The views expressed in this essay are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of

MDG-F Programme Culture for Development or implementing agencies.

Crafts of Sarajevo (tools for supporting culture)

By Damir Hadžić

Borders of Bosnia and Herzegovina that is mainly mountainous country are

dominated by massif of Dinaric Alps on the west, rivers round up this region, Sava
and Una on the north, Drina to the east and Montenegro plateau on the south. In
the countryside there are great numbers of rivers that run to the tick forests up to
the Herzegovina where river Neretva goes through stone landscape up to the
Adriatic Sea.

This area is through history inhabited by Illyrians, people of Indo European origin.
Roman conquest did not pass this country; most of the area is conquered in
beginning of 9th AD. It can be said that cultural influences of Rome did not made
bigger significance in inner parts of the county. After the fall of Rome numerous
invaders raided the country, firstly Avars, Goths an then Slavs. Slavs settled on this
area in mid 6th century AD, Slavs are considered as significant and dominant
group in this region.

Bosnia and Herzegovina is geographically set between two large groups, Croats on
west under influence of Carolingian empire and Roman Catholic Church and Serbs
with relations to Byzantine Empire and Eastern Orthodox Church. These two
groups, beside its common Slavic origins are developing in different cultural,
artistic and religious forms. Although this population is considered linguistically
and ethnically Slavic, mixtures and conversions that have taken place over period
of time are created ethnical coherent but culturally diverse population.

In middle age, Bosnia is connected more to Croatia

and Herzegovina is dominated by Kingdom of
Crafts are same as
Serbia. Bosnia in 1180 becomes an independent
buildings - the symbols
country, a kingdom under Ban Kulin. Expanded over
of this town, its multi
the two centuries, Bosnia becomes the most
cultural environment
powerful state in Western Balkans and due to its
and coexistence.
rich mines enjoys relative prosperity. Significant
aspect of Bosnian medieval history is the nature of
indigenous Bosnian church, much influenced by
Bulgarian Bogomil sect with dualist beliefs. This church and Bosnia is accused
from Vatican for heresy. In this time culture flourished in Bosnia, in areas of
manuscript, illumination and metal works. Legendary and original symbol of
Bosnia in that time is monumentally decorated tombstone, called Stećak.

With Turkish conquest of the region Islam has introduced as a new religion, it is
viewed as reliable religious and social system for majority of population. Long
after Ottoman conquests Muslims remained a minority in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
During Ottoman rule in Bosnia and Herzegovina rich cultural heritage developed
even more, and become enriched in its oriental component. Arrival of Jews in

1
The views expressed in this essay are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of
MDG-F Programme Culture for Development or implementing agencies.

Balkans form Spain in 1490th made also a significant contribution to culture and
history of Bosnia. Under 400 year Turkish rule Bosnia was bordering with
Western Europe, a capital of Sarajevo was second largest city in large Turkish
Empire. Culture flourished with development and mix of Islamic, Catholic,
Orthodox and Sephardic cultures.

Old crafts in Sarajevo

Today’s Bosnia and Herzegovina is an image of it the past; arts and crafts are
embedded in modern culture from past times. In capital of Sarajevo there is Centre
of old crafts, located in old city core ambient that is certainly a part of this old
crafts tradition. Organized development of crafts in Sarajevo dates with arrival of
Ottoman Turks, in 15th century and with rise up of Sarajevo as large urban
settlement. This first emergence of crafts started to expand with military needs
and with development of construction in new buildings. With development of
town also grew the need for utilization of crafts, before all in warfare, construction
works, households and jewelry.

Some written records are mentioning crafts in the In old part of

1490th as notes in cadastral records, understandably Sarajevo every
this crafts are connected with army needs. Crafts as group of crafts had
black smith, sward makers, footwear makers, leather its own street.
workers and wool carders are ones most common
ones. In the period to come this number has doubled
in scale and in new crafts including locksmiths,
carpenters, wood carvers, cooks, blanket makers, coppersmiths and so on.

In 17th century with the needs of market and new improved innovations in
technology appearance of new crafts is also in increase, clock repairs, brush
makers, quilt making and tailors are one of the most present. In period to come
gods are produced in large quantities by leather workers, copper smiths, silk
makers and black smiths. In some crafts there is peek of aesthetic value and high
level of detail reached, some of this products are valued throughout whole empire
and well known in region. Specifically works of copper smiths and filigree workers
in gold and silver and leather works are exported in distant countries.

