Bascarsija was laid out in the Ottoman period as the commercial quarter of a new city, and its logic is still legible: streets organised by trade, low workshops opening directly on the pavement, covered markets, courtyards attached to mosques, and inns built around a yard for merchants and their animals. The most persistent of its crafts is copperwork. In the alley of the coppersmiths, sheets of metal are still beaten, chased and tinned by hand, and the sound of hammering carries through the quarter from morning onwards. Around the Sebilj, the wooden fountain that has become the emblem of Sarajevo, cafes serve coffee in the local manner, with the pot, the cup and the cube of sugar that make the ritual. A few steps away, the great mosque complex of the sixteenth century, with its madrasa, library and covered bezistan, shows how religious endowment financed the commercial city. Rebuilt after the damage of the 1990s, the quarter remains a working place rather than a reconstruction for visitors. Filmed in 4K, close to hands and materials, the programme suits strands on culture, crafts and the cities of the Balkans.
