The Imperial Mosque, Pristina's great Ottoman dome

If I had to keep just one building in Pristina’s historic centre, it would be this one. The Imperial Mosque is the most serious Ottoman building in the city, with a dome the Ministry of Culture ranks among the largest of its century in south-eastern Europe, and it has stood for more than five hundred years, with one interlude worth knowing about.

One sultan, one date, three names

The mosque was built on the orders of Mehmed II, whom the Municipality’s leaflet calls the Conqueror, which is why it’s also known as the Sultan Mehmed Fatih Mosque. In Albanian it’s Xhamia e Mbretit, the King’s Mosque, and locals also call it the Great Mosque. The date isn’t guesswork. Over the portal runs a six-line inscription in Arabic script giving AH 865, or 1461 in our calendar, according to the Ministry of Culture.

It sits at the heart of the old town, next to the Great Hammam of Pristina and the clock tower, and it’s where I’d begin in Pristina. It opens my itinerary for one day in Pristina. Older still is the 14th-century tomb of Sultan Murad I on the outskirts, in Obiliq, which the Ministry of Culture counts among the first Ottoman buildings in the Balkans.

Inside and out

The Ministry supplies the measurements. The prayer hall is a square 14.14 metres a side, covered by a 13.5-metre dome on four pendentives. The minaret reaches 38.2 metres, and in front there’s a portico topped with small domes. The walls are up to 180 centimetres thick, built of dressed yellow sandstone with a rendered brick lining.

Inside, light comes in through windows on three levels and through twelve small openings in the dome. The dome, pendentives and window surrounds are painted a secco with plant motifs, and the piece the Ministry picks out for its artistry is the mahfil, the wooden gallery with a muqarnas frieze and geometric ornament. In the courtyard is a fountain added in 1996.

To sleep close to everything, search places to stay in Pristina on Expedia and filter by area before price.

The years it served as a church

Here’s the interlude. According to the Ministry of Culture and the Municipality’s leaflet, during the wars between the Austrians and the Ottomans at the end of the 17th century the mosque became a Catholic church, and Pjetër Bogdani, one of the earliest Albanian writers, was buried in it; the National Library of Kosovo now carries his name. Once the Austrians withdrew in 1690, the building returned to being a mosque.

The Ministry also lists its repairs. There was a restoration in 1682-83 under Mehmed IV and another after the 1955 earthquake. It was placed under protection in 1953, had emergency works in 1955 and 1990, and in 2004 a specialist team from Turkey drew up a conservation plan that the heritage authorities of Kosovo and Turkey approved in 2006.

What to know before going inside

This is still a place of worship, and the sources I checked publish no visiting hours. I’d go mid-morning, outside prayer times, dressed modestly, slip off my shoes at the door and never walk in front of anyone praying. If the door is shut, the courtyard and portico still justify the stop. A few steps away are the Pristina clock tower and the rest of the old bazaar.

If you are short on time, see the best tours in Imperial Mosque and pick one that fits your day.

To sleep close to everything, search places to stay in Pristina on Booking.com and filter by area before price.