Bosnia, from the Una to Sarajevo

A road of rivers

This trip crosses Bosnia from west to east, almost always beside a river. It starts on the Una, emerald green, between cliffs and forests. In Bihać, it flows past the foot of the old town; downstream, Ostrožac Castle and the fortress of Bosanska Krupa look down on it.

To the south, Una National Park gets far fewer visitors than Plitvice, on the other side of the border. At Štrbački buk, the river drops about 25 metres in a series of falls. Further on, the fortress of Ostrovica stands above Kulen Vakuf, and at Martin Brod, the Unac joins the Una among mills and waterfalls. You can swim there, or raft down the river.

The road then climbs onto plateaus of meadows and beech woods, passes through Ključ, runs along Lake Balkana and reaches Jajce by the Pliva lakes. Next comes Travnik, once the town of the viziers, then Sarajevo, after a stop at the source of the Bosna.

The fortress stands above the old town. Just below it, the catacombs are a church cut into the rock. According to tradition, Duke Hrvoje Vukčić, the town’s founder, wanted to be buried there.

On 29 November 1943, Jajce hosted the second session of AVNOJ, the assembly of Tito’s Partisans. There, it decided that post-war Yugoslavia would be a federation. The hall is now a museum.

Water and limestone

The whole region is karst: a limestone landscape that the rain dissolves, full of caves and underground rivers. The water comes back up all at once, in large springs: the Krušnica near Bosanska Krupa, Plava voda below Travnik’s fortress, the source of the Bosna at Ilidža. Filtered by the rock, it is very clear.

This water leaves some of its lime on the mosses. Little by little, a porous rock forms, tufa, which blocks the river in steps. Here, the water builds its own dams. You can see it at Štrbački buk, at Martin Brod, on the Pliva and at Plitvice. These barriers are fragile: don’t walk on them, and only swim in the permitted areas.

What not to miss

1. 1Štrbački bukThe biggest waterfall on the Una, about 25 metres in steps.
2. 2Martin BrodWhere the Unac meets the Una, with its waterfalls and the Orthodox monastery of Rmanj.
3. 3The Pliva watermillsAbout twenty small wooden watermills, the Mlinčići, on stilts between the two Pliva lakes.
4. 4TravnikOnce the town of the viziers, with its painted mosque and its fortress; Ivo Andrić, winner of the 1961 Nobel Prize, was born here.
5. 5The Tunnel of HopeDug in 1993 under the airport runway, it linked besieged Sarajevo to the rest of the country; you can walk about twenty metres of it.
6. 6Baščaršija and the Latin BridgeSarajevo’s old bazaar, founded around 1462, and a short walk away the bridge near which Franz Ferdinand was assassinated on 28 June 1914.

Bosnia in pictures

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Travnik: red roofs, minarets, clock tower and the fortress on the hill.

The Bosnian table

Beside the Una, you eat grilled trout. Bakeries sell meat burek and pite filled with cheese or spinach. In Travnik and Sarajevo, ćevapi, small grilled sausages, are served in a flatbread, the somun.

On Mount Vlašić, above Travnik, they make Travnik cheese, a white cheese kept in brine. For dessert, tufahija is a poached apple stuffed with walnuts. In Baščaršija, Bosnian coffee is served in a small copper pot, the džezva, with a piece of Turkish delight.