Koski Mehmed-Pašina Džamija

With its harmonious architecture and location along the Neretva, this mosque (Koski Mehmed-Pašina Džamija) is the most elegant of Mostar's fifteen mosques. It is located on the left bank, 170 m north of the Old Bridge on Kujundžiluk and Mala-Tepa streets. The building is part of a complex commissioned in 1616 by Mehmed Pacha Koski, a Bosnian nobleman who held the prestigious post of defterdar, i.e. grand master of finance in the Ottoman army. However, he died in 1618, two years before completion. The complex was devastated during the last war and rebuilt in 1999-2001. Now closed to worship, it has become one of Mostar's most visited monuments. Access is via a vaulted passageway with a semicircular arch. In the center of the courtyard stands the fountain for ritual ablutions. Behind it are the nişans (tombstones) of the imams who have succeeded one another here. Opposite the mosque stands the former medersa (Koranic school). It was transformed into a tekké (Sufi place of worship) until 1924 and today houses a carpet and souvenir store.

Café and minaret with views. Below the small cemetery, the café area boasts a pleasant terrace overlooking the Neretva River, with a magnificent view of the Old Bridge. The rest of the annex building is occupied by a Turkish cultural center. The mosque itself takes the form of a 12.60 m cube topped by a dome 10 m in diameter and 15.25 m high. The entrance is protected by a three-domed porch. The walls, pierced by 25 windows, are made of 1.10 m square blocks of the same type used for the Old Bridge, a limestone called tenelija. The minaret rises to a height of 28 m, topped by a 1.90 m alem (crescent and star symbol). A rare feature is that it is possible to climb to the top of the minaret (89 steps in a cramped space 1.30 m in diameter) for a bird's-eye view of the city, with the Old Bridge in the foreground. In the prayer hall, the walls are decorated in the same way as those of the Karađoz-Bey mosque, with plant motifs, various ornaments on the minbar (pulpit reserved for sermons), the mirhab ("sanctuary" indicating the direction of Mecca) and the mahfil (gallery reserved for women), magnificent calligraphic panels in Arabic repeating certain verses from the Koran and a central rose window on the dome.