The Saraj was the first residence of the founder of Sarajevo, Gazi Isa-Bey Ishaković.

Konak (Turkish: residence, lodging) in Sarajevo has got its present appearance in the period between the year of 1867 and 1869, by order of Šerif Topal Osman Pasha, as the fourth and final Saraj.

Konak, Saray

Its present baroque style originates from the period of the governance of Bosnia by Osman Pasha, who, in 1868, had a new konak built in the place of the old one.

This new konak, too, underwent changes during Austro-Hungarian times, and even more, during the period of Socialist Yugoslavia when the Academy of Science and Arts of Bosnia and Herzegovina was built, with its amphitheater. All this construction has detracted from the original ambiance of the first building of the governor of Bosnia.

Konak, Saray

The latest town-planning proposal for Bistrik (the left bank of the Miljacka river) calls for a large high-traffic city street, called the South Longitudinal, to cross through the beautiful park between the Emperor’s mosque and the Konak, which would utterly destroy the ambiance of the two original and the most important buildings of the nucleus of the old Sarajevo.

It has been proposed that the South Longitudinal at that location might be brought underground, exiting at ground level at the new bridge near the City Hall (Vijećnica), since there is already a depression of the terrain there, caused by the modification of the Miljacka banks during the Austro-Hungarian administration of Bosnia and Herzegovina.