The last name Despić was first recorded in official documents around year 1780, when Nikola Ristić (Despić) bought a house in Latinluk, a warehouse in Tašlihan and a store where he opened a trade shop where he sold his own leather products.
Over the years and decades that came, the Despić family made some serious business precisely from that store, by trading with business partners in southeastern Europe and Constantinople, and later expanding the business to Italy, Austria and Germany. The Despić family, thus, built a large trade house in Sarajevo.
Around year 1882, the Despić family also built its Inn at the locality of the present Titova Street. This Inn was built by Jeftan Despić, one of the descendants of Nikola Ristić. Despić sold the Inn to Vasa Vitorović, who sold the Inn to the charity society “Merhamet” in 1930.
Family tradition of trading was carried over from generation to generation by the descendants of this family, expanding it to the trade with fur and other valuable goods and thus becoming the most powerful class of the Leather Manufacturers Guild. Their success and wealth are proven by the fact that in 1854 they possessed capital worth nearly 70.00 silver Forints. In addition to investing in real estate, they became owners of three houses, two large stores in Veliki Ćurčiluk and two warehouses in Tašlihan, confirming that they are a powerful merchant family that maintained family relations with powerful merchant families at the time, such as Jeftanović, Josipović, Davidović, Skrškić, Odović and other families. Since wealth is accompanied by social power, the Despić family also had an important role in the social life of Sarajevo, especially in culture.
After the Second World War, the wealth of the Despić family disappeared with the nationalization of their property. Today, the only property of this family left in Sarajevo is the Despić House with a part of furniture and their trade archive, valuable materials for the study of their history and the history of the high urban class in Sarajevo, located in the City Archives. Apart from exceptional historial and cultural value, the Despić House also owns priceless movable furniture, including 333 objects and 270 photographs of this prominent Orthodox family taken from the late 18th until the early 20th century.
The last descendants of the Despić Family moved from Sarajevo to Belgium in 1967. They gave the house to the City, with a desire to see it turned into a museum. That is not the only facility gifted by this family. Namely, the Despić family also owned the house which how accommodates the Museum of Literature and Theatre Art of BiH.
The Despić House is significant for one more reason. The first theatre plays of the Western type were played here. In the so-called Theatre Room, the Despić family often hosted eminent people of their time, representatives of the diplomatic core accredited in Sarajevo, their friends, and members of the family.
(Source: Tarik Jažić Blog – tarikjazic.blogspot.com)
