War Childhood Museum: what to expect

A museum built from what people kept

The War Childhood Museum opened in Sarajevo in 2017, growing out of a book project that asked adults who had been children during the 1992-1996 siege to answer one question: what was war childhood for you. The answers came as short sentences and, often, as an object - a toy, a diary, a school exercise book, a pair of ice skates, a bicycle bell. The museum keeps that structure. Each display case holds one donated object next to the donor’s own words, usually a paragraph or two, sometimes a single line. There is no narrator’s voice laid over the top and no attempt to reconstruct a room or a street. You read what the person wrote, and you look at the thing they chose to give.

That format is also why the museum won the Council of Europe Museum Prize in 2018, a distinction usually reserved for institutions that find a genuinely new way to handle a difficult subject rather than simply display it. The prize citation praised the museum for letting first-person testimony carry the exhibition instead of curators’ commentary - which is a useful thing to know before you go in, because it sets expectations correctly.

This is not a museum of maps, casualty figures, or front-line chronology. For that, the Historical Museum of Bosnia and Herzegovina is the better stop, and the two are often visited on the same day precisely because they do different jobs; see our comparison of Sarajevo’s war museums if you are deciding which to prioritise.

What the visit actually looks like

The permanent exhibition occupies converted rooms rather than a purpose-built gallery space, and that domestic scale is part of the effect - low ceilings, close cases, a route that loops rather than marches you through decades. Visitors typically need 45 minutes to an hour to see everything properly, which makes it one of the shorter stops on a siege-focused day in Sarajevo, and an easy pairing with a longer museum or a walk through the Ferhadija area either side.

There is no audio guide. Captions run in Bosnian and English beside each object, and a handful of screens carry recorded video testimonies from donors speaking about the object in their own words - these run a few minutes each and you can watch as many or as few as you like. Some objects are ordinary to the point of being startling: a Rubik’s cube, a football, a stuffed toy. Others carry more weight on their own - a hospital ID bracelet, a piece of shrapnel kept as a keepsake rather than a curiosity. The museum does not rank these for you or tell you which to linger over. That absence of editorial staging is deliberate, and it is worth going in expecting it rather than expecting a dramatic set-piece; there isn’t one, by design.

Temporary exhibitions rotate through a separate space and sometimes cover related subjects - childhood during other conflicts, for instance - so what you see beyond the permanent collection will vary by the date of your visit.

How it differs from Sarajevo’s other siege museums

Sarajevo has several institutions that address the 1992-1996 siege, and first-time visitors often try to see all of them in one day, which usually means rushing at least one. It helps to know what each one is actually for:

Museum	Focus	Typical visit time
War Childhood Museum	Personal objects and testimony from children of the siege	45 min - 1 hr
Historical Museum of Bosnia and Herzegovina	The siege as a whole: chronology, daily life, city-wide scale	1 - 1.5 hrs
Tunnel of Hope	The physical tunnel under the airport runway, plus a small on-site museum	45 min - 1 hr
Gallery 11/07/95	The Srebrenica genocide, told through photography	1 hr

If you have half a day, the War Childhood Museum and the Historical Museum sit close enough together to combine without much walking, and cover the same period from two genuinely different angles rather than repeating each other. If you only have time for one museum on the subject, decide based on what you are looking for: an overview of the siege, or an account told through individual voices. Our guide to visiting Sarajevo’s war museums respectfully has more on sequencing a day around this subject without it becoming exhausting.

a ticket to the Historical Museum of Bosnia and Herzegovina, a short walk from the War Childhood Museum, is the natural companion booking if you want the wider chronology alongside the personal testimony here.

Practical details

Sarajevo’s centre is compact enough that most visitors reach the museum on foot from wherever they are staying. It sits within easy reach of Baščaršija and the pedestrian stretch of Ferhadija, so it fits naturally into a walk that also takes in the old bazaar and the Austro-Hungarian streets - see our Baščaršija walking guide or the Ferhadija Austro-Hungarian walk for routes that pass close by.

Entry is ticketed at the door, and advance booking is rarely necessary outside peak weeks - the main exception is mid-August, when the Sarajevo Film Festival fills the surrounding streets and every nearby attraction gets busier. Photography rules are posted at the entrance and can shift for temporary exhibitions; the museum’s stated preference is that visitors engage with the objects as testimony rather than photograph them for their own sake, which is worth respecting even where it isn’t strictly enforced. There is no dress code beyond ordinary museum manners.

The museum is one stop, not a half-day outing on its own, so most people build it into a longer plan. It works well early in a one-day Sarajevo itinerary before the afternoon opens up for Baščaršija and the river, or as a quieter counterpoint on a wet morning - see our rainy-day guide to indoor Sarajevo for other options nearby if the weather turns. If you are structuring several days around the city’s recent history specifically, the siege tour guide sets out a fuller sequence that includes Sniper Alley and the Tunnel of Hope alongside this museum.

a guided bike tour that includes entry to the Tunnel of Hope covers the tunnel site itself, which sits further out near the airport and is not within walking distance of the War Childhood Museum - worth knowing before you plan a single afternoon around both.

Reading the objects without being told how to feel

What distinguishes this museum from a conventional history exhibit is that it makes no argument. There is no thesis about who was responsible, no running total of casualties displayed as you move through the rooms, no soundtrack. Each case is simply an object and a sentence or two written by the person who lived through the siege as a child, now an adult choosing what to say about it. Some testimonies are matter-of-fact, describing a toy that made a long winter in a shelter bearable. Others are shorter and harder to read precisely because they say little. The museum does not sequence these for dramatic effect and does not build toward a climax; you can start anywhere in the room and the experience holds together the same way.

