MOSQUÉE HADŽI-AHMET-DUKATAR ET TOUR DE L'HORLOGE

This sixteenth-century domed mosque (Džamija Hadži Ahmeta Dukatara) and its seventeenth-century tower (Livanjska Sahat-Kula) are Livno's most famous symbols. Offering a beautiful view of the city, they form the main Islamic complex of Livno with a third building added in 2000 next to the tower, a ghusl al-mayyit (gasulhana), a place where the ritual cleansing of the deceased is practiced. The mosque was built between 1574 and 1587 thanks to a donation from Hadži Ahmet Dukatar, a little-known benefactor of Sarajevo. He bore the titles of hadjj and dukatar, indicating that he had made the pilgrimage to Mecca and that he was in charge of minting Ottoman gold money on the model of the Venetian ducat. Because of its location above the city, the mosque is also known as Glavica ("head"). Its architecture corresponds to the style of Livno's mosques: large dome, close surmounted by three domes and solid small minaret of 20 m height designed to resist the wind. Forming a square of 9.54 m on each side, the prayer hall lost most of its decoration during an Austro-Hungarian bombing during the Bosnian revolt of 1878. The mosque remained without dome and abandoned until its restoration in 1938. It retains its original mihrab and inscriptions carved above the windows. Intended to give the hours of the five daily prayers, the clock tower of 19 m in height dates from 1659.