Kovači sits on a steep hillside terrace above Baščaršija, a short climb below the Yellow Fortress. It is a working cemetery rather than a monument built for visitors, and it reads that way: rows of white headstones set into narrow stone terraces, most of them sharing a narrow band of dates.
A cemetery opened during the siege
Kovači did not exist as a burial ground before 1992. As the siege of Sarajevo closed off access to the city’s established cemeteries — many of which lay within range of snipers and artillery on the surrounding hills — new burial ground had to be found inside the besieged perimeter. The slope below the Yellow Fortress, close to the old town and reachable without crossing exposed ground, became one of several sites pressed into use. Burials here began in 1992 and continued through the siege years.
The siege itself ran for 1,425 days, from 5 April 1992 to 29 February 1996, the longest siege of a capital city in modern warfare. Estimates put the death toll at around 11,000, including close to 1,600 children. Kovači does not hold all of that number — Sarajevo’s dead are spread across several cemeteries built or expanded during the same years — but its terraces give a physical sense of scale that a single statistic does not.
Who is buried here
Walk the rows and the pattern is immediate: headstone after headstone carries a date of death somewhere between 1992 and 1996. Names, ages and units vary; many mark defenders of the city, others civilians. The cemetery does not editorialise this fact with signage or commentary — the dates speak on their own, and that is largely how the site should be read: a record, not a narrated exhibit.
Kovači adjoins Alifakovac, the city’s much older Ottoman-era Muslim burial ground, which spreads further along the same hillside and holds centuries of Sarajevo’s dead rather than four years of it. The two are easy to conflate on a first visit because they share unbroken terraces and a single approach path, but Alifakovac’s headstones are visibly older in form and inscription, and its dates span generations rather than a single siege.
The grave of Alija Izetbegović
Among the rows lies the grave of Alija Izetbegović, the first president of independent Bosnia and Herzegovina, who led the country through the siege years and died in 2003. His grave sits within the terraced ground rather than in a separate mausoleum, marked apart from the surrounding headstones but following the same basic form. It draws a steady trickle of visitors independent of the wider cemetery, and is usually the busiest single point on the hillside, though “busy” here still means a handful of people rather than a queue.
There is no map or numbered plan for locating the grave; visitors generally find it by walking the upper terraces, where it stands somewhat apart from the denser rows of siege-era headstones below.
Layout: terraces below the Yellow Fortress
The cemetery is built in stepped terraces that follow the natural slope, connected by narrow stone paths and low retaining walls. There is no single entrance gate or perimeter fence in the way a municipal cemetery elsewhere might have — the terraces are open along most of their length, reached from several points on the path up from Kovači Street toward the fortress. Headstones follow the standard Islamic form used across Sarajevo’s Muslim cemeteries: upright white stone markers, oriented toward Mecca, most bearing a name, birth year and death year in a plain script.
Because the ground rises steeply, the higher terraces give an open view back over the old town roofs toward the Miljacka valley — the same view that draws people on to the Yellow Fortress a short distance further up.
Visiting: access and expected conduct
Kovači has no ticket booth, no opening hours and no admission charge. It can be entered and walked at any time of day; there is no barrier stopping a visit outside daylight hours, though the steep, unlit paths make daylight the practical choice.
As a functioning cemetery — not a museum or a memorial park — the expected conduct is the same as at any burial ground: quiet, unhurried movement along the paths, no picnicking or sitting on the terraces, and no loud conversation among the rows. Sarajevans visit to tend specific graves, particularly around the grave of Alija Izetbegović and family plots dating to the siege years, and the cemetery should be treated as their space first.
Getting there from Baščaršija
The most direct approach is on foot from Baščaršija, climbing through the Kovači quarter on narrow lanes that get progressively steeper toward the top. Allow 15 to 20 minutes from the Sebilj fountain at a normal walking pace, more if the cobbled sections are wet. There is no vehicle access for visitors and no bus or tram route that reaches the cemetery directly — this is a walking-only destination, and part of a wider pattern of hillside sites, including the Yellow Fortress and the White Fortress further up, that are only reachable on foot.
Good footwear matters more than it might elsewhere in the city centre: the paths are uneven stone, occasionally slick, without handrails on most stretches.
What’s nearby
| Site | Distance on foot from Kovači |
|---|---|
| Yellow Fortress | About 2 minutes |
| Alifakovac (upper viewpoint) | 5–10 minutes |
| Baščaršija (Sebilj) | 15–20 minutes |
| Latin Bridge | 20–25 minutes |
The Yellow Fortress is the natural next stop, a short continuation of the same uphill path, with an open viewpoint over the old town. Coming back down, the Latin Bridge and the Ferhadija area sit within easy walking range if the visit is being combined with a wider morning on foot, as covered in the Sarajevo in one day itinerary guide.
