As a historic city,

Sarajevo Sarajevo ( ), ; ''see Names of European cities in different languages (Q–T)#S, names in other languages'' is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Bosnia and Herzegovina, largest city of Bosnia and Herzegovina, with a population of 2 ...

has numerous

myth Myth is a genre of folklore consisting primarily of narratives that play a fundamental role in a society. For scholars, this is very different from the vernacular usage of the term "myth" that refers to a belief that is not true. Instead, the ...

s and

folklore Folklore is the body of expressive culture shared by a particular group of people, culture or subculture. This includes oral traditions such as Narrative, tales, myths, legends, proverbs, Poetry, poems, jokes, and other oral traditions. This also ...

. The character

Nasrudin Nasreddin () or Nasreddin Hodja (variants include Mullah Nasreddin Hodja, Nasruddin Hodja, Mullah Nasruddin, Mullah Nasriddin, Khoja Nasriddin, Khaja Nasruddin) (1208–1285) is a character commonly found in the folklores of the Muslim world, ...

Hodža is popular throughout the former lands of the

Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire (), also called the Turkish Empire, was an empire, imperial realm that controlled much of Southeast Europe, West Asia, and North Africa from the 14th to early 20th centuries; it also controlled parts of southeastern Centr ...

, and Sarajevo is no exception. Numerous stories about him dealing with the city have been written over the years. A famous piece of Sarajevo folklore is the story of the

Eastern Orthodox Eastern Orthodoxy, otherwise known as Eastern Orthodox Christianity or Byzantine Christianity, is one of the three main Branches of Christianity, branches of Chalcedonian Christianity, alongside Catholic Church, Catholicism and Protestantism ...

Church Church may refer to: Religion * Church (building), a place/building for Christian religious activities and praying * Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination * Church service, a formalized period of Christian comm ...

. It was said that when a request came to build it, authorities required that it be no higher than the tallest

minaret A minaret is a type of tower typically built into or adjacent to mosques. Minarets are generally used to project the Muslim call to prayer (''adhan'') from a muezzin, but they also served as landmarks and symbols of Islam's presence. They can h ...

in Sarajevo. A wise old man was then said to have advised that the church be built into the ground. Thus the building reached a proper height but met the restrictions. Numerous other famous bits of Sarajevo folklore survive representing many different eras of Sarajevo's history. One of the earliest is the story of the Goat's Bridge. As the story goes, an old goat herder was tending his goats by the river

Miljacka The Miljacka ( sr-Cyrl, Миљацка) is a river in Bosnia and Herzegovina that passes through Sarajevo. Numerous city bridges have been built to cross it. Characteristics The Miljacka river originates from the confluence of the Paljanska Mi ...

when one of them started ferociously digging at a certain spot of the ground. Mystified, he walked over for a closer look only to find numerous sacks of gold. With the gold, he then built a great

bridge A bridge is a structure built to Span (engineering), span a physical obstacle (such as a body of water, valley, road, or railway) without blocking the path underneath. It is constructed for the purpose of providing passage over the obstacle, whi ...

over the river that would for years be the main crossing for travelers on their way to

Istanbul Istanbul is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, constituting the country's economic, cultural, and historical heart. With Demographics of Istanbul, a population over , it is home to 18% of the Demographics ...

. Far more recent is the story of Sarajevo's Romeo and Juliet. During the Serbian siege of Sarajevo the couple of a young Serb boy and Bosniak girl decided to flee the city. They got as far as the Sniper Alley's "no man's land" before the boy was shot dead and the girl wounded by the Serbs. Rather than flee alone however, she turned to stay by her lover's side, where she too eventually died. This is not a myth; their names were Boško Brkić and Admira Ismić, and they died on the Vrbanja bridge in May 1993.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Folklore Of Sarajevo Culture in Sarajevo European folklore Slavic mythology