Sarajevo

Sarajevo

Sarajevo , city (1991 est. pop. 529,000), capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina, on the Miljacka River. An important industrial and railway center, its industries include food and tobacco processing and furniture manufacturing. Lignite and iron ore are mined nearby. The city is the seat of an Orthodox Eastern metropolitan, a Roman Catholic archbishop, and the chief ulema of Bosnia's Muslims, who constituted about 50% of the population before the city was torn apart by war in 1992. Sarajevo has a university (founded in 1946), several Muslim seminaries, and various institutes of higher education. It is noted for its Muslim architecture, including its Turkish marketplace and more than 100 mosques, the most important one dating from 1450.

Founded in 1263, Sarajevo, then a citadel known as Vrh-Bosna, fell to the Turks in 1429 and was renamed Bosna-Saraj, or Bosna-Seraj. The town established around the citadel became an important Turkish military and commercial center and reached the peak of its prosperity in the 16th cent. The Congress of Berlin (1878) gave Sarajevo and the rest of Bosnia and Herzegovina to Austria-Hungary, where it remained until its incorporation in 1918 into Yugoslavia. The city was a center of the Serbian nationalist movement. The assassination in Sarajevo of Archduke Francis Ferdinand and his wife on June 28, 1914, was an immediate cause of World War I. Sarajevo was the scene of several important battles between Allied resistance fighters and the Germans in World War II, during which the city sustained considerable damage. In 1984 the city was host to the Winter Olympics.

Bosnia and Herzegovina declared its independence from Yugoslavia in Oct., 1991. Immediately following the international recognition of the republic's independence in Apr., 1992, the country's Serbs and Croats, backed respectively by Serbia and Croatia, began to claim large chunks of the country's territory. Sarajevo, though remaining largely under Bosnian government control, was under siege from Serbs in the surrounding hills and suburbs until 1996. The city sustained considerable damage to its infrastructure due to shelling, and many residents were killed. As the fighting ended and government control was reestablished (1996) over the city and suburbs, large numbers of Serbs fled. The damaged Oslobodenje newspaper tower is preserved as a memorial to the civil war.

Show all research tools

Cite this article
Pick a style below, and copy the text for your bibliography.

  • MLA
  • Chicago
  • APA

"Sarajevo." The Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th ed.. 2008. Encyclopedia.com. 11 Feb. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>.

"Sarajevo." The Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th ed.. 2008. Encyclopedia.com. (February 11, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1E1-Sarajevo.html

"Sarajevo." The Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th ed.. 2008. Retrieved February 11, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1E1-Sarajevo.html

Learn more about citation styles

Sarajevo

Sarajevo Capital of Bosnia-Herzegovina, on the River Miljacka. It fell to the Turks in 1429, and became a flourishing commercial centre in the Ottoman Empire. Passing to the Austro-Hungarian Empire in 1878, the city was a centre of Serb and Bosnian resistance to Austrian rule. On June 28, 1914, a Serbian nationalist assassinated the Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife in the city, an act that helped to precipitate World War I. In 1991, Bosnia-Herzegovina declared independence from Yugoslavia, and a bloody civil war ensued among Croatian, Bosnian, and Serbian forces. Sarajevo became the focal point of the war between Bosnian-Serb troops and Bosnian government forces. The city lay under prolonged siege, often without water, electricity, or basic medical supplies. After the 1995 peace agreement (the Dayton Accord), it in effect became a Bosnian city, with the 1991 population figure of 526,000 drastically reduced as many Serbs fled. Pop. (2002 est.) 434,000.

Show all research tools

Cite this article
Pick a style below, and copy the text for your bibliography.

  • MLA
  • Chicago
  • APA

"Sarajevo." World Encyclopedia. 2005. Encyclopedia.com. 11 Feb. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>.

"Sarajevo." World Encyclopedia. 2005. Encyclopedia.com. (February 11, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O142-Sarajevo.html

"Sarajevo." World Encyclopedia. 2005. Retrieved February 11, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O142-Sarajevo.html

Learn more about citation styles

Sarajevo

Sarajevo The capital of Bosnia-Hercegovina, it became one of the principal centres of the Bosnian Civil War. For most of the war, it was almost totally surrounded by rebel forces of the Serb Republic of Bosnia-Hercegovina, whose government under Karadzic operated from Pale, a Serb-controlled suburb of Sarajevo. The city survived the war thanks to intervention by the UN, which organized food supplies in painstaking negotiations with the Bosnian Serbs. Its population was reduced from 415,000 in 1991 to an estimated 300,000 in 1995. The city was reunited as the capital of Bosnia-Hercegovina by the Dayton Agreement.

