60 Fun Facts About Bosnia and Herzegovina

Bosnia and Herzegovina shares land borders with which three countries?

Bosnia and Herzegovina borders Croatia, Serbia and Montenegro; the Croatian border alone runs about 932 km, wrapping around the north and west of the country.

Bosnia and Herzegovina's coastline on the Adriatic is roughly how long?

The Adriatic coast is only about 20 km long, a single short stretch that splits Croatia's Dubrovnik region from the rest of Croatia.

Which is the only town on Bosnia and Herzegovina's short Adriatic coast?

Neum is the only town on the coast, a small resort of a few thousand people whose strip of shore cuts Croatia's southernmost territory off from the rest of Croatia.

Whose assassination in Sarajevo on 28 June 1914 sparked World War I?

Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Habsburg throne, and his wife Sophie were shot in their open car by Gavrilo Princip, a Bosnian Serb member of Young Bosnia.

Why was Gavrilo Princip, the 1914 Sarajevo assassin, spared the death penalty?

Princip was 19, too young to hang: the law barred the death penalty for anyone under 20 at the time of the crime; he got the maximum prison term and died of tuberculosis in Theresienstadt in 1918.

Which Ottoman-era bridge over the Miljacka stands beside the spot where Franz Ferdinand was shot?

The Latin Bridge, an Ottoman-era stone bridge over the Miljacka, stands beside the corner where Princip fired; Yugoslav authorities renamed it Princip's Bridge, and the old name was restored in the 1990s.

Sarajevo hosted the Winter Olympics in which year?

Sarajevo hosted the 1984 Winter Olympics from 8 to 19 February, the first Winter Games staged in a socialist country.

Vučko, the mascot of the Sarajevo Olympics, was what kind of animal?

Vučko was a wolf, drawn by Slovenian illustrator Jože Trobec and chosen by a public newspaper vote; his name comes from vuk, the local word for wolf.

The 1992-96 encirclement of Sarajevo holds what grim record?

At 1,425 days, from April 1992 to February 1996, it was the longest blockade of a capital in modern warfare, outlasting Leningrad's 872 days by more than a year; nearly 14,000 people were killed.

The wartime Sarajevo Tunnel, hand-dug in 1993, ran beneath what?

The Tunnel of Hope ran under the UN-controlled airport runway, linking besieged Dobrinja with Butmir on the free side; completed in mid-1993, it carried food, arms and people.

"Sarajevo Roses" scattered around the city are what?

Sarajevo Roses are mortar-shell scars in the concrete filled with red resin; about 200 were laid, each marking a spot where a single shell killed several people during the siege.

The 1995 agreement that ended the Bosnian War was negotiated at an air force base in which US state?

Talks ran 1–21 November at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base outside Dayton, Ohio; the accord was formally signed in Paris on 14 December.

Under the Dayton Agreement, Bosnia and Herzegovina is split into the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and what?

The Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina covers 51% of the territory and Republika Srpska 49%; each entity has its own president, parliament and police.

Bosnia and Herzegovina's presidency consists of how many members?

The presidency has three members, one Bosniak, one Serb and one Croat, elected together for a four-year term, with the chair rotating among them.

Which internationally appointed official can impose laws and sack officials in Bosnia under the 'Bonn Powers'?

The High Representative, an office created by the Dayton Agreement's civilian annex and chosen by the Peace Implementation Council, was granted the Bonn Powers in December 1997.

Which north-eastern town is a self-governing district belonging to both entities but run by neither?

Brčko District was created by international arbitration, with the final award in March 1999 and the district inaugurated in March 2000; it belongs to both entities and is governed by neither.

Which city is the administrative centre and largest city of the Serb-majority entity?

Banja Luka, on the Vrbas river, is the country's second-largest city and houses the entity's government and National Assembly.

At which town were more than 8,000 Bosniak men and boys killed in July 1995?

Srebrenica had been declared a UN safe area in 1993, yet its lightly armed Dutch battalion could not stop the Bosnian Serb army from overrunning the enclave and killing more than 8,000 men and boys.

Which Bosnian Serb general commanded the forces responsible for the July 1995 massacre?

Ratko Mladić, commander of the Bosnian Serb army, was convicted of genocide by the UN tribunal in 2017; Radovan Karadžić, the political leader, was convicted in 2016.

What do the points of the yellow triangle on Bosnia and Herzegovina's flag represent?

The triangle's corners stand for the constituent peoples: Bosniaks, Croats and Serbs, and its shape echoes the country's outline; the stars along its edge symbolise Europe and run off the edge to suggest infinity.

Bosnia and Herzegovina's currency, the KM, was pegged at par to which currency when introduced in 1998?

