HADŽI ALI-BEY MOSQUE

This mosque (Hadži Ali-Begova Džamija) was built in 1757 on the site of a previous mosque by the governor of Bosnia and Ottoman vizier Mehmed Pasha Kukavica, a great builder to whom we owe, among other things, the mosque of Foča. It is named after Hadži Ali bey Hasanpašić, a member of a large family from Trvanik who financed its restoration, in 1872, following a fire in 1856. The name of the latter appears above the entrance door with a long text in Ottoman Turkish and the date of 1282 AH (1872). Rectangular in shape (18.20 x 15.20 m), the building is characterized by its facade with a large wooden porch that incorporates the base of the minaret (32 m high in total), the only remaining element of the mosque erected by Kukavica. Another feature is that the mosque is the only one in the country to have a sundial, installed in 1866. On the right stands a clock tower. It dates from 1817, but it had to be rebuilt twice: after the fire of 1856 and after its sudden collapse in 1973 (probably due to its weakening after many earthquakes). Together with the other clock tower at the bottom of the fortress, Trvanik is the only town in Bosnia and Herzegovina to have two clock towers. In the garden there are still some graves from an old cemetery. One can see the richly decorated gravestones with carved ornaments and beautiful inscriptions in Ottoman Turkish of several dignitaries, including those of Mehmed Pasha Kukavica and Hadži Ali bey Hasanpašić.