58 Fun Facts About Bosnia and Herzegovina

Bosnia and Herzegovina shares land borders with which three countries?

Croatia, Serbia and Montenegro are its only neighbours: Croatia wraps around the north, west and south, and Montenegro became a separate neighbour only in 2006, when it left its union with Serbia.

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 Adriatic coast?

Neum is the only town on the coast, and its strip of shore cuts Croatia's Dubrovnik region off from the rest of Croatia, so in 2022 Croatia opened the Pelješac Bridge to bypass it.

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

Archduke Franz Ferdinand had survived a grenade thrown at his motorcade that morning; then his driver, never told of a route change, turned into a side street and stalled in front of Gavrilo Princip, who shot him and his wife.

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

He was too young, at 19: the law barred the death penalty for anyone under 20 on the day of the crime, so 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 of the 1914 Sarajevo assassination?

The Latin Bridge stands beside the corner where Princip fired; Yugoslav authorities renamed it Princip's Bridge in his honour, and the old name returned after the Yugoslav wars.

Torvill and Dean skated to what for gold at Sarajevo's 1984 Olympics?

Boléro could not be cut short enough for the time limit, so Torvill and Dean began on their knees: the clock started only when a skate blade touched the ice. All nine judges then gave them 6.0 for artistic impression.

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 it was the longest blockade of a capital in modern warfare, outlasting Leningrad's by more than a year, as Bosnian Serb forces dug into the surrounding hills shelled and sniped at the city below.

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 concrete filled with red resin, each one marking a spot where a shell killed people during the fighting of the 1990s.

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

Ohio's Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, outside Dayton, was picked to stop the delegations negotiating through the media; after three weeks shut in there, they initialled the accord, later signed formally in Paris.

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

Republika Srpska holds 49% of the country and the Federation 51%; the line between them mostly follows the front lines where the armies stood when the fighting stopped in 1995.

Which court ruled in 2009 that Bosnia's presidency rules discriminate against Jews and Roma?

The European Court of Human Rights backed Dervo Sejdić, who is Roma, and Jakob Finci, who is Jewish: both were barred from standing because the presidency's seats are reserved for a Bosniak, a Croat and a Serb.

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, gained the Bonn Powers in December 1997; holders have since sacked a sitting member of the country's presidency twice, in 2001 and in 2005.

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

Brčko was carved out by international arbitrators in March 1999 and placed under an American supervisor; the district 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 houses the entity's government and parliament, which makes it the capital in practice, although the entity's own constitution names Sarajevo as its capital.

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?

Its three constituent peoples, Bosniaks, Croats and Serbs, get a point each, and the triangle roughly traces the country's outline; the stars are cut off at top and bottom to suggest a row that never ends.

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; when the euro replaced the German currency, the peg simply carried over at the old rate of 1.95583 KM to the euro.

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

Croatian Defence Council (HVO) shelling brought the bridge down on 9 November 1993, after more than four centuries; divers raised original stones from the river for the rebuilding, and it reopened in 2004.

Mostar's Old Bridge crosses which river?

The Neretva flows beneath the Old Bridge, where local divers leap from the hump-backed span into the cold water; Mostar takes its name from the mostari, the keepers who guarded the bridge.

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 won the Palme d'Or for When Father Was Away on Business in 1985 and for Underground in 1995; he later built a wooden village, Drvengrad, in Serbia as a film set and made it his home.

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, beating France's Amélie; the dark comedy about enemy soldiers stuck in one trench also took the Golden Globe.

Which annual Sarajevo event, launched in 1995 while the city was still surrounded, awards the Heart of Sarajevo?

A film festival: the Obala Art Centre launched the Sarajevo Film Festival near the end of the four-year siege, to help rebuild civil society and keep the city's cosmopolitan spirit alive.

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

A flatbread called somun or lepinja holds the ćevapi, along with raw onion and often kajmak; the dish is an Ottoman legacy, and even its name comes from the Turkish kebap.

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

A džezva is the long-handled pot the coffee is boiled in and carried to the table; unlike the Turkish method, the water is boiled first and a little set aside, then poured back in once the coffee is added.

