Neighbourhood Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina
Cats in Baščaršija
The Ottoman bazaar at the heart of Sarajevo, coppersmiths and coffee and a wooden fountain covered in pigeons, with cats in the mosque courtyards and on the steps of the coppersmiths’ lane, fed by everyone who works there.
Where to find cats in Baščaršija: Baščaršija, the old Ottoman bazaar of Sarajevo, on the north bank of the Miljacka, and the hill of Kovači above it. When: Morning, when the shops open and the coffee starts, or the late afternoon light. Spring and autumn; the summer is hot and the winter is real. Why here: A five-hundred-year-old bazaar where the coppersmiths, the coffee sellers and the mosque all feed the same cats.
The short version
- Where
- Baščaršija, the old Ottoman bazaar of Sarajevo, on the north bank of the Miljacka, and the hill of Kovači above it
- When
- Morning, when the shops open and the coffee starts, or the late afternoon light. Spring and autumn; the summer is hot and the winter is real
- How long
- Two hours for the bazaar. Half a day with the hill and the view
- What it costs
- Free. A Bosnian coffee is a euro or so, and you will have several
- Why here
- A five-hundred-year-old bazaar where the coppersmiths, the coffee sellers and the mosque all feed the same cats
What to bring
- The morningThe shutters go up around nine. The cats are on the steps waiting for the people who feed them.
- Coins for coffeeBosnian coffee, in a copper pot with a sugar cube and a lokum, is the currency of sitting still here. Sitting still is how you meet the cats.
- Shoes for cobbles and hillsThe bazaar is cobbled and the streets above it are steep. Kovači and the Yellow Bastion are a climb.
- Some careThis is a city that was besieged within living memory. The scars are on the walls. Ask before you photograph people.
Why there are cats everywhere
The bazaar has been feeding cats since the fifteenth century, and the coppersmiths still keep a bowl by the door.
Baščaršija was laid out in the fourteen-sixties by Isa-beg Ishaković, the Ottoman governor who founded Sarajevo, and it has been the city’s market ever since: a grid of low wooden shops around a wooden fountain, the Sebilj, with lanes named for the trades that worked them. Kazandžiluk is still the coppersmiths’ lane, and the hammering still comes out of the doorways. The Gazi Husrev-beg Mosque, built in 1531, is the grandest in the Balkans, and its courtyard, with the fountain and the plane trees, is where the cats sit.
Sarajevo feeds its cats the way the rest of the old Ottoman world does: a bowl by the shop door, scraps from the ćevabdžinica, the mosque caretaker with a bag of dry food. The cats are on the steps of the coppersmiths, in the courtyards of the caravanserai, under the tables of the coffee houses, and in the windows of the old buildings around the bazaar, some of which still carry the marks of the shelling from the siege of the nineteen-nineties. A cat in a barred window of a scarred wall is a very Sarajevo photograph.
Above the bazaar, the hill of Kovači is a cemetery, white stones on the grass with the whole city below, and the cats go up there for the quiet. Beyond it, the Yellow Bastion is where the cannon is fired at sunset in Ramadan and where everyone goes for the view. The cats are there too, on the wall, looking at the same thing.
The walk
From the fountain through the coppersmiths’ lane to the mosque, then up the hill to the cemetery and the bastion for the view. Two hours, with coffee.
- From Sarajevo airportBus or taxi to the old town30 minA taxi is cheap. Ask for Baščaršija; everyone knows it.
- From The railway or bus stationTram 1 to Baščaršija20 minThe tram runs along the river and ends at the bazaar.
- From Anywhere in the centreWalk east along Ferhadija10 minThe pedestrian street turns from Austro-Hungarian to Ottoman at a line on the ground. That line is the entrance.
The Sebilj
The wooden fountain in the middle of the square, with more pigeons than any square needs. The cats sit at the edges of the square under the shop awnings and watch the pigeons with professional interest.
At the edge of the square. The pigeons are the entertainment.Jennifer Boyer from Fredrick, Maryland, USA, CC BY 2.0 Kazandžiluk
The coppersmiths’ lane, off the square: coffee pots, trays, and the hammering. The cats are on the steps of the workshops, and the bowl by the door is theirs. Buy a džezva; it is the souvenir.
In the bazaar, between the copper and the coffee.Anosmia, CC BY 2.0 Gazi Husrev-beg Mosque
Along Sarači, the main lane, to the great mosque and its courtyard. Cats under the plane trees by the ablution fountain. Visitors are welcome outside prayer times; dress modestly and be quiet.
Outside the mosque. The courtyard is the quiet place in the bazaar, and the cats know.Jennifer Boyer from Fredrick, Maryland, USA, CC BY 2.0 Kovači cemetery
Up the hill north of the bazaar to the cemetery on the grass, where the city’s first president is buried and where the whole of Sarajevo is laid out below. Cats between the white stones. Walk respectfully.
Kovači. Quiet, green, and looking down on the whole city.jonworth-eu, CC BY 2.0 The Yellow Bastion
A few minutes further up, the old Ottoman bastion with the best view in the city. Everyone comes at sunset. The cats sit on the wall and are photographed more than the view.
Sarači, the bazaar’s main lane. Back down here for dinner.Niegodzisie, CC BY-SA 4.0
Same numbers as the list. Worth keeping open on your phone.
The cats you will meet
Balkan street cats: tabby, black and white, thick-coated for the winters, fed by shopkeepers and mosque caretakers and comfortable around people who are sitting still with coffee. Sociable on the steps of the bazaar, more private in the cemeteries and the windows.
Bazaar cats
On the shop steps of the coppersmiths and coffee sellers.
Fed by the door. Sit at a coffee house and they come to you.
Courtyard cats
Under the plane trees of the mosque.
Quiet, well fed by the caretaker, and not to be chased.
Window cats
Behind the bars of the old buildings.
Somebody’s, in an apartment with a window on the street. Look, do not tap.
Everybody says The cats are strays with nobody looking after them.
Actually The bazaar has fed its cats for five centuries and still does, shop by shop. They are street cats in the Ottoman sense: nobody’s and everybody’s, with a bowl by every door.
How not to be the annoying one
- The mosque courtyard is a place of prayer. Quiet, modest dress, and stay outside at prayer times.
- Feed at a bowl that exists, by a shop, not in the square. The pigeons win anything left on the ground.
- Kovači is a cemetery with recent graves. Walk on the paths and keep your voice down.
- Buy your coffee where the cat is sitting. That is the shop that feeds it.
- The war is in living memory. Be a guest here.
