![The old town square, Baščaršija, with the ornate Sebilj in the center](https://i0.wp.com/rowdyplanet.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/IMG_2495.jpg?resize=1290%2C860&ssl=1)
On the morning of June 25th 1914, Archduke Prince Franz Ferdinand, the heir-apparent of the mega Austro-Hungarian empire, arrived in Sarajevo to do what heir-apparents of mega-empires do – walk the bazaars, shop, while inaugurating a few monuments. Though there were rumors of an assassination by the Bosnian Serbs, it wasn’t taken seriously, and security was relatively lax.
![The Latin Bridge over river Miljaka, built in the 1550s by the Ottomans](https://i0.wp.com/rowdyplanet.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/IMG_2462.jpg?resize=1290%2C860&ssl=1)
3 days later, at 10 a.m. on June 28th, the Archduke’s motorcade consisting of 6 open-top cars eased down towards Sarajevo City Hall.
![The Latin Bridge crossing over into the old town. The Museum stands close to where Franz Ferdinand was assasinated.](https://i0.wp.com/rowdyplanet.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/IMG_2459.jpg?resize=1290%2C1935&ssl=1)
The first set of operatives got cold feet and did nothing. Few minutes later, as the motorcade wound its way along the river, a second set of operatives launched a grenade, but missed Ferdinand’s car – hitting the one behind it instead. Panicking, the motorcade sped away. But Ferdinand decided to go visit the hospital where the injured were sent instead of heading to safety.
![Persian stores in the old town of Sarajevo](https://i0.wp.com/rowdyplanet.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/IMG_2562.jpg?resize=1290%2C860&ssl=1)
As the motorcade turned right on the narrow Latin Bridge – ironically, a bridge built by the Ottomans in 1500 – a third operative, Gavrilo Princip was lying in wait with a pistol. He unloaded a bullet into Ferdinand’s neck and another in his wife, Sofie’s abdomen. Both succumbed to their injuries at the hospital.
The Austro-Hungarian empire blamed Serbia for the plot, declaring war one month later. Various nations jump in to support each side, triggering a set of events and political drama that culminates in World War I.
![Pedestrians cross the Latin Bridge in the heat of June.](https://i0.wp.com/rowdyplanet.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/IMG_2448.jpg?resize=1290%2C860&ssl=1)
World War I took the lives of more than 9 million soldiers, 10 million civilians, while 21 million more were wounded. The sanitary conditions following the war also resulted in the Spanish Flu that ended up consuming another 20-25 million people. The war generated quite a few of the modern warfare instruments that we see today – machine guns, tanks, chemical weapons and introduced aerial combat.
Today, the city is trying to get back to a critically balanced sense of stability after decades of multiple wars. As you walk down the nondescript pedestrian Latin Bridge in Sarajevo, there isn’t much to guide you there except for a tiny museum and an inscription. And there is nothing that conveys the gravity of the events that took place here, that lead to more than 150 million deaths worldwide.
![Modern day Sarajevo rising over the hills all around the old town.](https://i0.wp.com/rowdyplanet.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/IMG_2582.jpg?resize=1290%2C1935&ssl=1)