SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina — Pope Francis urged Bosnia’s Muslims, Orthodox and Catholics to put the “deep wounds” of their past behind them and work together for a peaceful future as he arrived in Sarajevo on Saturday for a one-day visit to encourage reconciliation following the devastating three-way war of the 1990s.

Francis received a joyous welcome from thousands of cheering Bosnians who lined his motorcade route through the mostly Muslim city of 300,000. Another 65,000 people, most of them Catholics, packed the same Sarajevo stadium where St. John Paul II presided over an emotional post-war Mass of reconciliation in 1997.

Nearly every step of Francis’ day was designed to show off interfaith and interethnic harmony in a city once known as “Europe’s Jerusalem” for the peaceful coexistence of Christians, Muslims and Jews. The city, though, became synonymous with religious enmity during the 1992-95 conflict that left 100,000 dead and displaced half the population.