Sarajevo is a city with a large amount of impressive historical and cultural monuments. There is a lot of things to see and do. But, it’s quite clear that, like most other places in the world, only one part of the city is filled with these touristy, done-up sights. However, this city has so much more to offer. If you want to dig a little deeper and discover what life in Sarajevo truly looks like, make sure you visit some of the not-touristy, and yet interesting locations in Sarajevo.
Alipašino Polje (“Ali Pasha’s Field”) is a neighbourhood in Sarajevo located in the municipality of Novi Grad.
If you are into studying architecture, you must visit it.
The name of the district goes all the way back to 16th century. There used to ba a wooden bridge named Ali Pasha’s Bridge in the area, and throughout the centuries there wasn’t many people living in this territory so they called it Ali-Pasha’s Field. It’s unknown to which Ali Pasha is this name referring to, since there were a few governors known as Ali Pashas during the Ottoman era.
Today, it consists of three sub-neighborhoods: Faza A, Faza B, and Faza C, which include six local communities. They were named after the order in which they were built. The construction of Alipašino Polje was conducted between 1974 and 1979 in accordance with the 1964 general plan of development of Sarajevo. The lowest buildings have 4 floors and the highest ones have 18 floors.
Alipašino Polje was one of those neighbourhoods that were built to house the many factory workers, since Sarajevo was an industrial city once upon a time (hard to even imagine today).
During the Bosnian War many facades and apartments of the buildings in Alipašino Polje were damaged. The neighborhood has an estimated population of 60.000, which makes it one of the most populated neighborhoods in Sarajevo.
There is something truly beautiful about Alipašino’s greyish, brutalist, socialist buildings and tiny parks jammed in between them. You can get there easily from the city centre, you just have to take a tram for a few stations. You can walk around, explore, take photographs or sit in a local cafe and just relax.