Inns Were the Soul of the City

The first inn to open in Belgrade was long before Paris, Vienna and other European metropolises.

Turks in the Dorćol neighborhood were managing an inn where coffee was served as early as 1522. In his book "Old Inns of Belgrade", Dr. Vidoje Golubović says that he is under no pretensions about it, and acknowledges the shop’s name was exactly the same as the inn, adding that, from the very beginning, we have used many such names such as caravanserai, khan, mehana, meyhana, coffee shop, roadhouse, buffet, tavern, public kitchen, lodge, bar, restaurant and, of course, hostelry to describe types of service.

According to information available in our literature, this author learned that the first inns were built in Mecca in the 15^th century and in the 16^th century in Syria and Cairo. But it is not certain when the first coffee inns came into being in Turkey. Golubović says he has found only a written note stating that an inn was functioning in Constantinople in 1554.

The enjoyment of drinking coffee was transferred from the East to the West in the 16^th century, however. After Belgrade, the city of Sarajevo opened its first inn in 1592 – London in 1652, Marseille in 1654, Vienna in 1683 and Leipzig in 1694.

"Inns, the old ones, were part of life in the city’s business districts; they had a special charm but also specific challenges. They pulsated with cultural life and entertainment, social and economic factors imbued with politics and ordinary life, too." An inn was the meeting place of lawyers and a residence for witnesses. Simply put, it was a place where life in a city took place: it was where theatre plays were prepared and performed; concerts were organized; sports associations met; political leaders gave parties; entertainers held their events – and where sessions of the National Assembly were held and newspapers, edited. It was a poet’s lair and a musician’s training ground. And the kitchens dished up many original recipes in them, too; people drank and slept there, says Golubović in the preface of his book.

In the beginning, only coffee was served in coffee inns "within the milieu of the cultural life of peoples from the East where first coffee inns appeared," says Golubović. Therefore, the claim that the Turks – who arrived in Belgrade in 1521 – served coffee in one corner in the Dorćol neighborhood is not groundless. Upon the available literature, leaving out suppositions, we can neither describe what the space, its appearance and furniture (if there was any owing to the Turkish custom of seating on the ground) looked like, nor how coffee was prepared and drank, or give any other detail."

It was not until 1738 – the year the Turks returned after the Austrian rule – that the very name "coffee inn" was applied in Belgrade and Serbia. Golubović writes that 16th century Turkish sources describe Belgrade’s caravanserais and khans. The khans provided better conveniences and were more comfortable for guests who wanted to stay a couple of days.

In 1740, the travel writer Koeper wrote about the first inns in Belgrade and emphasized that Muslims frequented some coffee inns, while others were by Christians. Koeper also described the "Black Eagle" inn in the Dorćol neighborhood as the best inn in the city.

The "Black Eagle" inn was located at the corner of the present Dušanova and King Petar Streets, and could be reached by walking up the fragile wooden stairs. It had no tables, chairs or benches but it was furnished with a minderluk (sofa) covered with kilims. The ceiling was so low that one could not stand upright. The walls were decorated in green, red, dark blue and orange colors. Jugs and water pots were placed at the entrance.

In the beginning of the 19th century, Prince Miloš imposed a tax on tavern owners and required working licenses. They had already become meeting places for merchants and speculators alike. In 1826 taverns in the Savamala and Bucharest districts began serving alcoholic drinks, and debauchery was not unknown.

But 1821 was a significant year for Belgrade’s tavern owners because the first guild was formed. The Prince’s Brewery was founded in 1840 followed by the First Serbian Beer Joint Stock Company in 1871, Weiffert’s in 1873 and in 1884, Bajloni’s breweries was established. Bajloni’s Brewery produced 28000 liters of light beer (Prvenac and Plezen) and dark beer (Prvenac and Salvator).

