Gazi Husrev-beg Mosque

The Gazi Husrev-beg Mosque on Sarači street in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, is the city's principal Ottoman mosque and the largest historic mosque in the country. It was built in 1530-1531 for the governor Gazi Husrev-beg and designed by the architect Acem Esir Ali, and it is a leading example of classical Ottoman architecture in the Balkans, with a large central dome, a stone portico of three smaller domes and a slender minaret. Visitors enter through the courtyard, where a covered şadırvan (ablution fountain) sits at the centre and a 16th-century clock tower (sahat-kula) stands nearby, still used to set the lunar calendar times. Inside, the prayer hall has a carpeted floor, carved muqarnas niches, painted calligraphic decoration and stained glass, and the dome is decorated with floral motifs. Nearby sit the Gazi Husrev-beg Library and the Gazi Husrev-beg Museum and a Turkish-style bath complex linked to the foundation. Visitors normally spend 30 to 45 minutes. The mosque is an active place of worship, so sightseeing is restricted during the five daily prayers and around the midday prayer on Friday. Visitors remove their shoes, cover shoulders and knees, and women cover their hair; scarves are generally available at the entrance. Photography is usually allowed in the courtyard and respectfully inside, but not of worshippers during prayer. The best photo angles are of the dome and portico from the courtyard and of the minaret framed along Sarači street. Mornings outside prayer times are quietest, while midday tour groups gather in the courtyard. The mosque sits just three minutes west of Baščaršija Square, close to Morića Han and the Sarajevo Cathedral on the pedestrian axis.