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Restaurant or café · Градска општина Стари град, Belgrade
Кафана „?”
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Kafana “?” is Belgrade's oldest still-operating tavern, and it wears its name as a scar from a fight with the church across the street.
The house was built in 1823 by the diplomat Naum Ičko, on funds and orders from Prince Miloš Obrenović I. Miloš later gave it to his personal doctor, Toma Kostić — Ećim Toma — for his service in the Second Serbian Uprising. Ećim Toma turned the house into a hospitality business known around town as Tomina kafana. It was renamed Serbian kafana, then Kod pastira (Shepherd's) in 1878. In 1892 the new owner, Ivan Pavlović, wanted to call it Kod Saborne crkve — By the Cathedral Church — and the Serbian Orthodox Church objected to its cathedral being referenced in a tavern's name. As a stopgap, Pavlović hung a question mark over the door. It never came down, and it became the tavern's registered name.
It stands at 6 Kralja Petra Street in Stari Grad, directly across from the Cathedral Church of St Michael the Archangel and a short walk from Princess Ljubica's Residence.
Checked 2026-08-24 · Source
A two-storey Balkan-style house built by Greek craftsmen, with a basement, ground floor and upper storey and an asymmetric layout that has never been straightened out.
The basement is two brick vaults. The ground floor holds three chambers; the upper storey holds six. One preserved table from the building's earliest years still stands inside, under a wall inscription commemorating the Greek builders who put the house up. The rooms serve traditional Balkan and Serbian food, and in the evening a starogradska (old-town) band plays live between the tables. OpenStreetMap records its cuisine as Balkan, friture and local, and the kitchen also caters vegetarian diners, so the menu is not built around a single tourist-facing dish but around the everyday Serbian kafana repertoire.
Checked 2026-08-24 · Source
This is a working restaurant, not a museum, so length is a meal, not a tour. A dinner with the live band running through several sets takes close to two hours. A coffee or a quick lunch at a quieter hour is 20 to 30 minutes. There is no ticketed interior to walk through on its own — seeing the house means sitting down in it.
Checked 2026-08-24 · Source
Closed Mondays. Tuesday to Thursday and Sunday it runs 08:00 to 00:00; Friday 08:00 to 02:00; Saturday 10:00 to 02:00, recorded on OpenStreetMap as checked 6 August 2025. The band and the fullest room come in the evening, from around 20:00. A weekday morning coffee, before the tour groups reach Kralja Petra Street, is the quiet version of the same room.
Checked 2026-08-24 · Source
No entrance fee — it is a restaurant, and the only cost is what is ordered. There is no separately ticketed section, no cover charge for the evening band, and no charge to step in and look at the preserved table or the wall inscription just inside the door. Payment is for food and drink alone, at ordinary Belgrade restaurant prices for the neighbourhood.
Checked 2026-08-24 · Source
The address is 6 Kralja Petra Street, on the corner with Kneza Sime Markovića, in the Stari Grad municipality. It is a 5 to 10 minute walk from Republic Square down the Knez Mihailova pedestrian street, and sits directly opposite the Cathedral Church, one block from Princess Ljubica's Residence.
Checked 2026-08-24 · Source
The building has been under state heritage protection since 1946 and on Serbia's Protected Monuments of Culture list since 1981, which is also why an attempt to privatise it in 2004 was cancelled. Ownership itself changed again in 2017, when the state restitution agency confirmed the property to the descendants of Ivan Pavlović, the 1892 owner — the current operator runs a well-known tourist address, so tables fill fast on weekend evenings and arriving without booking risks a wait at the door.
Checked 2026-08-24 · Source
The street facade, with its two bay windows and the carved question mark above the door, photographs well from across Kralja Petra Street at any hour the street is open, with the Cathedral Church's fence in the same frame. Inside, the preserved table and its inscription sit just past the entrance in the low tavern light that suits an evening shot better than a flash, and the band's evening sets are the liveliest interior scene the room offers, with musicians moving between tables rather than staying on a fixed stage.
Checked 2026-08-24 · Source
In 1892 the owner wanted to name it By the Cathedral Church; the church objected, and a question mark went up over the door as a placeholder. It was never replaced and became the official name.
It was built in 1823 for the diplomat Naum Ičko, on Prince Miloš Obrenović I's orders, making it close to 200 years old.
No. It is a working restaurant; the only cost is the food and drink ordered.
Closed Monday. Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Sunday 08:00 to 00:00; Friday 08:00 to 02:00; Saturday 10:00 to 02:00.
6 Kralja Petra Street, Stari Grad, on the corner with Kneza Sime Markovića, directly across from the Cathedral Church.
In May 2017 Serbia's restitution authority confirmed ownership to the descendants of Ivan Pavlović, the tavern's owner from 1892 until it was nationalised in 1959.
Booking is not a recorded fact on either source, but the tavern is a well-known tourist address in the heart of Stari Grad, so weekend evenings fill up and arriving early is the safer plan.
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Source: OpenStreetMap contributors, Wikidata ·
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