Modern History Museum
- darkometer rating: 6 -
A museum in Sarajevo about the city's and Bosnia's modern history, whose main exhibition is about the Siege of Sarajevo between 1992 and 1995. More background info: in general see under Bosnia and Herzegovina and also under Sarajevo in particular.
The museum was originally founded in 1945 as the “Museum of the Revolution of Bosnia and Herzegovina” (aka “Revolution Museum” for short) and it moved into its present building in 1963 – a fine modernist cubist structure in a style inspired by Mies van der Rohe. It is recognized as one of former Yugoslavia’s foremost modernist structures (for this it recently received an award from the Getty Foundation).
The new museum’s main exhibition opened in 1966. Originally this was mostly concerned with Bosnia’s and Yugoslavia’s role in WWII and also the socialist developments afterwards. It was even presented with an award by Josip Broz Tito himself at the time.
When in 1992 the Siege of Sarajevo started, the museum found itself right on the so-called “Sniper Alley”. The building suffered some damage (especially the roof) and for safety most artefacts were moved from the upper floors and put into storage in depots.
With the break-up of Yugoslavia and the fall of communism all over Europe also came a name change for the museum. Officially it’s now called the “Historical Museum of Bosnia and Herzegovina”, but since it really is only about history from WWII to the present day I will continue to refer to it simply as the “Modern History Museum”.
The museum building was declared a National Monument in 2012.
I visited the place for the first time in 2009, when the main focus was on the Siege of Sarajevo. On my return visit in April 2025 I found the museum much changed. In particular there was a new partly open-air exhibition about the partisans’ struggles and also a before-and-after photo exhibition about wartime/post-war Sarajevo. The exhibitions on the upper floor still focused mostly on the Siege, but there was a sign by the entrance informing visitors that the exhibition was in a state of flux and undergoing a redesign. So the report below may soon become partly outdated again. Please bear that in mind.
What there is to see: Before entering, take note of the modernist architecture of the museum building (see above), then ascend the new wooden stairs (the original concrete ones have been dismantled, probably because they had become too unsafe). In the foyer is a desk where you buy your ticket and there’s also a small shop selling books and brochures (mostly in Bosnian only) and a couple of souvenirs.
The main exhibition is upstairs – and the staircase leading there features original mosaics installed in 1966 when the original predecessor, the “Museum of the Revolution”, was first opened at this location. A text panel tries to explain the symbolism intended by the artist – with the images of skulls obviously enough standing for death and war …
When I first visited this museum in 2009, the upstairs exhibition was in one single hall with displays and exhibits dotted around. This has meanwhile changed, I reckon in 2012 – going by the exhibition’s title “Sarajevo 1992-2012”. Now new thin walls divide the space into several sections. Most of them are still about the Siege of Sarajevo, but there was also a separate room with paintings, not all of which related to the Siege. Some of the images were incredibly realistic, so much so that at first I thought they were blow-ups of photos, but on inspection closer up the tiny brushstrokes were visible. Whether these paintings are a permanent feature or only temporary wasn’t quite so clear. The same goes for a cinematographic installation in yet another room.
Even the main exhibition isn’t so permanent: as a small sign by the entrance says, the exhibition is (about to be) undergoing another redesign, and an apology is added for the current “inadequate exposition” that does not tell its story “in a better way”. I saw this sign only after having gone through the exhibition and without the sign it would not really have occurred to me that it was allegedly so “inadequate”. It’s not super slick and state of the art, but I quite appreciate this. One exception is a large interactive touchscreen “media table” on which you can explore things like the timeline of diplomatic efforts that led to the Dayton Accords. The rest of the exhibition mostly relies on artefacts and traditional text-and-photo panels. All texts and labels are in Bosnian with English translations. The latter are not always perfect, but nevertheless fulfil their function well. The tone of the language here is noticeably more neutral compared to other war-related sites in the city in the city (cf. under Sarajevo >background info).
The largest exhibit is a life-size reconstruction of a family’s living space during the Siege, even including a tube TV set that is running (though I’m not sure how realistic this is). Also on display are various food items including those marked as foreign aid, such as canisters of cooking oil marked “USAid” (… when that still existed in pre-Trump times).
Other displays include a large collection of improvised stoves and ovens, drinking-water canisters and a model pump, home-made rifles, foreign journalists’ cameras and protective vests, a cardboard sign saying “Pazi Snajper” (i.e. warning of snipers), and an early Bosnian flag riddled with bullet holes, and more.
But the most captivating exhibits are the photos from the time of the siege. Here you can see the anxiety on the faces of the city's civilians as they crouch by the roadside trying to avoid sniper fire, or clamber along bridges whose road surface has been bombed away, or step over the corpses of people caught in the crossfire – as the text label points out: "death was daily 'business' in Sarajevo". The most gruesome image is one of victims of the second "Markale Massacre" – i.e. when a Serb shell tore apart dozens of people at an open-air market.
Pretty intense is also the section about the so-called “Sniper Alley”. A small section focuses on the Sarajevo War Tunnel. Less dark are also the sections about the aid efforts through the UN and the many ways in which Sarajevans became creative and ingenious in managing their survival in the absence of running water, electricity and heating.
Some display cabinets contain smaller items, including one section with packs of cigarettes. As the texts explain, cigarettes were of particular importance (and they still are in Bosnia in general to this day), not just for the smokers (i.e. almost everybody) but also as a bartering commodity. One sign almost humorously points out that Sarajevo went “down in history as the city that can endure longer without electricity than without tobacco”.
Impressive are also the sections about how schooling was continued (sometimes literally underground) as well as cultural events, including the newly founded Sarajevo Film Festival (still going strong today!) as well as the famous “Miss Sarajevo” competitions involving the banner “Don’t let them kill us”, on display on one of the walls (though I don’t think it’s the original – it seems too intact and clean for that).
