FERHADIJA MOSQUE

This building is a replica of the Ferhadija Mosque (Džamija Ferhadija/Џамија Ферхадија), a beautiful example of 16th-century Islamic art razed during the last war. The original building was founded in 1579 by Ferhat Pasha Sokolović, creator of modern Banja Luka, and built in less than a year under the direction of a student of Mimar Sinan, the greatest architect of the Ottoman Empire. The mosque was the center of a sharia, a complex that included 200 stores, baths, a caravanserai, a bezistan, a mill, etc. This complex has more or less disappeared, destroyed or drowned in the city over the centuries. The mosque itself was dynamited in the night of 6 to 7 May 1993 by Bosnian-Serb militiamen. Started in 2001, the reconstruction work was conducted under the auspices of UNESCO. But they were interrupted by demonstrations and legal proceedings for fifteen years. The mosque was inaugurated on May 7, 2016, a date now celebrated in the country as the "day of the mosques".

Visit. Modest in size, with the exception of its 41.65-meter-high minaret, the mosque was one of the finest examples of classical Ottoman art in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Thanks to extensive documentation and meticulous research, the present replica is a faithful copy. It is in the form of a rectangle measuring 14.47 by 18.33 meters. Its 1.20 m thick walls support a dome mounted on a drum 18 m high. The facade consists of a porch 4.50 m deep supported by four columns and topped by three domes. The interior decoration is rich: dome and walls painted with plant motifs, elaborate calligraphy, mahfil with five marble columns, finely sculpted mihrab and minbar, colored stained glass. In the courtyard, three türbes have been reconstructed. The most imposing of these mausoleums is the octagonal, domed one erected in 1590 to house the remains of Ferhat Pasha Sokolović. Built shortly afterwards, the türbe of the bajraktar (standard-bearer) of Ferhad Pasha was inspired by it. The third (late 17th century) is the one intended for Safikaduna, Ferhat Pasha's granddaughter (see Safikaduna's tomb). It is also octagonal in shape and has a pyramid-shaped wooden roof covered with tiles. At the entrance is the sadirvan. This pavilion is used for ritual ablutions and is decorated with plant motifs. It consists of a stone basin and twelve fountains. The reconstruction of the clock tower (1587) remains blocked by the municipality.