Balkanized

The Balkans are a mountainous area stretching between Turkey and Austria/Hungary, edged by the Adriatic Sea. They were at various times part of the Byzantine Empire - Orthodox Christian, the Ottoman Empire - Muslim-, and the Austro-Hungarian Empire-   Roman Catholic. The Ottomans were in authority beginning in the 15th century.  The Austro- Hungarians came in 1878 and lasted until a Serbian nationalist, Princip, shot the Archduke of Austro-Hungary in 1914.  Josef Tito, a communist, fought a guerilla war against the Nazis in WWII, and managed to create a communist country, that was not part of the USSR, including Croatia, Serbia, Slovania, Montenegro, Bosnia, 

Sarajevo, in Bosnia, is in the center of the Balkans.  It has been a major trading center for centuries.  Indeed, it was a stop on the Silk Road.  It's even has a caravanserai- a kind of fortified inn, where caravans could pull in and spend the night, feed themselves and their pack animals without fear of robbery.

Bosnia-Herzogovina is a Balkanized patchwork of Muslim, Catholic and Orthodox areas.  Serbia is primarily Orthodox and Croatia, primarily Catholic.

Sarajevo has traditionally been very tolerant. The Ottomans allowed to practice their religion openly. Many Sephardic Jews moved to Sarajevo during the Spanish Inquisition.There is a square in Sarajevo that contains a mosque, a Roman Catholic Church, an Orthodox Church and a Synagogue.