Sarajevo marks the 32nd anniversary of the city’s siege

The ‘Path of Remembrance’ extends for over a kilometer, adorned with more than 11,500 pairs of shoes, each representing a victim of the siege of Sarajevo.

Displayed neatly in rows of three pairs each, these shoes serve as a poignant tribute to the men, women, and children who lost their lives during the siege of Sarajevo in the early ’90s.

This installation, known as the ‘Path of Remembrance,’ features over 11,500 pairs of shoes laid out through the heart of Bosnia’s capital, honoring the citizens who did not survive the longest military siege in modern history.

Thirty-two years after the siege’s onset during Bosnia’s internal conflict in the 1990s, thousands gathered for a commemorative walk on Friday.

The shoes marking the path were contributed by local residents and will eventually become part of a collection at Sarajevo’s Siege of Sarajevo Memorial Centre.

The siege, which began on April 5, 1992, and ended on February 29, 1996, lasted three years, ten months, three weeks, and three days.

During this period, 350,000 Sarajevo residents endured daily attacks from the Bosnian Serb Army and were cut off from basic necessities such as electricity, food, water, medicine, and contact with the outside world.

Survival depended on limited humanitarian aid from the United Nations, water from wells, and foraging for food.

For the younger generation, these shoes symbolise the importance of honoring the past while looking towards the future.

The shoes donated for this memorial will be permanently preserved as part of the ‘Path of Remembrance’ at the Sarajevo Memorial Centre’s Memorial Forest, to be established at Hrasnicki Stan on Mount Igman near Sarajevo.

The ‘Path of Remembrance’ was organized by the Sarajevo Memorial Centre in collaboration with the City of Sarajevo.