On its west is the Svjetlost building, while at its south, beyond Zelenih Beretki, stands the Dom Armije (1881) The square was opened in the interwar period on the site of the former tram/train station and customs house (gradski kolodvor).

In Sarajevo, while at first planned in dominant position on the hill of Hrid, the square in front of the Dom Armije was finally chosen for the monument and renamed after King Petar in 1934.

[1] Following the demolition of the old train station and customs house, in 1938 a jury including Ivan Meštrović awarded the competition for the monument to the Zagreb sculptor Fran Kršnić.

A socialist monument is erected at its centre in 1977,[4] coupled in the early 1980s with a series of busts representing Bosnian-Herzegovinian writers: Veselin Masleša, Ivo Andrić, Rodoljub Čolaković, Branko Ćopić, Mak Dizdar, Skender Kulenović, Meša Selimović, and Isak Samokovlija.

[6] In 2005 the square was partially renamed by adding to the traditional Trg oslobođenja denomination the name of the first President of the independent Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Alija Izetbegović.

[9] A project for the reconstruction of Trg Oslobodjenja was announced in early 2020 by the mayor of Stari Grad, Sarajevo, Ibrahim Hadžibajrić (NDL), with an underground car park that would be financed by the municipality of Fatih (Istanbul), for a total of 6 million euros.

[11] On January 28, 2021, the Stari Grad municipal council, with Hadžibajrić just re-elected for the fourth term, approved the project: three floors of underground parking, for 242 cars, a mainly paved square, to host fairs and events, and a new monument to the soldiers fallen during the siege of Sarajevo.