The convertible mark was pegged one-to-one to the Deutsche Mark under a currency board; in 2002 the peg was carried over to the euro at 1.95583 KM, the old DM rate, and it is divided into 100 fenings.

Stari Most, the famous "Old Bridge" of Mostar, was destroyed in November 1993 by whom?

Commissioned by Suleiman the Magnificent in 1557, it was rebuilt and reopened in 2004 and is now a World Heritage Site.

Mostar's Old Bridge crosses which river?

The Neretva flows beneath the Old Bridge; local divers leap about 24 m from its hump-backed span, and Mostar takes its name from the mostari, the bridge-keepers.

Which Bosnian-born author of The Bridge on the Drina won the 1961 Nobel Prize in Literature?

Ivo Andrić, born near Travnik in 1892, wrote The Bridge on the Drina while living quietly in occupied Belgrade during World War II and received the Nobel Prize in 1961.

Which Sarajevo-born director won the Palme d'Or twice, including for Underground?

Emir Kusturica, born in Sarajevo in 1954, won the Palme d'Or for When Father Was Away on Business in 1985 and again for Underground, plus Best Director at Cannes for Time of the Gypsies.

Danis Tanović's 2001 film No Man's Land won Bosnia and Herzegovina its first what?

No Man's Land won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 2002, the country's first Oscar; the trench-bound dark comedy also took the Golden Globe in the same category.

The Sarajevo Film Festival was founded in which unusual circumstances?

Its top prize is called the Heart of Sarajevo.

Ćevapi, the grilled minced-meat national dish, are traditionally served in what?

Ćevapi are tucked into somun, a soft flatbread also called lepinja, with chopped raw onion and often a dollop of kajmak; Sarajevo's version is made from beef.

Bosnian coffee is traditionally brewed and served in what long-handled pot?

A džezva is the long-handled copper pot in which the coffee is boiled and then brought to the table; it is served with a sugar cube and a piece of rahat lokum.

Sarajevo's old bazaar, founded in the 15th century, is called what?

Baščaršija, the Ottoman bazaar laid out by Isa-beg Ishaković, is the heart of old Sarajevo; legend says anyone who drinks from its wooden Sebilj fountain will one day return to the city.

Bosnia's highest peak, Maglić, at 2,386 m, lies on the border with which country?

Maglić rises on the border with Montenegro inside Sutjeska National Park, the country's oldest national park, established in 1962.

Perućica, in Sutjeska National Park, is one of Europe's few remaining what?

Perućica is one of Europe's few primeval forests, never logged, with trees over 300 years old and more than 50 m tall; the Skakavac waterfall drops about 75 m inside it.

Which medieval tombstones, some 70,000 across the country, were added to the World Heritage List in 2016?

Stećci are the carved medieval tombstones of the western Balkans; 20 of the 28 necropolises inscribed in 2016 lie in Bosnia, the best-preserved being Radimlja near Stolac.

Who was crowned the first King of Bosnia in 1377?

Tvrtko I, a Kotromanić, was crowned in 1377 as king of Serbia and Bosnia, claiming the Serbian crown through his Nemanjić grandmother, and ruled until his death in 1391.

The Ottoman Empire conquered the Kingdom of Bosnia in which year?

In 1463 Mehmed the Conqueror's army overran the kingdom and beheaded its last king, Stjepan Tomašević; four centuries of Ottoman rule followed, bringing Islam to Bosnia.

Which empire took over Bosnia's administration at the 1878 Congress of Berlin, then annexed it in 1908?

Austria-Hungary was handed the occupation and administration of Bosnia at Berlin in 1878 and annexed it outright in October 1908, a crisis that inflamed Serbian nationalism.

The name Herzegovina derives from the German word for what?

Herzegovina means the duke's land: herceg, from the German Herzog (duke), was the title a 15th-century magnate of Hum adopted in 1448, and the region kept his rank as its name.

Which Bosniak politician was president during the 1992-95 war and signed the Dayton Agreement?

Alija Izetbegović, who founded the Party of Democratic Action in 1990 and had been jailed under Yugoslavia in 1983 over his Islamic Declaration, led the wartime presidency and signed Dayton for Bosnia.

Which country did Bosnia and Herzegovina beat for its first World Cup finals win, in 2014?

Bosnia beat Iran 3–1 in Salvador on 25 June 2014, its third and final group game at its first World Cup; the team had already been eliminated after losing to Argentina and Nigeria.

Which striker, nicknamed the "Bosnian Diamond", is the national team's all-time top scorer?

Edin Džeko, the 'Bosnian Diamond', passed 60 international goals; he scored four for Manchester City at Tottenham in August 2011 and topped Serie A scoring with Roma in 2016–17.

Which club, led by Mirza Delibašić, won basketball's 1979 European Champions Cup?

