Tunnel of Hope (Tunnel Museum)

The Tunnel of Hope, known locally as Tunel spasa, is a museum in the Donji Kotorac neighbourhood of Ilidža, on the western edge of Sarajevo in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina. During the siege of Sarajevo, which lasted from April 1992 to February 1996, the city was cut off from the rest of the country. Between March and July 1993, defenders dug a tunnel of about 800 metres beneath the Sarajevo airport runway, linking the Butmir area, controlled by the Bosnian forces, with the besieged district of Dobrinja. The passage was roughly one metre wide and just over a metre high, and it carried food, medicine, weapons and thousands of people, as well as telephone cables, a fuel pipeline and electric power. It allowed the city to survive despite the blockade. The entrance on the Butmir side was concealed in the house of the Kolar family, which today forms the core of the museum. The family home still bears shell and bullet damage, and a short restored section of the tunnel of about 20 metres can be walked through, with original rails, timber supports and cables. The exhibition in the house presents a short documentary film, photographs, uniforms, equipment, war-time maps and personal items, and shows the engineering and logistics of the operation. The curatorial approach is documentary and immersive, built on the original structure rather than a modern museum space. The site is a memorial as well as a historic attraction, and visitors are asked to behave respectfully. Many guided tours from Sarajevo include it alongside other siege-related sites, such as the Sarajevo Roses and the old Olympic bobsled run.