Colorful mosque (Tetovo)
The Colorful Mosque ( Albanian Xhamia e Larme , Xhamia e Ngjyrosur or Xhamia e Pashës ; Macedonian Шарена џамија Šarena Džamija ; Turkish Alaca Cami ) in Tetovo is on the river Pena in the old town at the intersection of roads as Miladinovi and Ilinden out among other buildings Ottoman period .
The mosque is richly decorated with colorful arabesques - the ornaments from Islamic art - on the facade as well as inside. This is where the Islamic house of God got its name: The Turkish adjective alaca means “colorful”. The majority of the Albanian residents call the building Xhamia e Pashës , which means “Pascha Mosque” in English .
Building history
The Colorful Mosque was built in 1495. According to the inscriptions on the building, two women were the founders of the building.
In 1833 the mosque was completely renovated and expanded. The old building, with the exception of the minaret , was demolished and a completely new one replaced it. The colorful decorations on the exterior and interior façade also come from these renovations. The new builder was a certain Abdurrahman Pasha , who was one of the most famous pashas of Tetovo (Turkish: Kalkandelen ). In addition to the mosque, he also had the city fortress ( Kalaja ) and the Tekke renewed.
In 1991 restorations were undertaken by the Muslim community.
Structure and equipment
Architecturally, the Colorful Mosque is a ten by ten meter one-room building. The portico, which is open to the northwest, is five meters wide, is supported by six stone pillars and is closed at the top with a Mehfil . The sacred building has a four-sided roof ( hipped roof ), which is covered with bricks of the old Turkish style. The minaret is on the southwest side.
The current form of this mosque represents an architectural symbiosis of baroque and neo-classical Ottoman architecture . The interior and exterior decorations give the building its name. They are geometric and floral patterns with figurative representations of landscape and architectural motifs. The prayer niche ( mihrab ) and the pulpit ( mimbar ) are made of marble in the Baroque style. In the courtyard of the mosque there is a fountain for ritual ablutions ( Wuḍūʾ ) and a tomb ( Türbe ) for the donors of the complex, Hurshide and Mensure.
The mosque is surrounded by a green area with flower beds; on the other side of the river is the hamam .
Web links
- Unofficial website of the Colorful Mosque with many photographs (Albanian)
- Description on the website of the municipality of Tetovo (Albanian)
Coordinates: 42 ° 0 ′ 21 ″ N , 20 ° 58 ′ 0 ″ E