The story of Hadum Mosque

Much of the old bazaar around you grew up because of this mosque. It was built in 1594 and 1595, paid for by Hadum Sylejman Efendi, known as Hadum Aga, on the plain of Jak Vula. Craftsmen soon settled beside it, and so the Great Bazaar, Çarshia e Madhe, took shape.

Some 70 years later, Evliya Çelebi counted around it 2000 houses, two monumental mosques, lead-roofed inns, a beautiful hamam and 300 shops. Inside, the dome is 13.5 metres across and rises 12.6 metres above the floor, lit by 11 windows. The paintings show cypress trees, stars, mosques and even the tower houses of the Dukagjin plain, in three layers; the last is dated 1844. In 1999, on the evening the NATO intervention began, Serb police and paramilitaries set fire around the complex.

The library, the religious school and the wooden portico burned, and the minaret was shot off. Restoration by Cultural Heritage without Borders, begun in 2003, was completed in 2005.