Birth House of Gavrilo Princip

Gavrilo Princip (1894-1918) was the assassin of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, the heir to the Habsburg throne, and his wife Sofia Chotek in Sarajevo on June 28th, 1914. One month later, in response to this act, Austria declared war on Serbia, and the 1st World War began.

Gavrilo's home is in Obljaj, a little village in the Municipality of Bosansko Grahovo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, near the Croatian border. It's a small, 2-floor house, demolished several times over the years: first by Austro-Hungarians, then Croatian fascists in the 40s (the Princips were a Bosnian-Serbian family), and again during the Yugoslavian war. It was rebuilt each time... I hope now it will last for a long while!

On the second floor, you can see the ambience of the Princip family household: the fireplace, tools for working in the garden, some furniture — the small things of a poor family (Gavrilo's father was a postman, his mother was a housewife). On the ground floor, a little museum that reminds visitors of the Sarajevo attack: photos from the time, the historical image of Gavrilo after the arrest, images of the trial, the guns of the killer and his accomplices, Gavrilo as a kid with his parents...

It's a little piece of history, and a place that deserves to be seen if you pass by — whatever your position on what Gavrilo Princip did. Visitation is free. You can leave a tip, if you want!