Tabaci

The street is interrupted by the Agrokomerc Business Center, so it’s actually made up of two shorter streets that have separate access points.

The street’s name comes from the Turkish word for leatherworkers (tabaci) who had their own bazaar here as early as the 16th century and who treated leather in workshops called tabhane, which were located along the banks of the Miljacka River.

The leatherworkers were not allowed to enter mosques around town because of the unpleasant, naturally-occurring smell that was associated with this trade. Instead, they had a special place for worship in their čaršija called Tabački Mesjid.

The tabaci stopped working here in 1870 when the Bosnian Governor, Topal Osman Pasha, had them relocated much further downriver, because of sanitary reasons, to where the neighborhood of Marijin Dvor is located today. This spot was called Donji (lower) Tabaci and their old čaršija was called Gornji (upper) Tabaci.

When Donji Tabaci was renamed Gundulićeva St. (now Kotromanićeva) in 1932, there was no longer a need to differentiate between the two locations in the old bazaar in the same way, so the street was simply called Tabaci.