The siege in numbers
| Siege began | 5 April 1992 |
| Siege ended | 29 February 1996 |
| Length | 1,425 days |
| Estimated deaths | About 11,000 |
| Children among the dead | Close to 1,600 |
These figures apply to the siege as a whole, not to Kovači Cemetery specifically. For the sites that document the siege in more detail — the Tunnel of Hope, Sniper Alley, and the city’s dedicated war museums — see the separate guides linked here; Kovači itself is a burial ground, not an exhibition, and is best understood alongside those rather than in place of them.
Kovači, Alifakovac, and other Sarajevo memorials
Sarajevo holds its siege history across several distinct kinds of site, and it helps to know which is which before setting out. Kovači is a cemetery: a place of graves, with no exhibition, narration or entrance fee. The Sarajevo Roses — resin-filled mortar scars in the pavement across the city — are a different kind of marker again, scattered rather than concentrated.
Museums such as the Gallery 11/07/95 and the city’s war museums present curated exhibitions with historical context. None of these substitutes for the others, and a visitor trying to understand the siege in a single afternoon is usually better served by choosing one or two rather than attempting all of them. The guide to visiting Sarajevo’s memorial sites respectfully sets out the general expectations that apply across all of them, Kovači included.
For visitors who want the events dated and explained by a guide rather than pieced together from site to site, a small number of walking tours cover this part of the old town and the wider siege period as part of a longer route. The Rise and Fall of Yugoslavia tour traces the political history that runs through the siege years, while the Bentbasa guided walking tour passes through the streets immediately below Kovači and Alifakovac on its way through the old mahala district. Neither tour treats the cemetery as a stop with commentary — it remains a place visited independently and quietly, before or after.
Beyond Kovači: the wider hillside
The Kovači and Alifakovac terraces are part of a larger pattern of mahala neighbourhoods climbing the hills on both sides of the Miljacka valley, with steep lanes, small mosques and Ottoman-era houses reached only on foot. Visitors who enjoy this kind of walking sometimes extend it beyond the cemetery and fortress loop; the guided hike through the traditional mahala neighbourhoods covers a wider stretch of these same hillsides, and the broader Sarajevo neighbourhoods guide sets out the district boundaries for anyone planning a self-guided route.
A general Sarajevo grand walking tour typically stays lower in the old town and does not climb as far as Kovači, which is worth knowing before booking one expecting the cemetery to be included.
Anyone planning to visit Srebrenica later in the same trip will find the register of Kovači — dates without commentary, quiet and unstaged — a useful point of comparison: both sites ask the same thing of a visitor, which is simply to look and to stay quiet.
Questions about visiting Kovači Cemetery
Is Kovači Cemetery free to visit?
Yes. There is no ticket, no gate and no admission charge. The cemetery sits in the open, on the hillside below the Yellow Fortress, and can be entered at any time.
What are the opening hours of Kovači Cemetery?
It has none. As an open, unenclosed hillside cemetery it can be visited at any hour of the day; daylight makes the steep approach paths easier to manage.
Who is buried at Kovači Cemetery?
The great majority of graves belong to Sarajevo residents and defenders who died during the 1992–1996 siege. Nearly every headstone carries a date of death within that four-year span. The grave of Alija Izetbegović, the first president of independent Bosnia and Herzegovina, who died in 2003, is also here.
Where is Alija Izetbegović’s grave exactly?
It sits within the terraced rows, marked apart from the ordinary siege-era headstones and usually the busiest single point in the cemetery. There is no signage system beyond the grave marker itself; visitors generally find it by walking the upper terraces.
Why do so many headstones share dates between 1992 and 1996?
Those are the years of the siege of Sarajevo, which ran from 5 April 1992 to 29 February 1996 — 1,425 days, the longest siege of a capital city in modern warfare. Kovači was one of several sites turned over to burials as the city’s existing cemeteries filled and became unsafe to reach under fire.
Is Kovači Cemetery the same as Alifakovac?
No, though the two adjoin each other on the same hillside and are easy to conflate. Alifakovac is Sarajevo’s older Ottoman-era Muslim cemetery, with headstones spanning centuries. Kovači is the smaller, later cemetery dedicated overwhelmingly to the siege dead. A single walk up from Baščaršija can take in both.
How do I get to Kovači Cemetery from Baščaršija?
On foot, up through the Kovači quarter — a walk of roughly 15 to 20 minutes on steep, narrow lanes with no vehicle access for visitors. There is no bus or tram route that reaches the cemetery directly.
Can I combine a visit with the Yellow Fortress?
Yes, and most people do. The Yellow Fortress is about two minutes further up the same hillside path, making the two a natural single stop.
