EMPEROR’S MOSQUE / SULTAN BAJEZID VALIJA’S MOSQUE IN FOČA

NATIONAL MONUMENT OF BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA

Author: Ekrem Tucaković, PhD, Riyasat of the Islamic Community in Bosnia and Herzegovina
Photo & video: Mirza Hasanefendić

Emperor's Mosque (Mosque of Sultan Bayezid Velija II) and its courtyard with nišans (Islamic tombstones) in Foča were declared a national monument of Bosnia and Herzegovina in 2004. Previously, pursuant to the decision of the Institute for Protection of Cultural Monuments and Natural Rarities from 1950, it was put under state protection and in 1962, together with the cemetery, it was entered in the Register of Immovable Cultural Monuments.

Emperor's Mosque is situated in the Careva mahala (Emperor's neighborhood), in the very center of Foča, in the area between the rivers Drina and Ćehotina, on a prominent hill which dominates the city.

During Ottoman administration, a total of seventeen mosques were built in Foča and thus, by the number of mosques, Foča ranks four among cities in Bosnia and Herzegovina, immediately after Sarajevo, Banja Luka and Mostar. Some of the mosques are masterpieces of Ottoman architecture, the best-known being the Aladža Mosque. Five mosques were destroyed in the Second World War, while the others were razed during the aggression on Bosnia and Herzegovina (1992-1995).

Emperor's Mosque is also known as the Mosque of sultan Bayezid Velija. It was built in the period 1500-1501 A.D. (906 Hijri year), which can be seen on the inscription above its door. It is a massive and spacious building with the stone minaret and, unlike almost all the other mosques, has the entrance from the porch itself.

According to the spatial-floor plan, Emperor's Mosque belongs to the type of single-space mosques, with hipped roof and stone minaret. The wooden structure of the mahfil is carried by six wooden pillars with stone bases. The pillars of the mahfil have richly decorated wooden capitals, carved in the form of stalactites and painted in three colors. Due to their prominent elegance and accuracy, they have a distinctive artistic value, particularly because there are almost no Oriental capitals made of wood in our region. In other mosques in Foča there were no capitals made of wood. All the wall surfaces in the interior were plastered and whitened with lime.

The inscription in verses in Arabic was carved on a stone plaque, built in above the entrance to the mosque. The inscription is placed in eight square fields. The background of the inscription is painted blue, while the letters are painted in simple black color.  

Windows on the façades of the building are positioned in two horizontal belts. The polygonal stone minaret is 32 m high.

Next to the Emperor's Mosque there is a cemetery with many nišans, though they are typically recently made tombstones, of simple design and most of them have no inscriptions. Among nišans with inscriptions, a particular interest is attached to the tombstone of Fatima sultani (princess), with the inscription about the renewal of her tombstone. On the tomb of the deceased woman there is a sarcophagus made of big stone slabs, and on it the headstone with a female cap. It is assumed that princess Fatima, the daughter of sultan Bayezid II was buried here. A folk legend goes that this princess was married to a Čengić in Foča. In 1950, her tomb was put under state protection. When the mosque ensemble was razed in 1992, the nišans were uprooted and taken to a landfill, together with materials of the mosque, and only several nišans remained in the cemetery. 

In April 1992, members of the Army of Republika Srpska put the Emperor's Mosque on fire and mined its minaret, and no visible remains of the mosque and accompanying facilities remained, while in the area of the cemetery only a small number of nišans remained visible.

The Islamic Community of BiH ran years-long activities on its renewal. The opening ceremony took place in 2017.

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