Sarajevo Meeting Of Cultures

This historic spot is marked on the ground where the modern shopping street Ferhadija meets Sarači, a market street since 1531, when the Ottoman governor Gazi Husrev-bey ordered 60 shops to be built. Although the sign on the sidewalk is here, a more striking comparison can be seen on the street behind, where the ancient ruins of Tašlihan (once an inn for merchants) sit alongside the modern Hotel Europe. Sarajevo is known as a city where East meets West, and there are few sights more obvious than businessmen drinking Italian coffee on the hotel terrace overlooking the ancient Ottoman ruins. When you leave Baščaršija toward Ferhadija street, you will find the Sarajevo Meeting of Cultures sign. It is indeed located at the spot where Baščaršija, with its more eastern atmosphere and old mosques, ends, and Ferhadija street, with its western shops, begins. The sign was an initiative of Sarajevo Meeting of Cultures (SMOC), an NGO that wants to promote Sarajevo as a city of peace and tolerance where different cultures meet.