Šerefuddin džamija - Bijela Džamija

Located in the town center of Visoko, BiH, just a few dozen meters west of the Fojnička River, is the Šerefudin's White Mosque (Šerefudinova Bijela džamija). The original Šerefudin Mosque that existed on this site was a centuries old structure that, by the 1960s, had developed such serious structural issues that it was required to be demolished. After the old mosque was demolished, immediate work began in 1967 on initiating efforts to create a new one. As this was a replacement of an old structure, the Yugoslav authorites presented little resistance to the project, especially as this was an era where the federal government was looking to give greater support to the country's Muslim minority groups. The commission for creating this new mosque was awarded to Sarajevo architect Zlatko Ugljen, who envisioned a defiantly bold non-traditional modernist design for the new mosque. Work began on building the new Šerefudin Mosque in 1968. However, the mosque's construction, undertaken by the local Visoko contractor "Zvijezda", took more than 12 years of intermitent work to complete, which was largely the result of funding issues, as the project ended up costing nearly three times the initial budget. Sources also relate that another factor which slowed the project's construction was some resistance in the local community to the mosque's modernist stylings, a significant factor as roughly 95% of the project's funding came from the local community. Šerefudin's White Mosque was finally unveiled to the public in September of 1980. Constructed primarily of unadorned and smooth reinforced white concrete, the structure of the mosque is defined by its dramatically sloping roof line of connected triangles which create a tapering inner volume that climaxes at its top with a glowing skylight, almost as if the space symbolically connecting itself to the spiritual world. The interior is also unadorned, dominated by flat white walls which are only punctuated by circles of calligraphy. The mosque's minaret is composed of a white cylindrical tower decorated with a network of green metal tubes. Originally all of the roofs were also white concrete, but metal roofing tiles were added later when leaking became a problem. Multiple organizations around the world commended Šerefudin's White Mosque for its brave and innovative solutions of melding together traditional Islamic architecture with modernist design approaches, with some dubbing it among the most creatively designed sacral buildings in Europe. In 1983 it was awarded the Aga Khan Award for Architecture for excellence. In 2019 the mosque was highlighted at an exhibition on Yugoslav architecture at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City.

Just an amazing place!!!

good

Wonderful mosque,

Ok