The capital city of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Sarajevo, has suffered from many dark chapters in its history, both in World War 1 and also during the wars of former Yugoslavia.

       During the latter war, Sarajevo gained the tragic title of the city under the longest siege in modern history - nearly four years, from 1992 to 1996.

       The city was also where the outbreak of World War One occurred, triggering a cascade of events that resulted in one of the deadliest conflicts in history.

       Now that Sarajevo and the country have entered a much-needed lighter period of history and are generally considered safe, the city has become a growing destination for dark tourists.

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       The darkest part of the city’s history occurred in 1914, when the heir to the throne of the Austro-Hungarian empire, Franz Ferdinand, and his wife were shot dead near the Latin Bridge by a Serbian secret military society, the Black Hand. The assassination site - just a simple street corner - has a memorial plaque and the building is now a museum home to a plethora of artefacts about the country's past.

       These assassinations are considered the most immediate cause of the war, which began a month after the heir’s death, with Austria-Hungary’s declaration of war against Serbia.

       Despite the size of the repercussions of this event, this is still a relatively minor dark tourism destination when compared to the sites related to the more recent war in Bosnia and Herzegovina, of which the siege of Sarajevo was one of the most significant elements. In fact, it was the longest siege of its kind in modern history and the worst since World War 2.

       The siege started shortly after Bosnia-Herzegovina's independence was declared. The Yugoslav central government opposed the new independence. At the same time, the Bosnian Serbs formed their own "Republika Srpska," intended to become part of a Greater Serbia - effectively seizing about half of Bosnia-Herzegovina's territory. Sarajevo fell right on the dividing line.

       Serb forces surrounded the city and cut it off from the outside world. Tanks, mortars and rocket launchers were deployed in the hills overlooking the city and almost every house sustained some degree of damage, as well as hospitals and cultural centres like the National Library.

       In addition to this, the city’s population was also directly targeted by snipers and over 10,000 Sarajevans were killed, including some 1,500 children. They also suffered from food shortages and electricity and water supplies were almost completely cut off.

       The worst incidents were the two Markale Massacres of 1994 and 1995, when Serbs fired artillery shells into an open market, killing dozens and wounding hundreds of innocent civilians.

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       A common site across the city are the Sarejevo Roses - hollows left in the pavement or tarmac by shells or shrapnel which have been filled with hardened red paint after the war to look like splattered blood and to serve as small memorials to the war victims.

       Though now closed for vistors, the unique War Hostel gave tourists a chance to get a taste of daily life in a warzone during the 1990s, where the electricty was turned off at night and guests slept on sponge mats on the floor, listening to the sound of gunfire and bomb explosions via a sound system.

       Donning a makeshift UN peacekeeper uniform, the 26-year-old owner, Arijan Kurbasic, who survived the Bosnian War as a toddler, would welcome his guests from behind a pile of sandbags that functioned as a reception desk. Speaking to Aljazeera in 2018, Kurbasic said: “My family and I experienced a war we didn’t ask for, and we survived it out of pure luck. I offer immersive experiences and war tours to show what happens when people get divided into ‘us and them’".

       After the second incident, NATO launched air strikes against the Serbs and eventually the siege of Sarajevo was officially declared over in early 1996.

       A relatively new addition to the city is a museum specifically dedicated to the darkest aspects of the Balkan wars in Bosnia, which opened in 2016. It is the work of a group of survivors and victims as well as young researchers of the war crimes committed. It contains a number of dedicated sections, such as concentration camps, torture and mass killings and children as victims of war. Material from the archives of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia is also on display.

       After the war, the city went through extensive reconstruction, though many scars from the war remain visible, with many buildings remaining in the same condition as they were in the war - windowless and perforated with bullet holes.

       One such site is the Sarajevo War Tunnel and Museum, a short stretch which was dug under the airport during the siege to get supplies into the cut-off city. A museum about the tunnel, with photos, objects, newspaper clippings and a short film complement the main event. Its walls are still marked by bullet holes from the war which serve as a tragic reminder of the suffering of Sarajevo's residents.