Bosna of Sarajevo beat Emerson Varese 96–93 in the 1979 final in Grenoble; Mirza Delibašić was later named among FIBA's 50 greatest players.

Six children in which Herzegovinian village have claimed Marian apparitions since 1981?

Medjugorje's apparitions were first reported on 24 June 1981; the Vatican authorised official pilgrimages in May 2019 without ruling that the apparitions are authentic.

The Sarajevo Haggadah, kept in the National Museum, is a 14th-century illuminated manuscript from where?

The Haggadah was made in Spain, probably around Barcelona, about 1350; museum librarian Derviš Korkut hid it from the Nazis in 1942, and a Spanish museum had it insured for $7 million in 1992.

Which town, last capital of medieval Bosnia, hosted the 1943 AVNOJ session that laid the basis for Tito's Yugoslavia?

Jajce, seat of the last Bosnian kings, hosted the second AVNOJ session on 29 November 1943; it is also famous for the waterfall where the Pliva drops into the Vrbas.

Which Bosnian city opened artificial salt lakes in its central park in 2003?

Tuzla's Pannonian Lakes, artificial salt-water pools opened in 2003, echo the city's name, which comes from the Turkish tuz, salt; the brine beneath the city has been worked for many centuries.

Semir Osmanagić claims hills near which town are the world's largest ancient pyramids?

Visoko's 'Pyramid of the Sun' is the hill Visočica; geologists say it and its neighbours are natural flatirons, yet Osmanagić's claims, first made in 2005, draw a steady stream of New Age tourists.

Sevdalinka, Bosnia's traditional urban folk music, takes its name from a Turkish word meaning what?

Sevdah comes from the Turkish sevda, a love-sick longing or melancholy, itself from the Arabic sawda, black bile; the songs are slow laments of unrequited love, often sung to saz or accordion.

A 16th-century Dervish tekke stands where which river springs from a cave near Mostar?

The Blagaj Tekke, a Dervish house built in the 16th century, stands beneath a cliff at Vrelo Bune, where the Buna river gushes from a cave about 12 km from Mostar.

Bosnia's independence referendum of 29 February-1 March 1992 was boycotted by which group?

Most Bosnian Serbs stayed away on the advice of the SDS, so turnout was 63.4% and 99.7% of votes cast were yes; war began within weeks.

Bosnia's national dish Bosanski lonac is what?

Bosanski lonac is a slow-cooked stew of layered chunks of meat and whole vegetables, traditionally simmered for hours in a tall earthenware pot over an open fire.

Bosnia and Herzegovina became an official candidate for membership of which organisation in 2022?

The European Union granted Bosnia and Herzegovina candidate status in December 2022, more than six years after the country applied in February 2016.

The name Bosnia is believed to derive from what?

The river Bosna flows north through the country's heartland for some 270 km; philologist Anton Mayer traced the river's own name to an Illyrian root meaning running water.

Which river forms most of Bosnia and Herzegovina's northern border?

The Sava, a Danube tributary, runs along almost the whole northern frontier past Bosanski Brod and Šamac; the Una marks much of the north-west and the Drina the east.

How many cantons make up the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina entity?

The Federation is divided into 10 cantons, each with its own government and assembly; the other entity has no cantons and is divided directly into municipalities.

The Badanj Cave near Stolac has one of the oldest known cave engravings, believed to show what?

The Badanj engraving, dated to roughly 13,000–12,000 BC, shows a horse being attacked by arrows, carved into a rock block near the cave entrance.

How long does each member of the three-person Presidency serve as its rotating chair?

The chair rotates every eight months, so each member chairs twice during the four-year term, an arrangement laid down in the Dayton constitution.

In which event did Bosnian athlete Amel Tuka win World Championship bronze in 2015 and silver in 2019?

Amel Tuka ran the 800 metres, taking bronze at the 2015 World Championships in Beijing and silver in Doha in 2019; his best of 1:42.51 came in Monaco in 2015.

Which newspaper, founded in 1943, is one of the country's longest continuously running?

Oslobođenje, whose name means Liberation, was founded by Partisans on 30 August 1943 and famously kept printing every day of the siege from its shattered headquarters.

Which Roman historian called the Bellum Batonianum, in modern Bosnia, Rome's hardest war since the Punic Wars?

Suetonius, in his Life of Tiberius, called the Illyrian revolt of AD 6–9 the gravest foreign war since the Punic Wars; Rome's first clash with the Illyrians had come in 229 BC.

Which 15th-century magnate's title, Herceg of Hum and the Coast, gave Herzegovina its name?

Stjepan Vukčić Kosača styled himself herceg from 1448; Hum, the earlier Zachlumia, was the medieval principality he ruled from his fortress at Blagaj.