Gazi Ferhad-beg Mosque (Ferhadija)
Description
The Gazi Ferhad-beg Mosque — known locally as Čaršijska — is one of the four Ferhadija mosques in Bosnia and Herzegovina and a living cornerstone of the Tešanj we know today. It was built between 1555 and 1558 by Ferhad-beg, the nephew of Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent, a man who practically urbanized Tešanj — alongside the mosque, he built a madrasa, a mekteb, an inn, and thirty-two shops whose income supported the complex for centuries.
He was buried in front of its entrance, and the epitaph on his gravestone is the oldest Islamic inscription in this area. The mosque is domed, with one large wooden dome and characteristically enclosed sofas — an architectural feature rare in Ottoman construction. It survived the fire set by Eugene of Savoy in 1697, multiple restorations, and wartime destruction — and stands, declared a national monument of BiH, as a silent witness to every century of Tešanj's history.
