BRUSA BEZISTAN
Author: Amra Madžarević, museum advisor, Museum of the City of Sarajevo • Video: Mirza Hasanefendić
Bezistans (domed markets) are monumental buildings, covered marketplaces mostly aimed at selling textiles. The word 'bezistan' draws origin from Persian word bez – linen, and a suffix which signifies the place, stan. There were several bezistans in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and two in Sarajevo have been preserved: Gazi Husrev-beg and Brusa bezistan.
Brusa bezistan was commissioned by grand vizier Rustem-pasha Opuković, a native of Sarajevo surroundings. As a child he went to Istanbul, where he progresses very fast, and even married a daughter of sultan Suleiman the Magnificent. He left behind many buildings and endowments. Construction of Brusa bezistan was completed in 1551. Rustem-pasha himself owned workshops for producing silk in the city of Bursa and sold his products in this bezistan. It was therefore named Brusa bezistan.
The building has a rectangular shape and is domed with six domes of 7-meter radius. In the middle, the domes rest on two big pillars (2.30 x 2.75 cm), with two smaller domes above them. Interestingly, these pillars housed two small rooms (vault), where valuables were kept. Walls are up to 130 cm wide. Individual shops were built on all the four outer sides.
In his travelogue of 1659 Evlija Čelebija writes: “It has a beautiful appearance, hard, a bezistan covered with domes. It houses all sorts of expensive Indian, Sindth, Arabic, Persian, Polish and Czech goods. Dubrovnik and Great Venice bring here innumerable different expensive stuff for sales, on pack horses.”
Over time, the purpose of the building changed, from selling expensive goods, through a warehouse of military uniforms (Austro-Hungarian period, a market of dairy products to “Bosnafolklorˮ – a company involved in sales of souvenirs and items from the tradition of Bosnia and Herzegovina. For a while, it was closed. Today, it houses the permanent exhibition of the City Museum from Neolithic until 1914.
The central space of the museum exhibition is occupied by the Model of old Sarajevo marketplace, which represents its appearance until 1878. The model was made by model-makers Husein Karišik and Mesud Sarić, on the basis of data by historian Hamdija Kreševljaković and the design by engineer Juraj Najdhart.
In 2006, the Commission to Preserve National Monuments of BiH proclaimed this building a national monument: urban ensemble – Brusa bezistan (Rustem-pasha bezistan, Little bezistan) with shops in Sarajevo.
References:
Kreševljaković, Hamdija (1991), Esnafi i obrti u Bosni I Hercegovini 1463-1978, Selected works II, Veselin Masleša, Sarajevo.
Decision on proclaiming the Ambiental ensemble Building ensemble – Brusa bezistan (Rustem-pasha bezistan, Little bezistan) with shops in Sarajevo a national monument of Bosnia and Herzegovina/Commission to Preserve National Monuments, Sarajevo, 2006.