Latin Bridge

The Latin Bridge (Latinska ćuprija) is an Ottoman stone arch bridge over the Miljacka river on Obala Kulina bana in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina. A bridge has stood at the site since the 16th century, and the current four-arched stone structure dates in large part from a rebuilding in the 1790s after a flood. It is best known as the place beside which Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sophie were shot on 28 June 1914 by Gavrilo Princip, the event that triggered the First World War. Visitors see a small, elegant bridge with a gently arched roadway, stone parapets and a plaque on the corner of the northern bank commemorating the event; the bridge is pedestrian and closed to traffic. The Museum of Sarajevo 1878-1918 stands on the corner next to it, in the building that once housed Schiller's delicatessen, and gives context to the assassination. A brass line on the pavement and a commemorative marker show roughly where the car stood, although the original footprints of Princip were removed during later decades. The Miljacka itself is shallow and slow-moving in summer, with embankment walkways on both sides, and the bridge links the Austro-Hungarian Obala embankment with the lanes leading to Baščaršija, five minutes away on foot. A visit takes 15 to 30 minutes, and visitors often combine it with the nearby Vijećnica and the museum. The best vantage points are from the middle of the bridge looking along the river towards the Vijećnica, and from the riverbank steps below the bridge for a low angle of the arches. Early morning is quiet and the stone glows at sunset, while midday brings tour groups queuing for photographs at the corner. The bridge is free and open at all times.