Qualla: Sarajevo Tunnel https://qualla.com/sarajevo-tunnel en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:30 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/s/r/v/1/sarajevo-tunnel-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Sarajevo Tunnel https://qualla.com/sarajevo-tunnel Sarajevo Tunnel: Introduction https://qualla.com/sarajevo-tunnel/ Photo credit BiHVolim, CC BY-SA 4.0. The entrance was a house. Not a bunker, not a fortified position -- a family home belonging to the Kolars, sitting on the south side of Sarajevo's airport runway, unremarkable enough to avoid drawing fire. Behind its walls, a passage dropped underground and ran 800 metres beneath the tarmac to emerge in the besieged neighbourhood of Dobrinja on the other side. For nearly three years, this tunnel was the only way in or out of Sarajevo. Food, medicine, weapons, fuel, electricity cables, telephone lines, and people -- everything the city needed to survive passed through a corridor barely wide enough for two people to squeeze past each other.

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Image: BiHVolim | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Mon, 23 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/r/v/1/sarajevo-tunnel-wp/srv1-sarajevo-tunnel-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Sarajevo Tunnel: Digging Beneath the Runway https://qualla.com/sarajevo-tunnel/ Photo credit Martijn Munneke, CC BY 2.0. Construction began on March 1, 1993, under the codename "Objekt BD" -- BD for the two neighbourhoods it connected, Butmir and Dobrinja. Civil engineer Nedzad Brankovic designed the route to pass beneath the airport runway, which was controlled by United Nations forces and sat bet...

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Image: Martijn Munneke | CC BY 2.0

]]> Mon, 23 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/r/v/1/sarajevo-tunnel-wp/srv1-sarajevo-tunnel-digging-beneath-the-runway.mp3 0:06 2 full Sarajevo Tunnel: The Lifeline Underground https://qualla.com/sarajevo-tunnel/ Photo credit Damien Smith from London, United Kingdom, CC BY-SA 2.0. The tunnel was roughly 1.6 metres high and about a metre wide -- low enough that most adults had to crouch or stoop the entire way. The journey took 20 to 30 minutes in each direction, longer when traffic was heavy or the passage was flooded. Armed Bosnian soldiers guarded both e...

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Image: Damien Smith from London, United Kingdom | CC BY-SA 2.0

]]> Mon, 23 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/r/v/1/sarajevo-tunnel-wp/srv1-sarajevo-tunnel-the-lifeline-underground.mp3 0:06 3 full Sarajevo Tunnel: What the Kolar Family Gave https://qualla.com/sarajevo-tunnel/ Photo credit Hedwig KlawuttkeHedwig Klawuttke (german main account), CC BY-SA 3.0. Bajro Kolar, the owner of the house that concealed the tunnel entrance, later explained his decision simply: "Whatever we have, we gave for the defense and liberation of Sarajevo." After the war ended in 1995, the Kolar family turned the property into a private museum. For fiftee...

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Image: Hedwig KlawuttkeHedwig Klawuttke (german main account) | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Mon, 23 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/r/v/1/sarajevo-tunnel-wp/srv1-sarajevo-tunnel-what-the-kolar-family-gave.mp3 0:06 4 full Sarajevo Tunnel: A Museum That Refuses to Forget https://qualla.com/sarajevo-tunnel/ Photo credit Damien Smith from London, United Kingdom, CC BY-SA 2.0. The Tunnel Museum has become one of the most visited sites in Sarajevo, drawing hundreds of visitors daily. Guided tours of the city's wartime history nearly always include it. The museum sits just south of the airport, accessible from the city centre by bus or taxi, and its loca...

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Image: Damien Smith from London, United Kingdom | CC BY-SA 2.0

]]> Mon, 23 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/r/v/1/sarajevo-tunnel-wp/srv1-sarajevo-tunnel-a-museum-that-refuses-to-forget.mp3 0:06 5 full