Mehmed Pasha Kukavica Mosque, Ottoman mosque in Foča, Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The Mehmed Pasha Kukavica Mosque in Foča's Gornja čaršija was a single-space domed mosque with an open exterior portico, one of five such mosques in the town. Its sixteen-sided minaret of cut stone stood on a square base. The mosque was mined on 28 May 1992; its dome collapsed in autumn 2002, leaving partial ruins.
Mehmed-paša Kukavica, a Foča-born Ottoman governor of Bosnia, endowed the mosque, built in 1751/52 as the town's last mosque, together with a madrasa finished in 1758, a clock tower and a hammam. The mosque was mined on 28 May 1992, and the madrasa, ablution hall and imam's residence were set on fire; its dome collapsed in autumn 2002.
The mosque's foundation is recorded in a four-couplet Ottoman Turkish poem carved on a 50x50 cm stone plaque above the entrance, dated 1165 AH (1751/52). The poem names Mehmed Pasha Kukavica, a Foča-born governor of Bosnia, and calls the mosque a 'beautiful place of attraction.' The medresa, completed in 1758, was the last such school built in Foča.
The mosque and madrasa stand in Gornja (Prijeka) čaršija, next to the Kukavica han and the clock tower, so the whole ensemble can be seen on foot. The mosque was mined on 28 May 1992 and its dome collapsed in autumn 2002; the site is a ruin, not a working prayer house, so there are no visiting hours to plan around.
The mosque was the last one built in Foča, completed in 1751/52 according to a chronogram carved in Ottoman Turkish on a 50x50 cm stone plaque above the entrance door. The poem praises its founder, Hadži Mehmed, çavuş-başı of Sultan Mahmud, and gives the year 1165 AH.
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