Bascarsija was founded in 1462, when Isa-bey Ishakovic
built an inn and number of shops. In that period, majority
population lived around Emperor's mosque, which is
located on the other side of Miljacka river, so, Isa-bey
Ishakovic builta bridge over the river in order to span main
Sarajevan settlement with economic centre of the city.
Sixteenth century was the best period in the history of
Bascarsija. Great number of craftsmen had been ssociating
in guilds, thus the Bascarsija had been partitioned in
streets with similar craft shops. Therefore, the streets
were named as Saraci (Saddlers), Kovaci (Blacksmiths),
Kazandziluk (Coppersmiths), etc. According to some
assessments, there were 12,000 shops in this period.
Next century could have been disastrous for this old part
of the city.Huge earthquake struck Sarajevo in 1640, and
later in 1644 and 1656, it was affected by fires. Half a
century later, in 1697, Eugene of Savoy fired and plundered
entire city, when only several buildings remained untouched.
Sarajevo was real metropolisin 1660 and the second most
important city in Ottoman Empire.Over 80,000 people lived in Sarajevo, and two centuries later, Zagreb and Belgrade had just around 15,000 inhabitants each. Range of accidents and events were reasons for cessation of development of Sarajevo and Bascarsija. By Austria-Hungary arrival, foreign architects wanted to make European city from Sarajevo.They succeeded in this idea after fire that struck everything but the part of Bascarsija which still exists. Thus the border between the old and „modern“ part of the city emerged at the endof Ferhadija Street.
Bascarsija's street
