w w w .balkantale.com EXHIBITION GUIDE 1 2 3 a Goethe-Institut with the support of p r o j e c t the European Union produced by FONDI SHQIPTAR PER MONUMENTET p a r t n e r s (Albanian Fund for Monuments) This booklet is not for sale. It accompanies the photo exhibition ‘A Balkan Tale’. It provides historical information for each monument. Do you have a SMARTPHONE? Download any free QR-Code Reader application, scan the QR-Code and explore ‘A Balkan Tale’. www.balkantale.com 4 5 p a g e p a g e 1 2 İSHAK BEY (ALADŽA) MOSQUE, SKOPJE 4 1 BEDESTEN, ŠTIP 1 3 TOMB OF SULTAN MURAD I, MAZGIT 4 2 GAZI MEHMED PAŞA HAMAM, PRIZREN 1 4 MIRAHOR İLYAS BEY MOSQUE, KORÇË 4 3 BAZAAR HAMAM, ALIAS ‘JEWISH’ HAMAM, THESSALONIKI 1 5 MAUSOLEUM OF GAZI EVRENOS, YANNITSA 4 4 KURŞUNLU / KURŠUMLI HAN, SKOPJE 1 6 Didymoteicho Mosque, Thrace 4 5 WHITE BRIDGE, VRANJE 1 7 FORTRESS OF ELBASAN 4 6 GRAND BAZAAR, GJAKOVA 1 8 MOSQUE OF THE CONQUEST (FETHIYE), ATHENS 4 7 İSA BEY HAMAM, NOVI PAZAR 1 9 MOSQUE OF SULTAN MEHMED II FATIH, PRISHTINA 5 0 YENI MOSQUE, THESSALONIKI 2 2 SINAN PAŞA MOSQUE, PRIZREN 5 1 PAŞA’S RESIDENCE, VRANJE 2 3 BLAGOVEŠTENJE MONASTERY, OVČAR-KABLAR GORGE 5 2 BENÇA AQUEDUCT, TEPELENË 2 4 DURBALI SULTAN TEKKE, ASPROGEIA, FARSALA 5 3 CLOCK TOWER, BITOLA 2 5 ALADŽA MOSQUE, TETOVO 5 4 VOULEFTIKO’, NAFPLIO 2 6 CATHOLIC CATHEDRAL, SHKODËR 5 5 ‘RÉGIE’ TOBACCO WAREHOUSE, XANTHI 2 7 SYNAGOGUE IN THE JEWISH QUARTER, VEROIA 5 6 ‘SARAY’, RESEN 2 8 BALI BEY MOSQUE, NIŠ 5 7 DOSITEJ OBRADOVIĆ LYCEUM, BELGRADE 2 9 MELANI TEKKE, GJIROKASTËR 5 8 CLOCK TOWER, PRISHTINA 3 0 ORTHODOX CHURCH OF THE VIRGIN MARY, BERAT 5 9 SCHOOL FOR THE MUSLIM GIRLS (“TURKISH SCHOOL”), RETHYMNO 3 1 ARABATI BABA TEKKE, TETOVO 6 0 OTTOMAN MILITARY HEADQUARTERS, SHKODËR 3 2 THE CHURCH OF SVETI SPAS, SKOPJE 6 1 GOVERNMENT BUILDING, THESSALONIKI 3 3 BAYRAKLI MOSQUE, BELGRADE 6 4 TOMB IN BERAT 3 4 ALTIN ALEM MOSQUE, NOVI PAZAR 6 5 JEWISH CEMETERY, NIŠ 3 5 HACI EDHEM BEY MOSQUE, TIRANA 6 6 PAŞA’S GATE, BERAT 3 8 ÇIFTE HAMAM, SKOPJE 6 7 BUDISAVCI MONASTERY, KLINA 3 9 FOUNTAIN OF THE VALIDE SULTAN MOSQUE, HERAKLION 6 8 JEWISH CEMETERY, BITOLA 4 0 TAILORS’ BRIDGE, GJAKOVA 6 9 IMARET, ARTA INDEX 6 7 CONQUER ING WORSHIPPING LIVING TOGETHER MODERNISING FORGETTING & REMEMBERING he Ottoman presence in the Balkans lasted from the 14th to the 20th centuries. In some regions this presence was continuous, in others interrupted (in the Morea, for instance), and still others never suffered an Ottoman conquest (for instance, the Ionian Islands and the Dalmatian shores). Yet, for almost the entire population of the Balkan Peninsula, the TOttoman centuries have been an important part of their historical experience. To a great extent, this history is unknown, or known under different perspectives in each country. This is due to the fact that the Christian peoples of the Balkans established their nation-states through, usually military, conflict with the Ottoman Empire. These conflicts placed a great emphasis on the religious difference between Christians and Muslims. At the same time, the appeal of the Western European model led to the devaluation of the cultural significance of the Ottoman centuries. The Ottoman Empire thus became identified with cultural ‘backwardness’ and was considered by all its successors as an ‘undesirable heritage’. Nevertheless, for some 600 years, Christians, Muslims and Jews lived together in urban and rural areas, farmed the land, patronised each other’s shops, met, and entertained themselves at bazaars and coffeehouses. Ottoman society was, of course, a society of hierarchies and discrimination be- tween rulers and subjects. For the reayas [taxed subjects], everyday life had its cruel side, conflicts and hardships. Today, memory of this period remains hidden in buildings that have changed use, or has faded out completely due to negligence and destruction. Yet, whatever their condition, ruined or preserved, the buildings of the Ottoman period, private and public, Christian, Muslim and Jewish, remain as documents of a common history – the history shared by the peoples of the Balkans for some six centuries. The contemporary photographs of these monuments enable us to see in a different light the Ottoman heritage, to revisit our common past and to tell our Balkan tale. 8 9 CONQUERING any believe that the Balkans were conquered by the Ottomans after the fall of Con- stantinople in 1453. The truth is, though, that a large part of the Balkan Peninsula had already been conquered in the 14th century, and the sultans had located their palace on European ground, in Adrianople (Edirne), as early as the 1360s. Despite the Mturmoil and destabilisation caused by their defeat by Tamerlane in the Battle of Ankara (1402), the Ottomans ultimately completed their conquest of the Balkans in the late 15th century. They