The revival of Mount Trebevic
A popular leisure spot overlooking Sarajevo, Mount Trebevic has been reclaimed for the city’s residents thanks to an extensive post-Bosnian War restoration programme.
Mount Trebevic had always been a favoured location for local residents, providing them with a refuge from the pollution of Sarajevo until war broke out in April 1992. The mountain’s sliding track, newly built for the 1984 Olympic Winter Games, was the venue for the bobsleigh and luge competitions.
The track hosted a number of European competitions before the outbreak of the war, when it was heavily mined and used as an artillery position. Trebevic became a feared place in the 1,425-day siege that followed, offering clear vantage points for snipers and artillery units attacking the city below.
It was declared a national park in 2014 and reopened to the public in 2017, following more than 15 years of work to clear its slopes of abandoned military hardware and thousands of mines laid during the war. Just as they did before the conflict, hikers, cyclists and day-trippers flock to the mountain every week, attracted by its restored tracks and trails and its rebuilt hotels, restaurants and cafes.
The reopening in April 2018 of the cable car running from Sarajevo’s old town to the top of the mountain was another important and symbolic step in Trebevic’s redevelopment. The original cable car, which opened in 1959, was destroyed in the war and the technician operating it was the conflict’s first known casualty. The new gondola follows the same route as the previous one, crossing the border that separates the two entities that make up Bosnia and Herzegovina – the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Republika Srpska. The cable car’s 33 cabins are decorated with the Bosnian flag and the colours of the Olympic flag, in tribute to the part the mountain played at the Olympic Winter Games in 1984.
With the aid of volunteers, the national bobsleigh federation, and a grant from the International Luge Federation, the ZOI’84 Olympic Legacy Foundation began restoration work on the badly damaged track in 2014. Though it remains unfit for official sliding sports competitions, it is used for extreme cycling and as a summer luge training venue.
The track also is covered with graffiti, which has made it one of Sarajevo’s cultural landmarks and an iconic location for lovers of street art from all over the world.