A gallery about Srebrenica, not the siege of Sarajevo
Gallery 11/07/95 sits in central Sarajevo, a short walk from Baščaršija, and it covers one specific event: the genocide committed at Srebrenica in July 1995, in which more than 8,000 Bosniak men and boys were killed after the town — declared a UN “safe area” — fell to Bosnian Serb forces. The gallery takes its name directly from the date, 11 July, when the killing began.
It’s worth being precise about what this is and isn’t. Sarajevo’s own defining ordeal was the siege of the city, which ran for 1,425 days between April 1992 and February 1996 and is documented elsewhere — at the Historical Museum, along the former Sniper Alley, and at the Tunnel of Hope. Srebrenica was a separate event, a genocide under international law, that happened 140 km east of Sarajevo. Gallery 11/07/95 exists specifically to keep that history visible in the capital, for people who may never make the trip east to see where it happened.
What’s inside
The gallery is small — a single set of rooms, not a sprawling museum — built around photography by Tarik Samarah, who spent years documenting the aftermath of the genocide: exhumations, the identification of remains through DNA analysis, the reburials at Potočari each 11 July, and the lives of survivors afterward. Video testimony from survivors and family members runs alongside the images. There’s little curatorial distance built in — no long historical preamble, no interactive displays — the material is presented directly, dated and captioned, and left to stand on its own.
This is worth knowing before you go in: the photographs are unflinching, and many visitors find the experience difficult. That’s not a reason to skip it, but it’s a reason to go in without expecting a gentle introduction, and without planning to move straight on to something lighter immediately afterward.
The facts, briefly
The Srebrenica genocide took place in July 1995, in and around a town that had been designated a UN-protected “safe area” three years into the Bosnian War. When Bosnian Serb forces took the town, more than 8,000 Bosniak men and boys were separated from women and children and killed over the following days. It is recognised as a genocide by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia and the International Court of Justice. The identification of victims, largely through DNA matching of remains recovered from mass graves, continued for decades afterward and is still not entirely complete.
None of this overlaps with the siege of Sarajevo, which was a separate, longer ordeal affecting a different city, with a different death toll and different mechanics — sniper fire and shelling into a besieged capital, rather than the mass killing of a captured population. Treating the two as one story flattens both. Gallery 11/07/95 is precise about which one it’s telling.
Where it is and how to visit
The gallery is easy to combine with an afternoon in the old town: it’s roughly 600 metres, an 8-minute walk, from the Sebilj at the heart of Baščaršija, and within easy reach on foot of most central Sarajevo accommodation. No car, tour booking, or advance planning is required — you can simply walk in during opening hours.
Entry is inexpensive, typically in the 10-15 KM range (roughly 5-7.50 EUR), broadly in line with what you’d pay at Sarajevo’s other single-subject museums, such as the War Childhood Museum or Vijećnica. Budget 45 minutes to an hour for the visit itself. There’s no café or shop attached — it’s a place to see the material and leave, not to spend a half-day.
| Gallery 11/07/95 (Sarajevo) | Srebrenica-Potočari Memorial Center | |
|---|---|---|
| Location | Central Sarajevo, near Baščaršija | Potočari, near Srebrenica, 140 km from Sarajevo |
| Travel time | On foot from the city centre | 2.5-3 hours by road |
| What’s there | Photography and video testimony | The memorial cemetery and wall of names, the former UN base, a documentary film |
| Typical visit | 45 minutes to 1 hour | Half a day, including travel |
| Best for | Those who can’t make the trip east, or want context first | Those who want to see the place itself |
Potočari, for those who can go further
The gallery is a starting point, not a substitute. The Srebrenica-Potočari Memorial Center sits on the site itself, 140 km from Sarajevo and around 2.5 to 3 hours away by road. It holds the cemetery and memorial wall bearing the names of the identified victims, opposite the former UN compound where Dutch peacekeepers were stationed in July 1995.
Visiting it is a different, longer undertaking than a stop at the Sarajevo gallery — most people treat it as most of a day, including the drive there and back — and it calls for the same sobriety: no photo requests of strangers, no rushing through, dressing and behaving as you would at any cemetery. If your schedule allows for it, going is the fuller way to understand what the gallery documents; if it doesn’t, the gallery is not a lesser way to engage with the same history, just a shorter one.
For anyone planning that trip, our Srebrenica memorial visiting guide covers transport, timing and what to expect on site, and a Srebrenica day trip can be built around it from Sarajevo.
How this fits into Sarajevo’s other history sites
Sarajevo carries a lot of twentieth-century history in a small area, and it’s easy to conflate sites that actually cover different things. A rough map of what’s what:
- The siege of Sarajevo (1992-1996) — Historical Museum, the former Sniper Alley, the Tunnel of Hope.
- The Srebrenica genocide (July 1995) — Gallery 11/07/95, and the Srebrenica-Potočari Memorial Center itself.
- Sarajevo 1914 — the Latin Bridge and the museum on its corner, covering the assassination that set off the First World War.
- Wartime childhood specifically — the War Childhood Museum, built from objects and testimony of people who were children during the 1990s conflict.
- The National Museum, which predates and postdates all of this, covering archaeology and natural history alongside the Sarajevo Haggadah.
Our guide comparing Sarajevo’s war museums sets these out in more detail if you’re trying to decide which to prioritise with limited time, and visiting Sarajevo respectfully is worth reading before any of them — including Gallery 11/07/95.
Getting the wider context
If the history here is new to you, it helps to have some background before or after visiting. Our guide to the Bosnian War for visitors lays out the basic chronology without assuming prior knowledge, and why Sarajevo isn’t a museum is a useful corrective if you’re arriving expecting the city to feel defined by its 1990s history rather than lived-in and ordinary, which it mostly is.
Several guided tours in Sarajevo build in this kind of context alongside the standard sights. The Rise and Fall of Yugoslavia tour walks through the twentieth-century history that leads up to and beyond the 1990s war, which is useful groundwork if Gallery 11/07/95 is your first stop into this material.
For a broader first orientation to the city that takes in the old town and the sites tied to 1914 and the war years, the Bentbaša guided walking tour covers a good stretch of central Sarajevo on foot. And for visitors who want the Tunnel of Hope included alongside a wider ride through the city, the guided bike tour with Tunnel of Hope entry pairs cycling with a stop at one of the siege-era sites.
None of these tours currently include Gallery 11/07/95 itself on their route — it’s a self-guided visit, walked in during opening hours — but they’re useful for the surrounding history if you want it before or after.
Planning around it
Gallery 11/07/95 doesn’t need its own half-day. Most visitors fold it into a morning or afternoon that also covers Baščaršija, the Sebilj, and one or two of the nearby faith sites or museums. If you’re building a full day around Sarajevo’s twentieth-century history, our one-day Sarajevo guide and three-day Sarajevo guide both have room to place it, and the Bosnia history week itinerary sets out a longer route that includes both this gallery and the trip to Potočari.
There’s no need to time your visit around dates or anniversaries. The gallery is open through the year, indoors, and unaffected by Sarajevo’s winter smog or summer heat — one of the more straightforward stops to schedule on a Sarajevo itinerary, even if the content itself asks more of you than most.
