The first tram in Sarajevo

SARAJEVO, (Patria) - The first tram line in Sarajevo was 3.1 kilometers long, starting from today's Faculty of Economics, running through Ferhadija and further along the main city street (today's Titova) via Marijin Dvor and ending at the narrow gauge railway station.

In order not to dig up Viennese or Pest streets in vain, the Austro-Hungarians decided to test the "horse railway" - as the tram was called at the time - in Sarajevo first. Thus, in the summer of 1884, the digging of Sarajevo's streets and the laying of tram tracks began.

On that occasion, Sarajevo lost one of its most beautiful bridges - the stone bridge that spanned the Koševski stream near the Alipašina mosque, but it also gained the title of the first city in the Balkans and Central Europe to have a tram. The first tram line in Sarajevo was 3.1 kilometers long, starting from today's Faculty of Economics, running through Ferhadija and further along the main city street (today's Titova) via Marijin Dvor and ending at the narrow gauge railway station.

At that time, only one track was built, so the tram returned on the same tracks it came on. It was stipulated that one horse could not pull more than two laps, so as not to get exhausted. Johan Hanke was the first "tram driver".

The first tram officially started operating on January 1, 1885, at 10 AM. All four carriages for passenger transport stood in front of the station in Ferhadija, and the provincial governor Appel, civil adjutant Nikolić, sub-marshal Buvard, generals Haas and Arlow, heads of the Provincial Government, and the City Government gathered in front of them. This entire entourage then boarded the carriages and, in 13 minutes, traveled to the city station, "smoothly, cleanly, silently, as if on the palm of your hand".