The Old Orthodox Church Museum in Sarajevo was founded in 1889 and taken from the church holdings. It was Churchwarden Jeftan Despić, a member of the famous Sarajevo Despić family, who was credited with opening the museum.

Given the abundance of items contained in its collection, this museum is ranked among the five most important orthodox museums in the world.

Items held by the museum include the following: old paintings, manuscripts and printed books; church tapestries and embroidery, metal items, objects used in religious services, old money, religious relics, old weapons, handmade engravings and a collection of fine stones.

The most abundant items are paintings by Bosnian and foreign artists. The museum also has several valuable hand-written and printed liturgical books, with the most important one being the Sarajevo Codex, which was written on parchment in the 14th century.

As for textiles, the museum has a number of embroidered items, gold brocade vestments, church drapery, embroidered and woven belts with clasps. Some of the metal items that deserve special mention include ornate crosses from the 17th and 18th centuries, hand-held censers, panagias, patens (diskoi) used when serving the Eucharistic bread, Bosnian and Venetian lamps….

As for types of currencies, the museum has quite a lot of old money issued by Turkey, Venice and the Republic of Dubrovnik, as well as money used in Austria and Serbia in more recent times.