It is horribly ironic but also authentic that a museum such as this, badly damaged during the siege, should now house the permanent exhibtion ‘Surrounded Sarajevo’ which looks at the impact of the nearly four years of war on the city’s citizens.Downstairs is an exhibition on the history of Bosnia and Herzegovina from the earliest recorded mentions through to the Communist era but it is the upstairs that is most likely to attract and repel, move and educate the visitor to Sarajevo.
Here, in a non-partisan or judgemental fashion, the story of the siege is told through photographs and artefacts, from hand-made heating, cooking and fighting implements to aid items that came in from abroad. Most harrowing perhaps are the images of and by children, trying to live a normal childhood in the most abnormal of conditions - few visitors could fail to be moved by the bloodstained school satchels and workbooks that are the legacy of a shell-strike on a lesson in progress.
Like many cultural institutions in BiH the museum struggles for funds so the modest 4 KM entry fee you pay will do a little to help and in return provide an experience you are not likely to forget.
Permanent Exhibits: 'Sarajevo under Siege, B&H Through Centuries'.
