Old Crafts in Sarajevo: 70 crafts, 400 products
The City’s crafts are mentioned in the oldest known cadastral registry of Sarajevo dating from 1489. They mostly included those that served the needs of the army such as blacksmiths, sword smiths, cobblers, saddlers (who also made other leather items), blanket makers, wool workers (craftsmen that made wool and cotton products) as well as butchers, bakers and boza makers (drinks made from corn flour).
The cadastral registry 1528-1536 mentions 19 new crafts, including farriers (shoeing horses), horseshoe makers (who also made hobnails for men’s shoes and boots), locksmiths, the building trade (both carpenters and masons), woodworkers (who made and ornamented wooden items), cooks, goat-hair workers (who made items from goats hair), coppersmiths (who made cooper items), silversmiths, goldsmiths and slipper makers. Bell makers, steelyard makers (who measured using steelyard balances), watchmakers (who made and repaired watches), quilt makers, abadžije (tailors who made rustic style clothing for men using fine homespun wool) and comb makers appeared in the early 17th century.
About seventy different crafts
were mentioned by the end of the 19th century with some 400 different products.
The most numerous items were those produced by saddler makers, coppersmiths,
kazazi (who made items from silk) and blacksmiths.
These craft shops were
partitioned into streets. The saddlers (sarači), for example, were located in
the street named Sarači, while the streets for butchers, sagrdžije (who
prepared leather for further processing) and blacksmiths were located around
the Čekrekči Mosque. Tailors were located in streets in the area of the Latin
Bridge and sword makers were situated in the street that is today Zelene
Beretke Street. Bakers, grocers, coffee sellers and aščinica (public kitchens)
did not have their specific streets as their shops were located throughout the
bazaar. Craftsmen were organized into guilds and each guild had its own board
that was completely independent from other guilds. A guild consisted of
artisans of all confessions. Crafts were the mainstay of Sarajevo’s economy
over several centuries; however, with the introduction of industrial production
they faced a difficult period. Crafts had already begun to stagnate by the peak
of the Ottoman period due to either a lack of apprentices interested in
learning a craft or because of the introduction of new modern manufacturing
technology. With changes in fashion and lifestyle, some crafts gradually
disappeared such as sword makers, gunsmiths (who repaired rifles) and cutlers
(who made knives). Crafts that began to disappear due to the introduction of
fabric material included weavers, blanket makers, kečedžije (who made clothes
from cowhide and fur), kazazi (who made clothes from silk) and čurćije (who
made clothes from fur and leather).
The introduction of cheap
industrial products for mass consumption in the market coincided with the
arrival of the Austro-Hungarian authorities in 1878 and this placed most of
Sarajevo’s crafts at serious risk of disappearing forever. The national
government undertook several important measures aimed at the preservation of
the traditional crafts and the revival of those that had already began to
disappear. Efforts to improve the processing of artisan and handmade products
included the establishment of an Arts and Crafts Workshop, a National
Kilim-weaving Workshop and a National Embroidery Workshop. In 1905, the Arts
and Crafts Workshop launched a training course for assistants and apprentices
for private art and crafts workshops. A crafts school operated in Sarajevo from
1893 and apprentices working in private crafts workshops also had the option to
attend the Entrepreneurial and Crafts Training School where students were
taught various entrepreneurial skills and crafts. Thanks to the measures
undertaken in late 19th and early 20th century by the Austro-Hungarian
administration the traditional crafts were preserved and some even improved due
to better technique. During the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes and later
under Kingdom of Yugoslavia crafts were one of the most important branches of
the economy. The state authorities embarked on a number of measures aimed at
preserving and improving the traditional crafts as well as introducing new
ones. Sarajevo’s crafts survived the period of the Second World War. At that time,
artisans worked and earned as much as the war circumstances would allow. The
most significant changes to crafts businesses occurred during the first decade
after the end of WWII and were related to the introduction of the socialist
system.
According to a craft shops census
conducted in 1950 there were 742 shops with 1,196 master craftsmen with 190
apprentices in Sarajevo; the private sector was still strong at that time. The
new government tried to strengthen the cooperative sector and to this end
introduced the position of National Master of Crafts. Those artisans who handed
over their shops to the State voluntarily were granted the status of National
Master of Crafts and given the right to manage their shop or do other work
related to their craft. Yet craftsmen were reluctant to give up their shops.
This is testified to by the fact that from the date the Law on Crafts took
effect (October 11, 1950) up until the end of 1951 only 11 master craftsmen in
the whole of Bosnia and Herzegovina were awarded the title of National Master
of Crafts, only 4 of them were from Sarajevo. The availability of large
quantities of industrial goods at cheap prices again posed a major threat to
the crafts. With the intention to preserve and prevent the disappearance of the
crafts the State established the Crafts Office, which together with the Crafts
School (Apprenticeship) made a significant contribution to the preservation of
the artisan skills. Artisan skills also survived the siege of Sarajevo in which
artisans made items that helped the citizens of Sarajevo to endure the siege.
The most illustrative example is Sarajevo’s tinsmiths who during the siege
revived the craft of making wood stoves, which at one time heated almost the
entire city.
Over the years, many of these crafts have died out and today the only testimony to their existence can be found in the toponyms for the names of Sarajevo streets and in the surnames of certain families. Yet in spite of this, crafts continue to survive in Sarajevo; they adapt to its citizens and visitors and still have much to offer in the future.