King's Great Royal mosque of Prishtina Kosovo vacation

Royal mosque

The Great Mosque (Albanian Xhamia e Madhe) in the Kosovar capital Prishtina is located in the old town next to other buildings from the Ottoman period.

King's Great Mosque of Prishtina

The mosque is also known as the Sultan Mehmed al-Fatih Mosque or, more rarely, the “King's Mosque” (alb. Xhamia e Mbretit). The Islamic church was built in 1460/61 by order of Sultan Mehmed II. During the Turkish wars in Austria, the mosque was converted into a Catholic church dedicated to St. Francis Xavier at the end of the 17th century.

The writer Pjetër Bogdani was buried here, but after the defeat of Austria-Hungary in 1690 he was exhumed and the building was converted into a mosque. Between 1961 and 1962, the Prishtina City Council carried out restorations; and between 1964 and 1967 the 17 meter high minaret was renovated.

The structure consists of a cubic one-room building with a side length of 14 meters. The pendentive dome has a span of 13.5 meters and is considered the largest in the former Yugoslavia. The building is made of stone on the outside and brick on the inside. A portico with three domes supported by four columns extends across the width of the building. The mosque contains decorative paintings (floral ornaments in blue and black) and arabesques from the 18th century. A rosette forms the top of the dome. The architect of the building worked in the style of the Bursa School, which was one of the most famous in the entire Sultanate. The 14 x 14 meter prayer room offers space for around 800 people and is covered with architraves at the entrance. The hall is equipped with a mehfil, a mihrāb and a minbar. The inner area of the whole mosque is around 900 square meters. The 17 meter high minaret has 120 steps. King's Mosque is worth a visit on your Kosovo vacation.