Gazi Husrev-beg Mosque

The Gazi Husrev-beg Mosque, popularly known as the Begova Mosque, is the most significant mosque in the Balkans and a masterpiece of Ottoman architecture in the heart of Sarajevo's Baščaršija. Built in 1530 as a waqf of the governor Gazi Husrev-beg, it was designed by Adžem Esir Ali, the chief architect of the Ottoman Empire. The 26-meter-high dome, the ornate fountain in the courtyard, the two türbes where Husrev-beg and his friend Murad-beg Tardić rest, and the centuries-old linden trees — all of this makes this mosque a place of exceptional spiritual and architectural beauty.

An interesting fact: the Begova Mosque was the first mosque in the world to receive electric lighting — in 1898. Over five centuries it survived fires, restorations, and wartime destruction, and today it shines in full glory as a living symbol of Sarajevo and the Islamic culture of Bosnia.