The summer garden that is part of Sarajevo’s Europe Hotel was built on top of the remains of Tašlihan, a stone inn (han) that was erected between 1540 and 1543 by the Ottoman Governor, Gazi Husrev Bey.

Tašlihan was one of three caravanserais in Sarajevo (along with Morića Han and Kolobara Han) which served both travelers and horses. A caravanserai was actually a large fort-like structure which could accommodate an entire caravan, with all of the pack horses and merchants.

Caravanserais were usually built on two levels and they would almost always have only one entrance, which would definitely be locked at night! The open courtyard area was reserved for the loading and unloading of goods, it was often paved with cobblestones and there would also be a well or fountain.

On one or more sides of the courtyard there was a wide porch-like area, behind which were storehouses and goods.

One side of the courtyard was reserved for horses and there was usually at least one set of stairs that led from the lower level to the upper floor, where guests had their rooms.

Tašlihan was the largest and most representative inn of its kind in the region and master workmen from Dubrovnik worked on its construction, as well as that of Gazi Husrev Bey’s Bezistan, which was immediately adjacent to it. It’s interesting to note that Tašlihan had cupolas made of lead, which was not the case with other inns in Sarajevo.

Tašlihan experienced fires on several occasions and the last fire in 1879 totally destroyed it. The remains of the inn were removed in 1912, except for the sections of the wall that were built against Bezistan.

While Europe Hotel was being renovated, reconstructed and expanded, archeological excavations were carried out in the hotel’s summer garden area and it was then that sections of Tašlihan’s foundations were uncovered.

In 2004, the Committee for the Preservation of National Monuments in BiH made this archeological site or, more specifically, the remains of Tašlihan, a National Monument of Bosnia and Herzegovina.