MAUSOLEUMS "UNDER THE LIME TREE

These two domed Ottoman mausoleums (Turbeta Pod Lipom) are located along the main street of the city center, separated by a lime tree and a fountain dating from 1976. They house the carved sarcophagi of three Turkish sanjak-beys (governors) who sat in Travnik when it was the capital of the Ottoman province of Bosnia (1699-1832). The most richly decorated and imposing of these is that of Muhsinzade Abdullah Pasha (1661-1748), who served as governor of Bosnia several times from 1721 to 1748 and was briefly Grand Vizier (Prime Minister) of the Ottoman Empire in 1737. The mausoleum also houses the sarcophagi of Hafız Ali Celaleddin Pasha, governor of Bosnia in 1820-1822, and of an unknown woman named Fatima, who was buried here in 1751. The second mausoleum, hexagonal in shape (3.65 m on each side and 2.40 m high), is that of Perisan Mustafa Pasha, governor of the province from 1796 to 1797. About 60 m east of the mausoleums, still along Bosanska Street, stands the Church of St. John the Baptist (Crkva Svetog Ivana Krstitelja). This salmon pink building dates from 1887. It is the main place of worship for the Bosnian-Croat/Catholic community in the city. A bust of the writer Ivo Andrić is placed in the garden, to the left of the church. In addition, in the outskirts and surroundings of the town are the mausoleums of three other 18th century Ottoman governors of Bosnia.