Tito Museum
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A small privately run museum in Sarajevo that is full of Tito worship and Yugoslavia memorabilia. It’s unabashedly retro-nostalgic and as such quite entertaining, even for non-ex-Yugoslavs, but not particularly enlightening and only slightly dark in some parts.
More background info: in general see under Bosnia and Herzegovina, Yugoslavia and also cf. Tito mausoleum, Brioni and Skopje.
I have not been able to find any background info about Sarajevo’s Tito Museum, other than it’s a private museum. But when it was established, who created it and who runs it all remains a mystery, and the museum’s own website is silent on these points too, it only offers practical information and tons of photos.
What there is to see: When you’ve found the entrance, note the old Yugoslavia flag on the door with its red star. Here the museum also spells out its name more comprehensively as “Museum Tito – Sarajevo – Yugoslavia”. And indeed it’s generally about life in Sarajevo during the Yugoslav and Tito-era, not just about the big man himself.
To get in you have to use the automatic ticket machine, press a button and hold a credit card or electronic payment system on a smartphone over the scanner. There is no cash payment alternative and the museum is unstaffed (just like the Ratni Muzej, which at least accepts cash in exact change, though).
Inside there are just three smallish rooms in what must once have been a cramped apartment. Yet while the space is pretty limited (I would guess less than 30 square metres), it is filled to the brim with all manner of stuff.
Tito is given pride of place at the far wall of the first proper exhibition room – indeed it’s a veritable Tito shrine, with lots of portraits of the man, some busts too, and copies of books Tito penned or that were written about him. Yugoslav flags galore accompany all this. There are also video screens showing footage of Tito as well as partisan battles, movie excerpts and suchlike.
Labels are all in Serbo-Croat and English, and rather minimal. There are no text panels providing any information. Instead visitors are encouraged to use their smartphones to access more info via the countless QR codes dotted everywhere around the museum. I did not use them there and then but instead took photos in order to be able to access the content later in my own time at home. So it was only then that I realized that most of these QR codes merely lead to entries on Wikipedia or to YouTube videos. Hardly any lead to original content.
On the floor in the first main room is a laminated poster showing the flags and coats of arms of all six of the constituent parts of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (to give Tito’s former state its full official name), namely Croatia, Serbia, Slovenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Macedonia and Montenegro, plus the flag and coat of arms of Yugoslavia as such. Note that back then most federal states used the Yugoslav flag and only had separate coats of arms.
The walls of the museum are lined with display cabinets and furniture, all full of artefacts, documents, medals and whatnot) and where there’s wall space this is plastered with posters, photos, documents, magazines and various objects. So the exhibition very much has a jumble-room atmosphere.
Topically, various themes are covered: apart from Tito, obviously, also the communist party, pioneers, Yugoslav film, music, literature, everyday life, but also the military. Yugoslav-era products galore are on display too, from food items, bottles, jars, packets of more or less (un-)identifiable contents, to cosmetics and washing powder. In a side room stands a Yugoslav-era washing machine, and there are also two tube TV sets.
Much space is devoted to the 1984 Winter Olympics in Sarajevo, and on display are postcards, brochures and suchlike, and the Games’ mascot “Vućko” (‘wolfie’) appears in many forms, including as a soft toy and even as a tapestry.
There’s also a tapestry of the grand partisan monument of Kozara, as well as a scale model of it.
Yugoslav-era industrial products, including the home-built “Yugo” cars, are celebrated, as is the former Yugoslav national airline. Yugoslavia as a tourist destination is covered too, with old glossy brochures, postcards and touring maps.
On one wall are pieces of Yugoslav-era wallpaper patterns – in the same somewhat depressing style that was also characteristic of the GDR and other socialist states.
There is much more still, but these examples and general characteristics shall have to suffice for an overview here.
All in all, this museum can serve as an entertainingly nostalgic retro add-on to a dark-tourism itinerary of Sarajevo, but I would not say it’s a must-see core part of the city’s portfolio of attractions.
Location: a bit hidden inside a flat in the back of a tenement house off the main pedestrian Sarajevo city centre street Ferhadija (at No. 13), but it’s well signposted.
Google Maps locator: [43.8590, 18.4243]
Access and costs: not hard to find; not too expensive – but not cheap either, for what you get.
Details: There’s a colourful sign for the museum on the main pedestrianized street (Ferhadija) through the Habsburg-era part of the city centre; this takes you inside a tenement house and the museum is right in the back, but it’s well signposted.
Opening times: daily from 9 a.m. to 10 p.m.
Admission: 10 KM, which is not too steep, but also not cheap, given the small size of the museum. Note that the museum is not staffed (they rely on CCTV for security) and that payment at the ticket machine is by card only. No cash.
Time required: I spent only about half an hour in this museum, but I did not follow all those QR codes dotted around the rooms through which you could access more information – I only took photos of them in order to be able to peruse that content in my own time at home later. If you decide to follow them all there and then you can probably spend hours in this museum.
Combinations with other dark destinations: in general see under Sarajevo.
If your appetite for Tito nostalgia has still not been satisfied after this museum you could head to the Tito Cafe adjacent to the Modern History Museum. The museum also has sections about Tito’s partisans and the general resistance fight against fascism/Nazism.
