Ferhadija is Sarajevo's main pedestrian promenade, running from the Catholic cathedral westward through the Austro-Hungarian quarter. The street itself is the "meeting of cultures" line dividing the Ottoman old town from the European-style city built after 1878, when Austria-Hungary took administrative control. Walking it from east to west, you move from the cobblestones and minarets of Baščaršija to the coffee houses, bookshops, and neo-Renaissance facades of the Habsburg period.
The transition is abrupt and fascinating. At the eastern end, shops sell copper handicrafts and Turkish coffee; at the western end, the architecture could be Vienna or Zagreb. In between, you pass the Sacred Heart Cathedral, several good cafe terraces, and the embedded monument that marks the precise cultural boundary. Ferhadija is at its best in the late afternoon when locals use it as a passeggiata route — walking, meeting, arguing, watching the world go by.