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 straddles the border with Montenegro inside Sutjeska National Park; its Bosnian summit is the roof of the country, yet a twin peak just across the line stands slightly higher.

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

Primeval forests are rare in Europe: Perućica, a strict reserve since 1952, has never been logged, its beeches and spruces stand for some 300 years, and visitors may explore it only with park rangers.

Stećci, found across Bosnia and World Heritage-listed since 2016, are carved medieval what?

Tombstones: stećci crossed church lines, since Orthodox, Catholic and Bosnian Church communities all buried their dead under them, and 28 graveyards in four countries share the listing.

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.

What became of Bosnia's last king after he surrendered to the Ottomans in 1463?

Executed: the Ottoman commander who took Stjepan Tomašević's surrender had promised to spare his life, but Sultan Mehmed II soon had the king put to death all the same.

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', has scored more than 60 times for his country, yet Sarajevo's Željezničar thought him lanky and clumsy and sold him to a Czech club for just €25,000.

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

Bosna of Sarajevo reached Yugoslavia's top division only in 1972, the year Mirza Delibašić joined; seven years later it beat Italy's Emerson Varese 96–93 in Grenoble to become champion of Europe.

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, a treasured Jewish manuscript in the National Museum, was made in which country around 1350?

Spain: it was probably made around Barcelona and is thought to have left with Jews expelled in 1492; in 1942 librarian Derviš Korkut hid it from a Nazi general, by his widow's account in a village mosque.

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

Jajce hosted the second AVNOJ session on 29 November 1943, where delegates resolved to rebuild Yugoslavia as a federation and barred King Peter II from returning until the people had decided on the monarchy.

Which Bosnian city has built artificial salt lakes in its centre?

Tuzla's Pannonian Lakes are artificial salt-water lakes in the middle of town; they echo the city's name, from the Turkish tuz, salt, for the rock-salt deposits beneath it that have been worked for centuries.

Since 2005, businessman Semir Osmanagić has claimed that hills near Visoko are giant ancient what?

Pyramids, he says, the largest on Earth; geologists who studied the hills call them natural formations known as flatirons, yet the claim has turned Visoko into a New Age tourist draw.

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.

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 just under two-thirds of voters turned out and almost every vote cast was for independence; 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 candidate status in December 2022, almost seven years after Bosnia applied in February 2016; in March 2024 EU leaders agreed in principle to open membership talks.

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

The Sava traces the northern frontier for more than 300 km and gathers the Una, the Vrbas and the Drina on the way, so most Bosnian rivers end up in the Danube, which it joins at Belgrade.

The Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina entity is divided into ten what?

Cantons grew out of the 1994 Washington Agreement, when American pressure got Bosniaks and Croats to stop fighting each other and join their territory in one federation, governed at central and cantonal level.

The Badanj Cave engraving near Stolac, among the oldest artworks found in Bosnia, is believed to show which animal?

A horse: the Ice Age carving, found in 1976 on a polished stone block, shows the animal struck by arrows, and only its hindquarters survive because the rest of the block was damaged.

Which member takes the first turn when Bosnia's collective Presidency rotates its chair every eight months?

The one with the most votes chairs first, and the post then passes round every eight months, so each member leads twice in a four-year term.

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

800 metres: Amel Tuka left Bosnia in 2013 to train in Verona, and two years later ran 1:42.51 in Monaco, the fastest 800 in the world that year, weeks before his Beijing bronze, Bosnia's first World Championships medal.

Which Bosnian newspaper, founded by Partisans in 1943, is among the country's longest-running dailies?

Oslobođenje, whose name means Liberation, kept publishing through the siege of Sarajevo from a bomb shelter after shelling reduced its ten-storey headquarters to rubble.

Which future Roman emperor crushed the great revolt of AD 6–9 that began in what is now central Bosnia?

Tiberius needed three years to end it; the rising began when local men Rome had mustered to fight in Germany saw their own strength and turned on Rome instead.

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

Stjepan Vukčić Kosača took the title herceg in 1448, and after the Ottomans conquered his lands they named the province for it; the Adriatic town of Herceg Novi carries his title too.