O NASTANKU SARAJEVA
ABOUT THE FOUNDING OF SARAJEVO

Summary/Abstract: This paper highlights the significance of dates in the history of all settlements, and in particular an urban settlement, and the significance of introducing them into their chronological calendar. This is particulary significant for urban settlements and the dates of their gaining the status of a city, which is a very important historical and civilizational act by which the proper legal status of a settlement and its inhabitants would be acknowledged and verified. By this act, a settlement was singled out from a multitude of other populated places in its surroundings for its urban, social and cultural characteristics with regard to its status. This matter raises no questions by any means about the continuity of life in the wider area of an emerging or newly- declared urban settlement. However, the differences in status and socioeconomic aspects are clearly shown. A complex legal procedure for gaining, acknowledging and verifying the status of a city in the case of Sarajevo had to be observed. The motives for choosing the location for building a new complex were highlighted, the complex with suitable urban facilities and under the urban criteria that needed to be met in order to be able in any way to apply for the status of a city. A source on this matter, produced immediately after the foundation of the city and its legal verification, contains an answer to such questions. The careful selection of the location for the emerging city was made, namely the land for those facilities was chosen by the founder „ ... because he found it suitable for building a šeher (city) on it... “ This syntagm also answers the question of whether it is an entirely new or some earlier founded settlement. The Brodac Settlement, with a newly- formed city founded within its boundaries, appears in the sources in parallel with the name of the city of Sarajevo until the middle of the 16th century, which clearly confirms that it was a completely new settlement that had been founded within the boundaries of the Brodac village, and surely it had not been founded on a previously built rural or town settlement. Moreover, other settlements found in the vicinity of the city kept their names from the Middle Ages and throughout centuries to the present day they have been recognisable and distinguishable for those names as the parts of the Sarajevo city zone.

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