BAYRAMPA MOSQUE

Built in 2014, this mosque (Xhamia Bajrampasha, Bayram-Pašina džamija) is the largest in Kosovo. Topped by a large dome and framed by two 48 m high minarets, it covers 2,500^m2 and can accommodate 4,200 worshippers. Classically neo-Ottoman in style and richly decorated, it is named after the Turkish town of Bayrampaşa (in the European suburbs of Istanbul), which itself owes its name to the Turkish military officer Bayram Pasha who was Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire in 1637-1638. The building was in fact donated by the mufti of Bayrampaşa and, for its construction (2 million euros), all materials were imported from Turkey, including the sand. This earned the building the nickname "Sand Mosque" (xhamia e Zallit) by many Albanian inhabitants of Mitrovica. These are all the more mocking since it is one of the symbols of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's hegemonic policy in Kosovo. The building is also called Isa-Bey Mosque (Xhamia Isa Beg, Isa-begova džamija) in memory of the small Ottoman mosque built on this site in 1530. Heavily damaged during the Kosovo war, the latter was razed to the ground to make way for the new mosque. Behind it are still a few corbelled houses from the late Ottoman period that were part of the sharia (religious and commercial district) with a few jewellers' shops and the statue inaugurated in 2015 of Safet Boletini (1974-1999), local KLA commander.