This is worth knowing going in because it changes what kind of visit to expect. There is nothing here staged for a striking photograph, and nothing designed as a spectacle to be checked off a list. It rewards slow reading more than a quick circuit, but a quick circuit still takes the full 45 minutes simply because there is a genuine amount to read, case by case.

For context before or after the visit, our guide to Bosnia’s war for visitors lays out the basic chronology without assuming prior knowledge, and the siege books and films guide lists further reading and viewing if the subject holds your attention beyond the museum itself. If your Sarajevo days include the National Museum’s archaeological and natural history collections, note that its scope is broader and older - it is not primarily a siege museum, unlike the three covered above.

a guided walk through Sarajevo’s traditional mahala neighbourhoods gives a different, quieter view of the city’s residential streets if you want to follow a museum morning with something outdoors and unhurried, and an entry ticket to the Planet Sarajevo multimedia museum is a lighter option nearby if you are travelling with children who need a change of pace afterwards.

Before you go in

It helps to arrive with a little room in the day. The museum asks for attention rather than stamina, but reading testimony case after case is quietly tiring, and most people find they want a few minutes afterwards before moving on to anything loud or crowded. A coffee in the old town is the obvious answer, and our guide to the Bosnian coffee ritual explains how to make that pause part of the day rather than an afterthought.

Think too about what you bring with you. A small bag is easier in rooms with close cases and narrow routes, and there is no need to carry a guidebook: the captions are enough. If you are visiting alongside other sites connected to the siege, such as Sniper Alley or the Tunnel of Hope, it is often kinder to see the personal testimony here first and the larger-scale sites afterwards, or the reverse, but not to cram all of them into one stretch without a break.

Visiting with other people

The museum works well for a pair or a small group, because the testimonies invite conversation. Many visitors find themselves reading a line aloud to a companion, or pausing at the same case and comparing reactions. Going alone suits it equally well; the format is built around one reader and one voice at a time, and nobody is hurrying you from room to room. If you travel by yourself, our solo travel guide for Sarajevo has more on pacing days around heavier subjects.

With teenagers, a short conversation beforehand about what they are about to read tends to help, and so does agreeing that anyone can step out of a room without explanation. Our guides to Bosnia with teenagers and Sarajevo with kids cover how families balance this kind of stop with lighter ones. The point is not to prepare anyone for a shock, since the museum is restrained, but to leave space for whatever reaction comes.

Fitting the museum into a longer stay

If you have more than a day in the city, the museum slots easily into a slower plan. The two-day and three-day itineraries both leave room for a short, focused museum stop without displacing the outdoor and food-led parts of a visit. For travellers who want the city’s recent history to be a thread through the whole trip, the Bosnia history week shows how Sarajevo’s museums connect to places further afield.

Further afield, the same period is told in a different register in Mostar and at Srebrenica, and some visitors take a war heritage walk with a local guide in Mostar to hear how the conflict is remembered in another city. Those trips are heavier and deserve their own day rather than a rushed add-on, so decide early how much of the subject you want to take on. For a broader sense of what locals feel about visitors engaging with these themes, the blog post on war tourism and what locals think is worth reading beforehand.

Planning your visit: quick reference

Detail	What to know
Typical visit length	45 minutes to 1 hour
Format	Object cases with written testimony; no audio guide; a few video booths
Location	Central Sarajevo, near Baščaršija and Ferhadija
Best paired with	Historical Museum of Bosnia and Herzegovina
Booking	Rarely required in advance, except around the Sarajevo Film Festival in August
Suitability	Most families judge it appropriate from early teens upward

War Childhood Museum: frequently asked questions

How long does a visit to the War Childhood Museum take?

Most visitors spend 45 minutes to an hour. The permanent exhibition is a single floor of object cases and short texts, not a long chronological walk, so it reads quickly even if you stop to watch a few of the video testimonies.

Is the War Childhood Museum suitable for children?

It was built around children’s own accounts, but the content is not aimed at young children to visit themselves. Most families judge it appropriate from early teens, with an adult on hand to talk through what is on display.

What is the difference between this museum and the Historical Museum of Bosnia and Herzegovina?

The Historical Museum sets out the siege as a whole - dates, front lines, city-wide statistics. The War Childhood Museum narrows to a single register: one object, one child, one short testimony, repeated across the collection.

Do I need to book tickets in advance?

Advance booking is not usually necessary outside August, when the Sarajevo Film Festival fills the surrounding streets. A ticket bought at the door is normally enough the rest of the year.

Is there an audio guide or guided tour?

The permanent exhibition has no audio guide; captions in Bosnian and English sit beside each object. Some guided city walks that cover the siege include a stop here - check the specific tour’s itinerary before booking.

Where exactly is the War Childhood Museum?

It sits in the centre of Sarajevo, a short walk from Baščaršija and the Ferhadija pedestrian street, in a converted building rather than a purpose-built one - part of why the rooms feel domestic in scale.

Can I take photographs inside?

Photography rules are posted at the entrance and can change with temporary exhibitions; the museum’s own preference, stated in its materials, is that visitors treat the objects as testimony rather than photo subjects. Ask at the desk if unsure.