The most visceral of Sarajevo's many 1990s war-experience 'attractions', this unmissable museum's centrepiece and raison d'être is a short section of the 1m wide, 1.6m high hand-dug tunnel under the airport runway which acted as the city's lifeline to the outside world during the 1992–95 siege, when Sarajevo was virtually surrounded by Serb forces.
During the siege Butmir was the last Bosniak-held part of the city still linked to the outside world. However, between Butmir and the rest of Sarajevo lies the airport runway. Although that was supposedly neutral and under tenuous UN control, crossing it would have been suicidal during the conflict. The solution, in extremis , was a 800m tunnel beneath the runway, eventually equipped with rails to help transport food and arms. That proved just enough to keep Sarajevo supplied during nearly four years of siege. Most of the tunnel has since collapsed, but this museum lets you walk through the short section that survives. Photos and maps are displayed around the shell-pounded house that hid the tunnel entrance, there's a new museum section of tools and documents, and the garden houses a demonstration minefield as well as two projection rooms showing two wordless videos: five minutes' footage of the city bombardment and around 12 minutes depicting the wartime tunnel experience.
Getting here by public transport is a bit of a fiddle. Take tram 3 to Ilidža (the far terminus, 35 minutes, 11km from Baščaršija), then switch to Kotorac-bound bus 32 (10 minutes). Get off at the last stop, walk across the Tilava bridge, then turn immediately left down Tuneli for 500m. The bus runs around twice hourly weekdays but only every 90 minutes on Sundays so it's often faster to walk from Ilidža (around 30 minutes). Many city tours include a visit here – if you're alone, joining such a tour can prove cheaper than coming by taxi. And your guide can add a lot of useful insight.