"The greatest number of taverns and coffee inns opened in Belgrade at the end of the 19^th century. According to some statistics, the city had one coffee inn or tavern for every 50 inhabitants. At the Theatre Square, (today’s Republic Square), there were 16 inns at the time and on Poenkar Street (Makedonska Street), 17 buildings out of 40 were coffee inns or taverns. There were 12 inns at the Varoš Gate, 11 at Terazije, 7 in Skadarlija, 9 at Slavija and 16 inns and taverns were located in the lower part of Dubrovačka Street," says Golubović explaining that, no matter what their names were, inns had a special place in the development of social, economical and cultural life of Belgrade.

Closing Time before Midnight   Describing the work of old taverns, Golubović says that in 1860 Nikola Hristić, then mayor of Belgrade, issued an order permitting citizens to stay in taverns until 11.00 p.m. After the hour was struck, no one could be on the streets without lamps. One of the responsibilities of the Serbian authorities was to require tavern owners to light a lamp outside at 10 p.m. Serbs obeyed the order but the Turks did not.   Chroniclers even recorded attempts to fight prostitution. Prince Miloš ordered at the time of his rule that "those wretched damsels be thrown into the Sava river." He also ordered that female pimps be thrown into the river. Golubović says that many Wallachian, Greek, gypsy, Jewish, Levantine… women were punished and adds that there are no records to confirm that Serbian women were engaged in the oldest trade. All these measures did not prevent chaos and prostitution in taverns or even at the popular "potato balls". Eventually, in 1838, Prince Miloš imposed tax on all ball visitors amounting to ten coins for the benefit of the hospital and one zwanzig for a policeman.

"Sources also noted that an inn was the place where political issues were discussed. Between two world wars, and prior to them, it was the place where important events took place or decisions were brought. Even members of political parties visited a certain coffee inn. Democrats went to "Barajevo," Slovenian People Party members frequented "Ljubljana" and ministers in Cvetković's government dropped in to the "Madera." The inn was the place where the known and the unknown sat as well as famous and anonymous writers, poets, newspaper and magazine editors, journalists, actors and various artists, painters, sculptors, athletes, politicians… The coffee inn was the place where significant literature works were born. Just let us mention Branislav Nušić and humorist Brana Cvetković who wrote all his vaudevilles, sketches and humorous songs in an inn. The coffee inn was the place of discussion on literature, of discourses on literature categories, road signs and literature alone. And not only that. New poems were read in inns where life was breathed into them and which were transferred further to receive their soul. Thus, many poems remained written and remembered for eternity and never forgotten. Some of them became hits which can be heard even today and which are gladly listened to: 'Mansard, a Little Flat', 'Periphery', 'A Little Street', 'Three Palm Trees On the Island of Happiness', 'Why Are You Asleep, Jo?' and 'What Do Men Know?' as well as many others."

Sofka, Divna Kostić, Mijat Mijatović, Nata Pavlović, Nada Aleksandrović, Dušan Đorđević… became famous singing those and other songs. Golubović mentions that a record was made of Sofka’s "beauty of her voice" in Paris and Berlin. Orchestras, such as the Cicvarić Brothers who also came from an inn, were also recorded.

A coffee inn was also a "shelter for the homeless, bohemians, sorcerers, wayfarers, students, people with no place to stay, prostitutes… Many Belgrade coffee inns had their own physiognomy, character and guest circle." Golubović says that Mihajlo Petrović Alas established the society for entertainment and enjoyment "SEE" of which the members gathered in an inn near the Bajloni Market. The "club" members would not allow expansion of the circle.

Because "the coffee inn has become the heart and the soul of Belgrade – it cannot be left out," Golubović mentions 578 old inns, 60 hotels and 44 khans and caravanserais in his book. Concluding the list with the period before World War II, he goes on with interesting names of Belgrade taverns and the Serbian tavern cuisine, describing some which no longer exist, such as "Dardanela," destroyed in 1902, but which nonetheless became a part of the capital’s mythology.