KARAĐOZ-BEY MOSQUE

This mosque (Karađoz-Begova Džamija) is the most imposing in Herzegovina. It was built in 1557-1558 thanks to a donation from Mehmed-Bey Karađoz (c. 1500-1564), a Bosnian nobleman from Mostar who supervised the beginning of the construction of the Old Bridge and financed many buildings in the province. Its designer could be Mimar Sinan (c. 1488-1589), the greatest Ottoman architect. Damaged during the Second World War and especially in 1993-1994, it was rebuilt in 2004. Flanked by a minaret 35.50 m high, the building is in the form of a cube of 13 m on each side, topped by a dome on a drum 16.49 m high and 10.72 m in diameter. The entrance is protected by the imposing roof of a porch with three small domes. All the roofs are covered with lead. The prayer room is open to visitors during the day except during the main prayer (around 12:30-13:30 in summer, around 11:30-12:30 in winter). It preserves some elements of decoration of the seventeenth, eighteenth and nineteenth centuries (calligraphies, engravings, paintings). In the courtyard, the medersa (Koranic school), was also financed by Mehmed-Bey Karađoz. Note, just across from the mosque, the red brick türbe (mausoleum) of Mostar poet and writer Osman Đikić (1978-1912). His name is inscribed in Cyrillic, because although Bosnian, he was a Serbian nationalist activist, supporting the idea of a federation of Orthodox and Muslims. The türbe was blown up by Bosnian-Croats in 1993, and rebuilt after the war.