and departures. Empires came and went, religions and cultures met here, and East and West left their marks only a few streets apart. Mosques, churches and synagogues became part of the same urban landscape.

There is a saying in Sarajevo:

Sarajevo će biti, sve drugo će proći.

Sarajevo will remain. Everything else will pass.

And perhaps the best way to understand that Sarajevo is to walk.

Start in Baščaršija. Drink the water. Then follow the streets, because some of the city’s old legends are still attached to places you can visit today.

If you prefer exploring Sarajevo with a local guide, you can also find walking tours of the Old Town on GetYourGuide or Viator.

The Water That Brings You Back to Sarajevo

A few steps from the busy heart of Baščaršija stands the Gazi Husrev-beg Mosque. Outside, built into the wall of its courtyard, is an old fountain. According to local tradition, whoever drinks from this water will one day return to Sarajevo.

Today you may also hear the legend connected to drinking water in Baščaršija, sometimes even specifically from Sebilj. But older versions of the story are associated with the fountain beside Gazi Husrev-beg Mosque.

It is easy to walk past without giving it much thought. People stop, drink, fill their bottles and continue through the city. But if you know the story, drinking from the fountain becomes something else.

You have just made a promise with Sarajevo.

Whether you believe in legends or not, drink some before continuing your walk.

Just in case.

The Child Who Became Part of Sarajevo’s Sacred Memory

From Begova Mosque, walk toward the upper edge of Baščaršija and you will soon reach the Old Orthodox Church, one of Sarajevo’s oldest religious buildings.

Its low walls and enclosed courtyard feel peaceful considering how close you still are to the market.

One of the darker and more unusual legends of old Sarajevo is connected to this church.

According to the story recorded by Vlajko Palavestra, a widower was left alone with his small son. Because his work required him to travel often, he remarried, hoping his new wife would take care of the child while he was away.

But, the stepmother mistreated the boy. One day, while his father was away, she became angry and threw the child down the stairs. The boy, who was only about a month old, died.

He was buried, but the story did not end there.

Some time later, when the grave was opened, the child’s body was reportedly found without signs of decomposition. People began to believe that the baby’s innocence had made the child sacred.

The remains were eventually brought to the Old Orthodox Church, where they became known among believers as the Holy Child, or Sveto dijete.

The legend survived for generations, but there is also a documented detail behind it. In 1981, the small coffin kept in the church was opened. It contained well-preserved remains of an unknown child, although there was no way to determine how old they were or confirm the events described in the legend.

Over time, another belief developed around the Holy Child. Women who wished to have children came to the church to pray. The site was not visited only by Orthodox Christian women; women of other faiths also came here seeking help.

When you leave the church, walk back down toward Baščaršija. Continue through the old town toward the Miljacka.

Two Mosques and a Sultan’s Suspicion

There are dozens of mosques in old Sarajevo, and many have stories of their own. Two of them are connected by a next legend.

You have already seen the first one: the monumental Gazi Husrev-beg Mosque, usually called Begova džamija.

Now, as you reach the Miljacka, you will find the Emperor’s Mosque, or Careva džamija.

According to legend, the sultan instructed Gazi Husrev-beg to build two mosques: one for the sultan and one for himself.

When they were completed, word reached the sultan that one was considerably larger and more beautiful than the other.

He became suspicious.

Perhaps Husrev-beg had kept the magnificent mosque for himself and given his ruler the more modest one.

So the sultan ordered that the mosque intended for him should belong to Husrev-beg, while the one Husrev-beg had intended for himself would become the sultan’s.

There was just one problem with his plan.

According to the story, Husrev-beg had been loyal from the beginning. He had already intended the larger and more beautiful mosque for the sultan. By switching them, the sultan gave the magnificent mosque to Husrev-beg.

And so, the grander one became known as Begova, while the smaller one became Careva — the Emperor’s Mosque.

The story even gives the Emperor’s Mosque a small consolation prize.

According to the same tradition, its minaret contains 118 steps, while the minaret of the larger Begova Mosque has only 115. So the smaller mosque still has something more.

The history of the two buildings is more complicated than the legend suggests. The Emperor’s Mosque has origins predating Gazi Husrev-beg’s mosque, and the story should not be read as a literal account of how they received their names.

But Sarajevo’s legends were never particularly concerned with letting facts ruin a good story.

From the Emperor’s Mosque, leave the river for a while and continue toward Bistrik.

The next legend comes with instructions of its own.

Seven Windows and an Answer You Are Not Supposed to Look For

Not far from the old town is one of Sarajevo’s most unusual places of folk belief: the Jedileri, better known as the Turbe of the Seven Brothers.

The name itself is misleading.

The seven men buried here were not brothers. They did not even die at the same time. Different stories exist about who they were and how each came to be buried here, but over generations their individual histories merged into the story of the Seven Brothers.

