Sarajevo – A City at the Crossroads
Sarajevo, the capital and largest urban centre of Bosnia and Herzegovina, lies in a mountain basin along the Miljacka River, surrounded by the Dinaric Mountains. Its location and historical development have made it a distinctive meeting place of cultural and religious traditions in Southeast Europe.
The city’s urban landscape reveals successive Ottoman, Austro-Hungarian, Yugoslav and contemporary layers, still visible across its architecture and public spaces. This historical diversity gives Sarajevo a distinctive urban character within a remarkably compact setting.
Sarajevo also occupies a significant place in modern European history. The city was the setting of the 1914 assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sophie, hosted the 1984 Winter Olympic Games, and endured the 1992-1996 Siege of Sarajevo, recognised as the longest siege in modern European history. Today, as the country’s capital and an important academic and cultural centre, Sarajevo offers a particularly meaningful setting for an international conference concerned with borders, territories and cooperation.