With the city completely encircled during the Bosnian War, the tunnel was dug by hand between March and June 1993, running beneath the airport runway to link the neighbourhood of Dobrinja with Butmir on the other side. Workers used shovels and picks, often in groundwater, and once it opened on 1 July 1993 the narrow passage carried food, fuel, electricity and people in and out of the besieged city. Its Butmir entrance was hidden in the cellar of a house belonging to the Kolar family.
Today that house is home to the Sarajevo Tunnel Museum. Visitors can walk through a short preserved section of the tunnel, about 20 metres long, and see photographs, wartime equipment and a documentary film that explain how it worked and what life was like during the siege. The museum lies some way from the old town, so most travellers combine it with a guided tour or a taxi ride.
A visit to the Tunnel of Hope is a quiet, thought-provoking experience that helps explain the resilience of Sarajevo and its people.