The place eventually became associated with another Sarajevo tradition.

If you were troubled by a difficult question or did not know which path to take in life, you could come here looking for an answer.

There are seven windows.

Traditionally, a visitor would pass them one by one, leave a coin at each window and pray. But after reaching the last one, there was an important rule:

Do not return the same way you came.

Instead, continue walking.

And listen.

The first words you hear from people passing nearby may contain the answer to your question. Perhaps two strangers are talking about staying or leaving. Maybe someone says, “Don’t do it.” Or you hear a child shout, “Go!”

The words were not meant for you, of course. But that was precisely the point. The answer was supposed to find you.

So we will follow the rule too. Instead of walking back toward Baščaršija, continue downhill toward the Miljacka.

Our final story is waiting by the river.

Why One Sarajevo Bridge Is Named After Coal

Once you reach the Miljacka, continue toward Ćumurija Bridge. Today, the name probably does not mean much to a visitor.

But ćumur means charcoal.

And to understand the name, you have to imagine a very different Sarajevo.

Forget cars and cafés for a moment.

Imagine the old čaršija filled with workshops. Fires burn inside small shops. Metal strikes metal. Swordsmiths work close to the river, surrounded by smoke, sparks and the smell of burning charcoal.

According to one tradition recorded by Vlajko Palavestra, swordsmiths once had their workshops in this part of Sarajevo. They needed large quantities of charcoal for their work and discarded the remaining charcoal and soot into the Miljacka.

Another version tells a slightly different story.

During Sarajevo’s cold winters, shopkeepers heated their stores with mangale, traditional charcoal braziers. The ash and remains were later thrown near the river.

Whichever version you prefer, the black charcoal eventually left its mark on the city’s vocabulary.

The bridge became Ćumurija.

It is a example of something Sarajevo does particularly well: preserving pieces of everyday life in its place names.

You do not need a king, a miracle or a ghost to create a legend.

Here, generations of craftsmen, fire and a river were enough.

A Clock That Shows the “Wrong” Time

And for the end, I want to share one more story. This one is not a legend, but it is just as interesting.

If you walk through Baščaršija, especially around Gazi Husrev-beg Mosque and its fountain, it is almost impossible not to notice the Sarajevo Clock Tower rising above the surrounding buildings.

Look at the clock and you may think it is showing the wrong time.

It isn’t.

The clock still follows a la turca time, an old system in which the new day begins at sunset. At the moment of sunset, or akšam, both hands of the clock point to 12.

This way of measuring time made sense in a world without phones or watches on every wrist. Sunset was something everyone could observe, and daily life and prayer times were closely connected to it.

But sunset does not happen at the same time every day. This means the clock has to be adjusted as the days grow longer or shorter. Traditionally, a person known as the muvekit was responsible for calculating the exact time and keeping the clock aligned with sunset.

As railways, modern transport and stronger connections between cities made standardized time necessary, a la turca gradually disappeared.

Sarajevo’s Clock Tower kept it.

So if you pass through Baščaršija and its clock seems to be a few hours wrong, don’t try to correct it.

It is measuring the day by a different system.

Keep Walking

That may be what I like most about Sarajevo’s legends.

You do not have to search for ruins hidden somewhere outside the city or imagine places that disappeared centuries ago.

The places are still here.

People still drink from the fountain beside Begova Mosque. The Old Orthodox Church still stands above Baščaršija. The minarets of Begova and Careva still rise above the city. The seven windows of the Seven Brothers still stand. Ćumurija still crosses the Miljacka.

So if you visit Sarajevo, walk slowly.

Drink the water.

Look at the names written on bridges. Step into courtyards. Notice the buildings hiding behind the busy streets.

And if you decide to visit the Seven Brothers with a question of your own, remember the rule.

Don’t walk back the same way.

Listen to what Sarajevo says instead.

And perhaps drink from the fountain once more before you leave.

After all, you might want to come back.

About the Legends in This Article

Most of the stories in this article come from Legende iz starog Sarajeva (Legends of Old Sarajevo), compiled by Bosnian ethnologist and folklorist Vlajko Palavestra (1927–1993).

Born in Sarajevo, Palavestra spent much of his career researching oral traditions and folklore in Bosnia and Herzegovina. His work was closely connected to the National Museum of Bosnia and Herzegovina, where he also edited the museum’s academic journal for several decades.

The manuscript for Legends of Old Sarajevo was written in 1982 at the request of the Sarajevo Olympic Committee for a planned publication in foreign languages ahead of the 1984 Winter Olympics. The project was never completed, and the book was first published in our language in 2000, seven years after Palavestra’s death.

Planning a trip to Sarajevo?
You can compare accommodation in Sarajevo on Expedia, or Hostelworld.