Miljacka

The Miljacka in Sarajevo

The Miljacka is a river in Bosnia and Herzegovina that passes through Sarajevo and East Sarajevo. It is famous for being "Sarajevo's River", and it has come to be identified immediately with the city itself.

The Miljacka river originates from the Paljanska Miljacka river and the Mokranjska Miljacka river confluence, though the Paljanska Miljacka, 13 kilometres long river, spring up around 10 kilometres eastward from the town of Pale, under the slopes of Jahorina near Begovina at 1010 metres a.s.l., and the Mokranjska Miljacka, 21 kilometres long river, spring up from a large cave, yet to be explored, near Kadino Selo village at 1135 metres a.s.l. under the slopes of Romanija mountains.

The Miljacka is a rather small river, only 38 kilometres long with average discharge of 5,7 m³/s at the City of Sarajevo, and right tributary of the Bosna river. Hence the origin and the estuary, the Miljacka river flows from the east to the west.

Because of its poor discharge, the Miljacka is known for its peculiar smell and brown waters, but is nonetheless loved by the residents of Sarajevo. Several famous bridges span it, including the Latin Bridge close to which the infamous assassination of Franz Ferdinand, Archduke of Austria by Gavrilo Princip was performed. It was because of the shallowness of the river that the first assassin was caught (he jumped into the 10 centimetres (4 in) deep river).

References

• Karl Baedeker (Firm) (1905). Austria-Hungary, Including Dalmatia and Bosnia. Original from the University of Michigan: K. Baedeker. pp. 431. http://books.google.com/books?id=Cx5ziJh3LikC&pg=RA14-PA431&dq=Miljacka+-wikipedia+river&num=100&ie=ISO-8859-1. 

Coordinates: 43°52′08″N 18°17′28″E / 43.869°N 18.291°E / 43.869; 18.291