In old part of Sarajevo every group of crafts had its own street, named by a
dominant craft or similar. These streets have these names even today, and these
shops can be found in their purpose named streets. The leather workers are
located in the street still known by the name of their craft, Saraći.

In the Ottoman period in Sarajevo crafts were a main branch of commercial

activities in old part of town, they provided a living material for majority of urban
population. In Austro Hungarian period crafts had difficult position, stagnation
was present as well as lack of means to continue works as introduction of new
modern technology in production of industrial items appears. Opening of roads
and continuing trends in fashion change, lifestyle and clothing lead to direct

2
The views expressed in this essay are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of
MDG-F Programme Culture for Development or implementing agencies.

disappearance of crafts. Many of the crafts adapted to modern times,

modernization helped them to survive in some way. New crafts are emerged and
make synergies with the old ones like in shoe making, tailoring, and mechanics of
all kind.

With the continued development of market, modernization trends during the

twentieth century, certain crafts vanished in total, while those that survived had to
adapt their way of working to the times and the demands of the market. There are
a significant number of old craftsmen in Baščaršija area who despite all have
succeeded in maintaining their traditional appearance and offering their goods.

Today in Baščaršija is not possible to find all of the old crafts present in their
historic places of origin, in museum are displayed some number of exhibits that
present art of the craftsmen and good hand made works from past. Many of the
old crafts are vanished or in a good way to be just a part of the recent history. In
exhibits is possible to find dishes, caps, brushes and wood work. Tinsmith works,
peddlers, knitting and calligraphy are also present, with cloth makers and slipper
makers. This exhibition is dedicated to all the people that still today are working
on traditional way in Baščaršija and their crafts are still not vanished entirely.
Majority of exhibition material in museum of Bursa Bezistan is actually the old
crafts exhibits cause these works are the first ones that made Baščaršija, and made
it interesting to the years to come.

Efforts are to save old crafts and to still appreciate hand made products, it is
difficult to combine today, so exhibits and public awareness to “keep alive” old
traditions are necessary to make all this time actual. Today some of old crafts are
completely disappearing from Baščaršija, like blacksmiths and haberdashers, like
rope making and brush making are preserved just by one or two persons in total.
A reason to this situation is absence of schools to educate generations for this
calling, and in mass industrial production of goods.

Crafts - keepers of Bašcaršija traditions

Every mention of Sarajevo, without saying means an old Baščaršija. Crafts as

building are the symbols of this town, its multi cultural environment and
coexistence. Crafts, craftsman and their products as real works of art are
noticeable on every step of old part of town. They have lived together following all
ups and downs through centuries.

Sometimes crafts were organized in societies, guilds, exclusively by its types of

craft. At those times crafts are transferred from father or old craftsmen and also
there were special schools so the young people can learn and appreciate authentic
way of work and tradition. In that time tax deductions and stimulations are given
from the government to all of town in its credits, and today craftsmen on their
own needs to demand status and benefits, without this is not possible to conduct
business today, especially not in the way of constant changes that is brought to us
by globalization world wide.

3
The views expressed in this essay are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of
MDG-F Programme Culture for Development or implementing agencies.

Preservation of cultural heritage needs to be one of most important missions of

every environment that has in purpose treasuring of identity but also and
promotion of its values. Zone of improved trade of Baščaršija has recognized this
big importance for Sarajevo and whole Bosnia and Herzegovina, and assembled
expert team in area of cultural heritage, like archeologists, ethnologist and
orientalist that are working on promotions values of “Spirit of Baščaršija” in
project that will last for 6 months and will produce a catalogue, exhibition and
movie.

The goal is to that through texts and photos, on authentic way present creation
and development of crafts through history. Movie about works of craftsmen and
creation of products on Baščaršija will be shown on opening of the exhibition.
Contents of exhibition will be with most beautiful craft works that are kept in
museums and old crafts families. Exhibition aims to show through combination of
authentic and modern ambience all of the beauty of old and modern craft works
and to create bit forgotten ambience of craftsmen surroundings.

Crafts on Bašcaršija today

Today in old part of Sarajevo is possible to find some of the crafts that have origins
in old crafts traditions and that exits and working even today.

