Event: Bosnia - Sarajevo

National Museum of Bosnia and Herzegovina

When:	Daily; not Mon or Sat
Where:	National Museum of Bosnia and Herzegovina
Costs:	BAM5; concessions BAM1
Opening Hours:	Tue, Thu, Fri & Sun 10am-2pm; Wed 11am-7pm

The National Museum of Bosnia and Herzegovina was founded in 1888 and is the oldest among the modern cultural and scientific institutions in the country. Having undergone many restorations through the centuries, it is just about recovering from the conflicts of the 1990s.

The idea of founding of the museum dates back to 1850, but nearly four decades passed before its realisation. Two empires ruled over Bosnia and Herzegovina in the meantime - the Ottoman rule gave way to the Austro-Hungarian one. As one of the still-unexplored countries of the Balkans, Bosnia and Herzegovina was a source of curiosity for many scientists, especially those from Austria and Hungary.

The building that originally hosted the museum soon became too small and inconvenient, and construction of a new home was initiated in 1908. Since the very beginning of its work, the museum has developed as a complex cultural and scientific institution, nourishing scientific and scholarly disciplines including history, geography, archaeology (prehistoric, ancient and medieval), ethnology, history of art and natural history (biology, geology and mineralogy), language, literature, statistics and bibliography.

The aggression against Bosnia and Herzegovina not only caused a break in the development of the museum, but direct devastation and damage to the four buildings of the museum complex and the botanical garden. The collection, including a rich library fund, was saved entirely thanks to the people that did not leave the museum even in the most difficult of circumstances.

Among the items on display is the Sarajevo Haggadah, a beautifully illustrated 14th-century book originating from Barcelona that is one of the most important Jewish relics in Europe. The pictures in the book break the traditional rules of depicting humans and also show the world as round - a heretical idea at the time. Also noteworthy are the archaeological section, with Greek and Roman finds, a botanical garden, a natural history aisle and an ethnography museum.