Olympic Museum, Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina

Hello everyone.
Yesterday I decided to visit Olympic Museum in Sarajevo. It is Museum dedicated to XIV Winter Olympics that were held in Sarajevo in 1984.
Museum has exhibits from Winter Olympics as well as stories and visuals about organization and stories about Olympics itself. Yesterday seemed like a good day to visit the Museum for the first time.

Our journey will start from eternal flame. The eternal flame is located to the main road with all public transportation, roads and walking promenade being one to another. It is known place so I think it is good to start from here. Olympic Museum is around 5 minutes from here.

Vječna Vatra or Eternal Flam is a memorial for military and civilian victims of Second World War in Sarajevo.

Near eternal flame there is caffee with beautiful view on city Sarajevo. I went here after my visit just to show you view and location of the Olympic Museum.

This side leads to the Old Bazzaar and center of the city Sarajevo. You can see Ferhadija, street and promenade that dwas built in 16th century. It is area for pedestrians in length of 520 meters. This side is east side of the city.

In the far back you can see mountain Igman which was part of the Winter Olympic games in 1984.

This is south side of the city. Here you can see mountain Trebević which was also part of Winter Olympic games in 1984.

Here I will add photo from mountain Trebević on city Sarajevo. Photo from Trebević cable car.

And we have north side. Here is our next destination, Olympic Museum of Sarajevo. That green area in the photo is where Museum is located.

It is hidden behind the trees.

Stairs that lead to the Museum. I counted around 100 steps to the top. It felt somehow fitting to have to climb these stairs to visit Olympic Museum. There is other way around as well where you can approach with car.
As you could see from other photo Museum is hidden in trees. On the end you can see that Museum building starts to show.

And here it is. Olympic Museum in Sarajevo.

This is the Museum building. The building is called Villa Mandić and it was built in 1903 for lawyer Nikola Mandić. Architect was Karl Paržik, Cezch architect. He projected many projects during that time.

The Museum was officially opened on February 8, 1984, on the opening day of the XIV Winter Olympics in Sarajevo. Museum was destroyed in 1992 at the beginning of the war. In 2004 it was reopened at different location in Olympic sports hall Zetra and finally on October 8th 2020 Olympic Museum is reopened at its old place.

Entrance to the Olympic Museum.

We are inside the Museum. Mascot of Sarajevo Winter Olympics was called Vučko. You can see it around the museum.

The Flame or baklja on bosnian. Reading it makes you understand how far it travels and its journey to find its destination.

The flame is ignited in Olympia and then taken to Athens. From there the flame traveld to Dubrovnik by plane. Here it was divided into two routes to reach Sarajevo. Eastern route was Skopje, Novi Sad and Belgrade and Western route was Split, Ljubljana and Zagreb. There were also 89 local flames included that traveled to various sports centers to spread Olympic message.

After being carried by 1600 people at 7th February flame arrived in Sarajevo.
Flame traveled more than 5000 kilometers to reach its destination.
This is flame or baklja that was used in Sarajevo Winter Olypmics.

Here are some information regarding the selection and organizing of Olympics.
Sarajevo candidacy for the organizing Olympics was submitted in January 3rd 1978 and on May 18th, between Japanese Sapporo and Sweedish Gothenburg Sarajevo got organization of the Olympics. With this preparation of whole infrastructure started.

These are some traditional winter props for winter street sliding in city during sixties. They are made of wood. Interesting to see how people used to make these to have fun during winter.

Bobsleigh used on Bobsleigh track on Trebević.

Here are photos of Bobsleigh track on Trebević from my visit there.

These are one of first skis or soldier skis.
On the wall there are photos of people using skis before 1900. Now days so many stuff changed but I would not mind trying these skies. They look like they could give a good run.

Visuals from Olympic games.

This part was very interesting to me. Here are design strategies for logo, font, pictograms used in Winter Olympics. There is so many details that you dont think about. Everything is explained to the smallest details.

It may look just like a sign but so many work behind it.

Quite nice representations and drawings of sports at Winter Olympics.

This is second floor of the Museum.

My first stop was here. These skies were donated by Germana Sperroto an Italian cross-county skier. She competed on mountain Igman in Nordic skiing (20km) and during here visit in 2024 she decided to donate her original equipment used during competition. Here are skis with poles, bag and soap and tooth paste provided to guests during Winter Olympics.

Lovely bag.

Soap and toothpaste in the box.

Also part of Museum is dedicated to the XIV European Youth Olympic Winter Festival that was held in 2019 in Sarajevo. On this wall you can see medal winners. 46 nations and 911 athletes.

Here are medals and coins from the XIV Winter Olympics in Sarajevo.

The Sarajevo Olympics had been commemorated on three gold coins and vast series of silver coins. Total of 55 000 gold coins and 110 000 silver coins were made. During the issuance they were official means of paying. Today they are valuable numismatic collection.

Medals used in Winter Olympics in 1984.

Here are places where Olympics took place. We have four mountains Igman, Jahorina, Bjelašnica and Trebević. And two closed arenas in Skenderija and Zetra.
There are information about height of the mountains as well as which event took place where and who were the medal winners.

Post stamps and other souvernirs.

With these verses Sarajevo said goodbye to XIV Winter Olympic games.

Eight years after Olympic games Sarajevo was under the siege Olympic Museum, Olympic hall Zetra as well as other Olympic objects were damaged and destroyed.

The world Olympic community has shown solidarity with besieged Olympic city. In 1994 on 10th anniversary of the Olympic games Sarajevo sent strong message saying The flame is still alive. On that occasion Juan Antonio Samaranch, president of the International Olympic Committee visited Sarajevo in 1994 and promised to rebuild destroyed sport hall Zetra.

This is jacket that Juan Antonio Samaranch wore during opening of Winter Olympics in 1984 and during his visit during war in 1994. In 2006 he donated his jacket to the Olympic Museum. This exhibit is on the first floor.

This rounds up the second floor.

So many interesting facts and artifacts to see in Olympic Museum.

Lovely Olympic Museum for lovely Olympic city Sarajevo. It was nice to finally visit here.

Photos by @sammy00.