Slipper-maker’s craft

Slipper makers are one of them, when

looking in the history, wearing of
slippers is closely associated with
culture of life and the house. Footwear
was assorted according to purpose in the
ancient civilizations of the Old East,
where the cities are developed. The out
of doors footwear was strictly separated
from the one that was worn inside the
house or temple. It was regarded as
blasphemy to enter in a temple or house
in the shoes worn out of doors.

This attitude toward the house and the temple was preserved through the history
of three monotheistic religions. Slippers became footwear that was worn
exclusively in and around the house. With the arrival of the Ottomans in Bosnia,
the process of urbanization began with foundation of cities of the Levantine type,
where economic life was clearly separated from the family life.

4
The views expressed in this essay are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of
MDG-F Programme Culture for Development or implementing agencies.

Slippers became a kind of synonym for an urban living culture. The Bosnian word
for slipper is “papuča”, is the word of Arabic origin, pronounced as “papuš” in
Persian, but it came to us in pronunciation as “papuča”. The Ottomans organized
crafts into guilds, and then present craftsmen adapted to newly appointed
organizations. The slipper-maker's craft was joined to boot-maker's guild, along
with “mestvedžije” a makers of soft leather indoor footwear and “firaeldžije”. The
slipper makers were mentioned for the first time in the registry from 1530, from
which is visible that there were not so many slipper makers, but by the second half
of the 16th century, number of these craftsmen jumped up in number.

Craftsmen from this guild were located in the special street which was named
„Čizmedžijska čaršija“, although their workshops were also settled in other parts
of the Baščaršija. The workshops were built above the slipper shops. The poorest
craftsmen made their products at home and sold it to tradesmen in inns or to
domestic traders. Craftsmen of the boot maker’s guild were of middle income
state, while the traders were very rich. Tools used for making slippers are
basically the same as for all other crafts, which mainly process leather. Now days
this products can be purchased in several shops, they popular name for the
tourists are “Aladinke”, like Disney cartoon with hero Aladdin who with one rub of
a magic lamp, meets up with Genie.

Coppersmiths

Coppersmiths are also a

significant part of a guild
that also gathers tinsmiths.
The craftsmen create items
from copper while the latter
make them by tin plating.
Since the items are made
from copper, especially
tableware, they were not
only tin plated, but also
decorated with ornaments
and engravings, what gives
them an artistic dimension.
The decorating in the past was done mostly by women, known as savaćenje. It is a
decorating method typical of Sarajevo and has survived to this day. This craft
came to Bosnia and Herzegovina with the arrival of Ottoman Turks, and the
Coppersmiths’ Bazaar in Sarajevo can be found at the same place where it was
founded in the 16th century. Although copper smiths shops could be found in
Vratnik, the centre of this craft was in the Oprkanj Street in Baščaršija. This bazaar
met the needs for copper smith items of the entire Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Coppersmiths could take pride in the most numerous tools of the trade and in

5
The views expressed in this essay are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of
MDG-F Programme Culture for Development or implementing agencies.

more than seventy different products including dishes and tableware of various
types and sizes, water vessels ewers, jugs and pitchers, coffee ware with jugs,
coffee pots and coffee cup holders, different sacred objects, lighting products,
items for barber shops, items for baths, etc.

The chief raw materials are copper, tin, lead and sal ammoniac, which were melted
in high temperature ovens and then poured in moulds. The work was extremely
strenuous and demanded special equipment parcel which was kept moist at all
times. The first of the coppersmiths in Sarajevo is mentioned in the year 1489.
Their number gradually increased and they were able to found a guild in early
16th century. Theirs was the first guild whose members started trading in copper,
tin and copper smith products. First reports of this can be found in early 18th
century, while trading did not appear in other guilds until the 19th century.
Thanks to the Austria Hungarian authorities, a special workshop for handcrafts
was established, providing an additional stimulus to this activity. All of their
smithies are today located in the tourist attraction in Sarajevo - the Kazandžiluk
street. Best purchased souvenir in Sarajevo today is coffee pot with cup holders.

Filigree and silversmith's crafts

Processing and using of metals took very important position in craft production.
Metal processing crafts include black smiting, gun smiting, sword smiting,
"zildzije" as production of tools from brass and bronze, lock smiting, copper
smiting and silver smiting. Coppersmiths and silversmiths dealt with precise
artistic processing of metals. Silversmiths made gold and silver jewelry.

