The National Theater of Sarajevo is the most prominent theater house in BiH. It offers drama, opera and ballet performances and the Sarajevo Philharmonic Orchestra is also housed under the same roof.

This large and beautiful building on Obala Kulina Bana is not only home to the theater, but is also on the list of Protected National Monuments of BiH. It was built during the Austro-Hungarian period according to designs made by the architect, Karl Paržik, and it originally served as a social facility which officially opened on January 2, 1899.

With the founding of the National Theater on November 17, 1919, the building underwent a thorough reconstruction and the first performances were staged here in this building on the Obala in October 1921.

The famous Serbian playwright, Branislav Nušič, served as one of the theater’s first directors.

Up until the time immediately following the Second World War, the National Theater worked exclusively as a theater, but then it formed its own opera and ballet ensembles in 1946.

In almost 100 years since the National Theater was first founded in Sarajevo, more than 1,000 drama premieres have been staged here and a few hundred opera and ballet performances have been realized.

The National Theater ensembles have made numerous guest appearances and have received many national and international awards, including the greatest recognition offered by the City of Sarajevo, the April 6^th Award, which it has won on three separate occasions.