twice attempted to conquer Vienna, in 1529 and 1683, but their conquering impetus in Europe definitively came to a halt in front of the city’s walls. Through its territorial expansion, from the 14th century to the late 17th, the nomadic kingdom of the Osman dynasty became a global Islamic empire, which held as its duty to pursue a holy war against the Christian West. During its heyday, in the reign of Süleyman the Magnificent, the Ottoman Empire extended from the Danube to the Nile. The Balkans formed an important part of this empire for six centuries. The Ottomans expanded in the Balkans to the west, towards the Roman Via Egnatia, which, through Serres and Manastir (Bitola), led to the Albanian shores, as well as north, towards Philippoupolis (Plodviv) and Sophia, up to Belgrade. Muslim populations from Anatolia followed behind the armies and settled in the occupied territories. Conversions to Islam, whether voluntary or not, and popula- tion movements slowly yet radically changed the demographic profile of the Balkan Peninsula. Equally dramatic was the change of the landscape in Balkan cities with the Ottoman conquest. As soon as the Ottomans occupied a city, they would transform the large churches into mosques, or build new, imposing mosques with tall minarets, and other ‘public’ buildings (bedestens [covered markets], hamams [bathhouses], imarets [public kitchens], caravanserais [inns]). The urban land- scape of the Balkans thus acquired ‘Ottoman’ features, reflecting the new political reality. The Ot- tomans indeed sought to make their conquest ‘visible’. 1 0 1 1 01 02 CONQUERING CONQUERING İSHAK BEY TOMB OF (ALADŽA) SULTAN MOSQUE, MURAD I, SKOPJE MAZGIT Photographer: Ivan Blazhev Photographer: Samir Karahoda Type: Mosque Type: Tomb (türbe) Place: Skopje Place: Mazgit, Kastriot or Obiliq Date: 1438-9 Date: 14th century Patron: İshak Bey Patron: Bayezid I, son of Sultan Murad I History: Originally a guesthouse Current condition/use: Restored many times over the centuries Current condition/use: In use The İshak Bey (Aladža) Mosque is one of the oldest buildings in Skopje and was built in 1438-9, This monument commemorates the Ottoman victory against the Serbian and Bosnian army in the initially as a guesthouse. Its patron, İshak Bey, was a pioneering Ottoman patron of architecture and famous Battle of Kosovo (1389) and honours Sultan Murad I,murdered on the battlefield. His son the son of Paşa Yiğit Bey, the conqueror of Skopje. Because of its formerly rich decoration (a painted Bayezid I (reg. 1389-1402) erected a türbe (tomb) at the location of his death. According to an old portico), it is also called Aladža (colourful; from Turkish “alaca”). The minaret, approximately 30 m Turkish tradition, the internal organs of the body of the sultan were buried here. His body was sent to high, is built of finely chiselled rectangular stone blocks. The building formed part of a cluster of Bursa, then the capital of the Ottoman Empire. The tomb has been renovated several times over the buildings sponsored by İshak Bey, which consisted of an inn, a public kitchen and a medrese (Muslim centuries and has managed to survive the wars that ravaged the region. It is encircled by the tombs theological school). Behind the mosque there is a tűrbe (mausoleum), probably built in the second of 19th-century Ottoman officials, with detailed inscriptions about their lives. The square building half of the 15th century. It is believed to be the burial site of İshak Bey’s son, known as Deli Paşa. that still stands today was built by the Ottoman official Hürsid Paşa in 1845. Sultan Abdülhamid The main feature that makes this mosque unique in the Balkans (with the exception of the portal II (reg. 1876-1909) ordered the construction of a spacious two-storey building, located behind the of the Yeni Mosque in Bitola) is the decorative use of blue, green and turquoise tiles, found on the tomb, to host visitors (completed in 1896). tambour of the dome. 1 2 1 3 03 04 CONQUERING CONQUERING MIRAHOR MAUSOLEUM İLYAS BEY OF GAZI MOSQUE, EVRENOS, KORÇË YANNITSA Photographer: Jutta Benzenberg Photographer: Kamilo Nollas Type: Mosque Type: Tomb (türbe) Place: Korçë Place: Yannitsa Date: 1495-6 Date: 1417 Patron: İlyas Bey Patron: The sons of Gazi Evrenos Current condition/use: In use History: In its current form, the building is the result of several interventions, the latest in the early 20th century Current condition/use: Excellent condition; recently restored by the The construction of the mosque in 1495-6 was sponsored by İlyas Bey, a high-ranking Ottoman ad- Greek Archaeological Service ministrator who originated from the same district. This building is related not only to the early phase of Ottoman rule in Albania, but also to the beginnings of the history of Korçë as a town.