Show all research tools

Cite this article
Pick a style below, and copy the text for your bibliography.

  • MLA
  • Chicago
  • APA

JAN PALMOWSKI. "Sarajevo." A Dictionary of Contemporary World History. 2004. Encyclopedia.com. 11 Feb. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>.

JAN PALMOWSKI. "Sarajevo." A Dictionary of Contemporary World History. 2004. Encyclopedia.com. (February 11, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O46-Sarajevo.html

JAN PALMOWSKI. "Sarajevo." A Dictionary of Contemporary World History. 2004. Retrieved February 11, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O46-Sarajevo.html

Learn more about citation styles

Sarajevo

Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina Vrhbosna, Bosna Saray The Slavs built a castle on a vrh ‘summit’ to the east with bosna the name of the river. This was captured by the Ottoman Turks in 1428 and they built the present city in 1462–89. Among the Turkish buildings was a saray ‘palace’ or ‘seraglio’. Sarajevo takes its name from saray‐ovasi ‘the fields around the palace’ or ‘palace forecourt’. It became the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1850.

Show all research tools

Cite this article
Pick a style below, and copy the text for your bibliography.

  • MLA
  • Chicago
  • APA

JOHN EVERETT-HEATH. "Sarajevo." Concise Dictionary of World Place-Names. 2005. Encyclopedia.com. 11 Feb. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>.

JOHN EVERETT-HEATH. "Sarajevo." Concise Dictionary of World Place-Names. 2005. Encyclopedia.com. (February 11, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O209-Sarajevo.html

JOHN EVERETT-HEATH. "Sarajevo." Concise Dictionary of World Place-Names. 2005. Retrieved February 11, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O209-Sarajevo.html

Learn more about citation styles

Sarajevo

Sarajevo the capital of Bosnia–Herzegovina, which was taken by the Austro-Hungarians in 1878, and which became a centre of Slav opposition to Austrian rule. It was the scene in June 1914 of the assassination by a Bosnian Serb named Gavrilo Princip of Archduke Franz Ferdinand (1863–1914), the heir to the Austrian throne, an event which triggered the outbreak of the First World War.

Show all research tools

Cite this article
Pick a style below, and copy the text for your bibliography.

  • MLA
  • Chicago
  • APA

ELIZABETH KNOWLES. "Sarajevo." The Oxford Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. 2006. Encyclopedia.com. 11 Feb. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>.

ELIZABETH KNOWLES. "Sarajevo." The Oxford Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. 2006. Encyclopedia.com. (February 11, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O214-Sarajevo.html

ELIZABETH KNOWLES. "Sarajevo." The Oxford Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. 2006. Retrieved February 11, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O214-Sarajevo.html

Learn more about citation styles

Sarajevo

Sarajevo •salvo •arvo, bravo, centavo, multum in parvo, octavo •Sarajevo •in vivo, relievo •ab ovo, de novo, Denovo, Porto Novo, Provo •Kosovo • servo

Show all research tools

Cite this article
Pick a style below, and copy the text for your bibliography.

  • MLA
  • Chicago
  • APA

"Sarajevo." Oxford Dictionary of Rhymes. 2007. Encyclopedia.com. 11 Feb. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>.

"Sarajevo." Oxford Dictionary of Rhymes. 2007. Encyclopedia.com. (February 11, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O233-Sarajevo.html

"Sarajevo." Oxford Dictionary of Rhymes. 2007. Retrieved February 11, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O233-Sarajevo.html

Learn more about citation styles

Free newspaper and magazine articles

Hidrogradnja d.d. Sarajevo - Company Capsule.
News Wire article from: M2 Presswire; 7/4/2011
ENERGOINVEST, d.d. SARAJEVO - Company Capsule.
News Wire article from: M2 Presswire; 6/8/2011
Serbs in Sarajevo Must Decide Whether or Not to Stay
Transcript from: Morning Edition; 12/27/1995

Facts and information from other sites

Sarajevo images
Sarajevo. (Image by BloodSaric, GFDL)