Description of the attraction
The Ferhat Pasha Mosque is a restored replica of the mosque that adorned the town of Banja Luka for more than four centuries. Named after Ferhat Pasha, who remained in history as the main town planner of Banja Luka. It is located near the castle - the Kastel fortress.
The cousin of Mehmed Pasha, the grand vizier of the three sultans, Gazi Ferhat Pasha Sokolovich was also born in Bosnia. In 1573 he was appointed head of the Bosnian province of the Ottoman Empire. And he put all his efforts to the prosperity of his homeland. And in different ways, taking into account the Turkish upbringing. So, he received funds for the construction of a mosque as a ransom for the son of a Habsburg military leader, whose army Ferhat Pasha defeated in 1575. A huge amount was enough not only for the mosque and the elementary school under it. With these funds, the city was built: a water supply, a stone bridge across one of the tributaries of the Vrbas, a stone-paved road and even a clock tower.
The main building was a magnificent mosque. Its construction began immediately upon receipt of the fabulous ransom amount - in 1575. The architect, from a galaxy of students of the famous Istanbul architect Sinan, designed the building in the style of Muslim buildings in Istanbul. In Bosnia, mosques were built in a cubic shape with a hipped roof or dome. The Ferkhadiya Mosque is multi-domed with a pyramidal architectonics, tapering upward steps and crowned with a central dome. The open galleries at the top end with three domes, the highest of which emphasizes the entrance. A complex architectural solution is thought out to the smallest detail. This can be seen only in Sarajevo, in the Gazi Khusrev-bega mosque, with which Ferkhadia also competes in beauty.
For four centuries, the mosque was not only the main religious institution of the city's Muslims, but also the country's national cultural heritage.
In 1993, at the height of the civil war, the mosque was blown up. And only at the beginning of the 2000s, its restoration began. In May 2016, the grand opening of the Ferhat Pasha Mosque took place. It was attended by more than eight thousand residents of the country - both Muslims and representatives of all other religions of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
