Dark tourism
Bosnia and Herzegovina has a troubled, and complicated, history. Everything was going ok(ish) until the breakup of the former Yugoslavia. After that, it was torn apart by fighting between Bosniaks, Serbs and Croatians. Sarajevo was under siege for nearly four years and Srebrenica became world infamous.
The Dayton Agreement ended the war, and created the current complicated political arrangement. Bosnia and Herzegovina is divided into 3 constituents — the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (mainly Bosniak and Croatian), the Republika Srpska (mainly Serbian) and Brčko District (control couldn’t be agreed upon as it’s so mixed).
Now, tourists come to see the horrors of war — the remnants of destroyed buildings, the shrapnel marks in almost every wall, the Sarajevo ‘Roses’ (painted mortar marks in the floor where someone died). They also come to visit Mostar and its beautiful bridge. It had to be completely rebuilt after the war — UNESCO says it is a ‘symbol of reconciliation’. Again, it is an artefact of the fighting and the aftermath. Sarajevo was even the scene of the trigger to the First World War — where Gavrilo Princip assassinated Archduke Franz Ferdinand.
All of this is interesting — to see conflict so close to home, in both time and space. However, I wanted to see something else of the country — there had to be more to it than just the war remnants. Therefore, I was glad to visit Jajce. It is a lot less visited than Mostar and Sarajevo, but I feel it has a lot going for it. Old castle on top of a hill? Check. Aquamarine lakes and rivers? Check. Large waterfall in the centre of town? Check. I hope that places like this will grow in popularity and start showing the beautiful side to this country.
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