The “Besieged Sarajevo” section in this museum may not be as detailed as the Sarajevo Siege Museum in the city centre, and it’s also less full of eyewitness accounts, but I thought it strikes a good balance. However, as it’s due a redesign, my account above may soon be outdated – although I would expect the artefacts on display to remain largely the same.
In addition to the main exhibition on the upper level there are also more parts of the museum downstairs and outside in the courtyard.
Along a corridor on the lower floor is a photo exhibition that contrasts before and after shots of various places within Sarajevo, with the first having been photographed in 1996, so when the war scars were pretty much everywhere, and the second having been taken in 2011 at the exact same locations, thus tracing the progress in reconstruction and renovation in the post-war years.
There’s also a room furnished in 1990s style, though its exact role remains a bit unclear. In the basement there is yet more to be seen on display, but here everything is in Bosnian only and the intended role of the displays seems a bit obscure.
In the courtyard – and partly inside the wall on the western side of it – is an extra exhibition about the Yugoslav partisans in WWII. It’s entitled “Wer ist Walter?” (‘Who is Walter?’) and is the result of an international collaboration of Bosnian, Croatian, French and German researchers and museum professionals. The title is surely a reference to Vladimir Perić whose nom de guerre was Valter and who was a partisan commander in Sarajevo at the time (where he was also killed in 1945 by a German hand grenade).
On display are various pieces of light artillery, a mortar and other hardware, a wall of anti-fascist propaganda posters from various countries as well as numerous text-and-photo panels on subjects such as the role of women in the partisan resistance, and life under occupation. Note also the statue of Josip Broz Tito in his typical posture in mid-stride, a stern facial expression and a long coat. In a farther corner of the courtyard is another Yugoslav-era statue, but this one is lying on its side. Who it depicts I do not know.
All in all, a visit to this museum is well worth it, even though I can imagine that many tourists overlook it and concentrate only on the more centrally located museums such as the dedicated Sarajevo Siege Museum. But I think the Modern History Museum’s Siege exhibition is a valuable counterpart, as it is less cluttered and has interesting artefacts not found in its other competitors. Recommended.
Google maps locator: [43.8552,18.4011]
Access and costs: fairly easy to reach, and cheap.
Details: to get to the museum from the city centre you can take a tram, lines 1, 3 or 5, which loop round the Old Town and go down the main Zmaja od Bosne boulevard (this, by the way, is the infamous "Sniper Alley"!). But it's also just about walkable from the city centre/Old Town. And if you're staying at the (in)famous Sarajevo Holiday Inn (now "Hotel Holiday", see under Sarajevo), then it's just across the road.
Admission is a mere 7 KM (ca. 3.50 EUR).
Opening times: daily 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. … this seems pretty much established now. In the past I encountered conflicting information about the opening times (e.g. at the tourist info office or online guides), including that allegedly the museum was closed on Mondays (as museums often are). To be on the safe side maybe go on another day of the week and around midday.
Admission is a mere 7 KM (ca. 3.50 EUR).
Opening times: daily 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. … this seems pretty much established now. In the past I encountered conflicting information about the opening times (e.g. at the tourist info office or online guides), including that allegedly the museum was closed on Mondays (as museums often are). To be on the safe side maybe go on another day of the week and around midday.
Time required: On my second visit in 2025 I spent just under an hour in this museum; but if you want to read absolutely everything and use the interactive screen table to the max you will need longer than that.
The most immediate competitor, as it were, is obviously the Sarajevo Siege Museum in the city centre. Both are worth visiting, the more central museum is more crammed full, even cluttered, but has more information and personal stories, almost overwhelmingly so. Being a private enterprise it’s also less neutral than the Modern History Museum endeavours to be. And on balance it is probably also darker.
Even darker is the Srebrenica 11/07/95 Gallery, which despite the specific name also has plenty of material on the Siege of Sarajevo, in particular in the form of films from/about that time that are very impressive. A must-do combination!
The Ratni Muzej, in contrast, is more missable. It’s another, but much smaller, private museum about the Sarajevo Siege and the Bosnian war, but with far less information and structure, compared to its two bigger competitors.
Obviously the Sarajevo War Tunnel and its museum elements are a worthwhile combination, and it’s possibly the most visited dark site in Sarajevo.
Right next door to the Modern History Museum, in fact partly inside a side wing of the same building, is a “Tito Café”. Inside it has plenty of photos and other images, even a bust, of Josip Broz Tito, the leader of socialist Yugoslavia from its inception to his death in 1980. This café is unabashedly Yugo-nostalgic, in a fairly entertaining way. In the open air just next to the café are a few military vehicles and pieces of artillery, slowly sinking into the ground … they don’t seem very well looked after – when I saw them for the first time in 2009 the paint on them was still looking as good as new, now they are rather faded.
And just a few steps further south stands the UN aid memorial. The latter is basically a mock-up oversized tin, namely of canned beef, and also sporting the EU ring of stars on a blue background. It is a rather ironic, if not sarcastic, monument – as the story goes that often these tins of meat were seriously past their use-by date and that the contents, even if not inedible, were notoriously evil tasting. So the "thank you" that this monument is supposed to represent has to be taken with more than just a grain of salt. As so often in Bosnia, the monument is unfortunately heavily tarnished by graffiti.
Fittingly, Sarajevo’s UN House and a local branch of WHO are just next door too, but obviously not open for tourists.
Just across the road to the east of the Modern History Museum is the National Museum, which deals with earlier periods of history, covering e.g. ancient Roman remains and the Ottoman era and also features valuable Jewish artefacts.
Otherwise the Modern History Museum is a bit off the general tourist trail, so you’d have to head back to the centre/Old Town for that.