A silversmith's street was founded in the first half of 16th century at location of
today's Gazi Husref-bey's Street and Mali Kujundžiluk Street. Goldsmiths work
mainly in this street today. The filigree craft originates from silversmith's craft,
but by the time, filigree workers perfected their skills and became independent, as
a separate trade. At the beginning, silversmiths made pieces of jewelry, while
filigree workers made precise ornaments of bent and knitted silver wire to fill
voids in the pieces of jewelry, or the ornaments were just glued on the surface.
Filigree is Latin word, which means “something precise”. Since the Turkish word
for filigree is “telkar”, it is possible that filigree craft was brought in this region
through Ragusa in Italy. The silver ore, used by the craftsmen, had been mainly
extracted from various minerals from Kreševo and Srebrenica regions.

A thin wire would be made first and then it was knitted with great precision and
soldered for a basis, using special silver powder. Perfect forms were and are still
made from a silver wire, thus the filigree art can be rightfully qualified as an art or
applied art. Separating from silversmiths, the filigree workers began to make not
only jewelry, but also items of use, such as jewelry and money boxes, ladies' bags,

6
The views expressed in this essay are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of
MDG-F Programme Culture for Development or implementing agencies.

tobacco pipes, cigarette cases, etc. Beside jewelry, their filigree work was used to
decorate weapon, respectively, sword handles and different kinds of guns.

Filigree-workers designed various jewelry articles, as they still do, including

“belenzuke” and “halhale” a kind of bracelets, earrings, brooches, pendants,
“teperluke” a decorations for women's caps, belt buckles and belts. The filigree
craft and silver smiting have survived till today, and there are few craftsmen who
preserve tradition of jewelry designing. It is to hope that they will transfer their
skills to young people, thus the art of silver and gold processing will not die out in
our region. Today this jewelry can be bought in the streets of Baščaršija in
Sarajevo.

References:

- Wenzel, Marian, Ornamental Motifs on Tombstones from Medieval Bosnia and Surrounding
Regions. Sarajevo, Veselin Maslesa, 1965
- Basler, Đuro, Cultural history of BiH, 1966
- Ivan Lovrenovic, Labirint i pamčenje, Bosanski Mramorovi, Oslobođenje, Sarajevo 1990
- Old crafts in BiH, Norbert Heyl and Cristina Gregorin, Sarajevo 2008
- Stari zanati, Ahmet Muminovic, Sarajevo, 2008
- www.bhcrafts.ba, www.stari-zanati.ba, www.bascarsija.ba

About Author:

Damir Hadžić, born 1976 in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, studied at the Faculty of
Architecture, Architecture and Cultural Heritage Conservation and Management of
Cultural Property at the Sarajevo University, Bratislava and Siena. On Faculty of
Architecture in Sarajevo received an architects diploma at Academia Istropolitana Nova in
Bratislava, and by the University of Siena master and reported the doctorate. Works as an
architect and consultant in the private, public and non-governmental sector in Bosnia and
Herzegovina, Slovakia, Italy, Slovenia and Sweden. Published about 20 papers and over 90
projects in the fields of architecture, restoration and reconstruction of cultural heritage.
Held lectures on the theory and practice in the restoration and protection of cultural
heritage at numerous conferences and seminars in Bosnia and Herzegovina and in the
world. One of the founders of the non-governmental organization Group for Heritage, the
first registered at the state level in Bosnia and Herzegovina, which deals with the themes
of reconstruction and restoration of cultural heritage and preservation of cultural and
historical values of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Actively involved in projects of post-war
reconstruction and restoration of national monuments in Bosnia and Herzegovina since
2000.

About the MDG-F Programme:

The Programme Culture for Development is a three-year programme funded by the

Spanish Millennium Development Goals Achievement Fund which is being implemented in
partnership of three UN Agencies: UNDP, UNICEF and UNESCO, in cooperation with the

7
The views expressed in this essay are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of
MDG-F Programme Culture for Development or implementing agencies.

Ministry of Civil Affairs of BiH, Ministry of Culture and Sports of FBiH, Ministry of
Education and Culture of RS, as well as other institutions working in the area of education
and culture. The Programme started in January 2009.