ALI-PACHA MOSQUE IN SARAJEVO

This Ottoman mosque (Alipašina Džamija) marks the boundary between the Old Town and the New Town, next to the Town Hall (to the south) and the Presidential Palace (to the east). It was erected in 1560 by Hadim Ali Pasha, beylerbey (great governor) of Buda, Timişoara, Egypt and Bosnia. Its architecture corresponds to the classical Ottoman style: dome mounted on a drum, porch with three domes and slender minaret. Its large cemetery houses the türbe of two servants of Sultan Mehmed the Conqueror as well as the tombs of Hadim Ali Pasha and several local figures. It was in this setting that the most furious confrontation of the Battle of Sarajevo took place on August 19, 1878. Shortly before, on July 13, the Treaty of Berlin had entrusted the fate of Bosnia-Herzegovina to the Austro-Hungarian Empire. This decision was not well received by some of the local population. About 6,000 Sarajevans, mainly Bosnians and Serbs, rose up on the arrival of the 14,000 men sent by Vienna, who quickly took control of the heights of the city. But as they advanced into the most densely populated areas, they met fierce resistance. It took them no less than five assaults to seize the Ali Pasha mosque, the last pocket of resistance where fifty Bosnian defenders died. In the end, the battle claimed about 5,000 victims among the population and the soldiers. But Sarajevo was taken in one day.