The siege of Sarajevo turned leisure spot Mount Trebević into a deadly sniper position. Can the reopening of its famous gondola ride finally heal old wounds?

'It belongs to all of Sarajevo': reopened cable car lifts city out of the past

'It belongs to all of Sarajevo': reopened cable car lifts city out of the past

Pazite, Snajper! – Beware, Sniper! – warned the signs along the Sarajevo street exposed to marksmen looking through their telescopic sights from the top of Mount Trebević. People would sprint from one side of “sniper’s alley” to the other to deliver supplies to family and friends – death hot on their heels.

The hillside where tens of thousands used to spend their Saturdays before the 1992-1996 siege of Sarajevo soon became “a symbol of aggression”, recalls mountain guide Fikret Kahrovic. “Trebević was the only place to breathe fresh air when the city was engulfed in fumes, but that all changed and the mountain became our enemy.”

Today – 26 years after the siege began and 73 years since the city’s second world war liberation – Sarajevo hopes to put much of that past to rest with the reopening of the Trebević gondola.

The 33 cabins will variously sport the Bosnian flag and the colours of the Olympics, a reminder of the mountain’s role in the 1984 Winter Games. It will follow the same route as the previous cable car, travelling from the old town to the lungs of Sarajevo, Trebević, which rises majestically above the city.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Pazite, Snajper! … a former sniper position on slopes of Mount Trebević. Photograph: Elvis Barukcic/AFP/Getty Images

The gondola, which ran from near Baščaršija – the Ottoman-influenced part of Sarajevo – to Trebević, opened in 1959. It was soon ferrying thousands of people up the slopes every day, and the mountain became a central source of pride during the 1984 Winter Olympics, as the host of the Games’s bobsleigh tracks.



We believed that if we liberated Trebević we would be free. But returning to the mountain was like a nightmare Fikret Kahrovic

After Bosnia-Herzegovina’s declaration of independence on 3 March 1992, the guard on the old Trebević gondola, Ramo Biber, became the first victim of the war. He was shot dead as the Serb-dominated Yugoslav army continued their campaign to encircle Sarajevo and capture key positions. Four weeks later, on 5 April, the 1,425-day siege of the city started – the longest blockade of a capital in modern history.



Hundreds of mortars and countless bullets rained down on Sarajevo from this point, killing a large proportion of the 11,541 people slain in the city during the period. Gunfire was a fixture of daily life for more than three years.



In August 1995, following mortar attacks that killed dozens of civilians and provoked widespread international condemnation, Nato finally intervened and began strategic bombing of the artillery encampments on Trebević. The Bosnian Serbs were forced into retreat and the Dayton Peace Agreement soon followed, splitting the nation into two largely autonomous entities – the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Republika Srpska – along ethnic lines.



Facebook Twitter Pinterest Bosnian Serb soldiers pass the Olympic bobsleigh track on Mount Trebević in February 1994, at the height of the conflict. Photograph: Reuters

The boundary line between the two skirts the mountain and disagreements between Federation and Republic on redevelopment meant Trebević became a ghost town. The remains of destroyed restaurants, hotels, sports facilities and mountain huts were left to rot and the thousands of mines were cleared at a painstakingly slow pace. Bandits roamed the hills, attacking hiking groups and tourists visiting the bobsleigh tracks with seeming impunity.



“We believed that if we liberated Trebević we would be free,” recalls Kahrovic. “But even after the war ended returning to the mountain was like a nightmare. Serb artillery positions had been everywhere and there were still minefields until just a few years ago.”



In the past few years, however, the mountain has slowly returned to something like its former self. Hotels, restaurants and cafes have been rebuilt, mines swept away and hikers from all over Sarajevo visit en masse.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Before the storm … the cable car in its heyday. Photograph: Public Domain

For many, the return of the gondola is the final step in this restoration. Despite some frustration that it took so long, with many blaming an endemic culture of corruption, there is a palpable sense of optimism around the reopening.



Sarajevans, Bosnians, Herzegovinians and tourists alike will start the nine-minute, 2km gondola ride in Sarajevo, in the Federation, and arrive on Trebević’s plateau, a stone’s throw away from Republika Srpska where much of the mountain, including its peak, sits.

“The gondola will be used by everyone, which I think is very important for future generations to grow up with,” says a young Bosnian woman, who preferred not to be named. “Though we cannot recreate the same spirit of Sarajevo from those times, we are creating our own memories, while still being influenced by the legends of our elders, such as Trebević, the giant that looms over our city.”

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Downhill bikers tackle the bobsleigh track in 2015. Photograph: Dado Ruvic/Reuters

Another described the gondola as a bittersweet memorial to another life. “It might be just a gondola, but only for those who have never had a wound that entirely stops your breathing.”



There has been some uncertainty over the price of journeys on the gondola. Altogether, the construction cost around 20 million marks (£8.9m) – one of the country’s largest postwar infrastructure projects – and has been years in the making. A sizeable proportion of the funds came from philanthropic donations.



Eventually, it was decided a return ticket would cost six marks. The mayor, Abdulah Skaka, said: “I will not allow the gondola to be only for the elite. It belongs to all citizens of Sarajevo, and Trebević is our biggest nature park.”



Facebook Twitter Pinterest The Trebević cable car on a test run over the city this week. Photograph: Dado Ruvic/Reuters

Foreigners will pay 20 marks, almost three and a half times more. That is still significantly cheaper than similar attractions in Europe, says Skaka.



Zenica, Bosnia: the steel town where even taking a breath can be a struggle Read more

While shrapnel from exploded mortar shells is still embedded in Sarajevo’s pavements and bullet holes pepper the facade of its buildings, the wreckage of the previous gondola has been swept aside and the sense of optimism has been immortalised in a song written and performed to mark the occasion.



“A new youth is coming,” sing members of the Sarajevo pop band Ambasadori. “The gates of the city remember our steps, the old lift moans, slowly climbing to the sky under the clouds. Trebević is coming down into the town again.”

•This article was amended on 10 April 2018 to change “rifle viewfinders” to “telescopic sights”.

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