Walk Travnik’s old town, fortress and historic centre

You begin at the fortress, climbing the short steep path to the gate of Stari Grad and walking its walls for the view over the rooftops, minarets and the Lašva valley below. From the fortress you descend into the old centre and onto the bazaar street, where the shops and cafés of the historic commercial core still line the way. A short distance along it stands the Šarena Džamija, the painted mosque, whose interior walls and dome are covered in bright floral and landscape decoration — the one sight in Travnik that cannot be seen anywhere else. Close by is the birth house of Ivo Andrić, now a small memorial museum to the Nobel-laureate writer who set the town onto the page in “Travnik Chronicle.” From the centre it is only a few minutes west to Plava Voda, the blue karst spring at the foot of the fortress hill, where the cold water runs through a green park of trees and cafés — the natural place to end the loop and rest after the walk. The whole circuit is short and gentle, and most of it is spent either among the historic buildings or beside the water.