Museum of Literature and Theater Arts of Bosnia and Herzegovina

The Museum of Literature and Theater Arts of Bosnia and Herzegovina (Serbo-Croatian: Muzej književnosti i pozorišnih umjetnosti Bosne i Hercegovine) is a literary and performing arts museum located in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina. Founded in 1961 as the Museum of Literature, it expanded its scope in 1970 to include theater and performing arts, becoming the institution it is today. The museum occupies a nationally protected 19th-century house in the Baščaršija neighborhood and holds particular significance as the repository of the original manuscript of Ivo Andrić's Nobel Prize-winning novel The Bridge on the Drina.

The idea for a dedicated literary museum was conceived around 1955 by Razija Handžić, then curator of literary collections at the Museum of Sarajevo and a writer herself. The project gained decisive momentum when Ivo Andrić, the prominent writer and future Nobel laureate, decided that the original manuscript of his novel The Bridge on the Drina should be kept in Sarajevo. Handžić seized the opportunity of Andrić's Nobel Prize in Literature award in 1961 to establish the Museum of Literature of Bosnia and Herzegovina that same year, becoming its first director. In 1970, the Theater Department was founded and added, broadening the institution's mandate to encompass theatrical and performing arts. In 1992, the ground floor was rebuilt to create the Art Gallery Mak, an exhibition space of about 100 square meters consisting of three connected rooms, which extended the museum's activities and offered additional space for cultural events. The museum has also pursued publishing, producing three books of documentary materials on Peter Kočić, Svetozar Čorović, and Ivan Franjo Jukić, as well as the magazine Baština. More recently, it has implemented the "Digital Library and Stage Treasury of BiH" project to improve the protection, preservation, and accessibility of its holdings, supported by the Ministry of Civil Affairs of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Ministry of Culture and Sports of the Sarajevo Canton, and the museum's own funds.

The museum collects and preserves literature and theater materials according to museological principles. Its holdings are distributed across 67 literary and 17 theater collections, containing more than 20,000 items in total, with approximately 20,000 exhibited. The literary collections encompass manuscripts, correspondence, photographs, personal documents, pamphlets, magazines, books, and articles owned by writers, literary critics, their heirs, or other collectors. The Theater Department collects stage sets, photographs, programs, posters, production and costume sketches, paintings, portraits, and other materials dating back to 1920. The archive comprises collections of canonized Bosnian and Herzegovinian authors as well as materials set aside over time for not belonging to the national literary canon. An important service function is the use of collections in preparing scientific research and dissertations by researchers from Bosnia and Herzegovina and beyond.

The most celebrated item in the museum is the original manuscript of Ivo Andrić's The Bridge on the Drina, the Nobel Prize-winning novel. Among permanent exhibits, the museum features the complete study room of Silvije Strahimir Kranjčević in its Literary Department. Other permanent exhibits include the Bosnian Rooms dedicated to Petar Kočić, Hasan Kikić, and Isak Samokovlija, offering immersive presentations of these influential literary figures. The museum also preserves the workroom of Petar Kočić.

The museum is housed in the older of two Despić family houses in the Baščaršija neighborhood of Stari Grad (Old Town), at Sime Milutinovića Sarajlije 7. Built in the middle of the 19th century, the house was originally owned by the Skarić family and was the birthplace of Vladislav Skarić before the Despić family became its owners. The Despić family donated both this house and the newer Despić House to the City of Sarajevo; the latter now serves as an annex of the Museum of Sarajevo. Both buildings are inscribed as National Monuments of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The facade is decorated with reliefs, including above the entrance to the Permanent Exhibition a relief of stylized birds drinking water from fountains, created by Iva Despić, the first Bosnian female academic sculptor and former owner and tenant of the house. This relief serves as the museum's logo.

The Museum of Literature and Theater Arts of Bosnia and Herzegovina is located at Sime Milutinovića Sarajlije 7 in the heart of Sarajevo's Baščaršija neighborhood, with coordinates 43.8578°N, 18.4266°W. The museum can be contacted at +387 33 201 861. Admission is priced at 5 KM for adults and 2 KM for children and pensioners. The museum accepts reservations. Its current director is Šejla Šehabović, with curators Tamara Sarajlić-Slavnić and Đana Kukić. The institution maintains an active presence through its website (mkpubih.com) and social media channels including Facebook.