Šerefudin’s White Mosque (Bosnian: Šerefudinova Bijela džamija) is a mosque located in Visoko, Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is of great architectural importance to the town and area. The mosque’s architect was Zlatko Ugljen and the craftsman was Ismet Imamović. First construction was completed in 1477, but it was completely reconstructed and finished in 1980. Its most notable award came in 1983, when it was awarded the Aga Khan Award for Architecture. The jury commended the mosque for its boldness, creativity and brilliance, as well as its originality and innovation. In 2007 it received another recognition from Hungarian architects for being one of the three best designed sacral places in Europe.
The mosque comprises five functional areas:
• Access space and first courtyard
• Mosque proper
• Annex building
• Graveyard
• Minarets
The central space of the mosque is designed both for praying and other religious activities such as lectures and discussions. The indoor area for praying is an annex building. The annex consists of a small auditorium and an office. Traditionally, in Bosnian mosques, graveyards act as a buffer between mosque and other buildings, but in this case the graveyard is isolated. Architect Zlatko Ugljen used the traditional layout of Bosnian mosques which consist of a courtyard leading to a square praying area, over which rises a cupola. The difference is in an unusual arrangement of this concept, where large glass panels make this mosque even better integrated with the rest of the building. The five roof windows symbolize five core principles of Islam, but also shafts light on key areas of the interior. The southeast facade of the cupola is faced toward the Ka’ba. Fountains, pulpitand other decorative elements are simple, just like the calligraphy in the interior which is simple and readable. Both the interior and exterior of the mosque are painted white, while the beige colour was used for the floor, and green for a few metallic elements, like frames and tubes.
Building materials were plastered concrete for walls and cupola, white mortar for the inner walls, a combination of pine wood and white mortar for surfaces of many interior elements, local travertine tiles for exterior paths and courtyard paving, and iron tubes for minarets, while the floors inside the mosque are covered with green carpet.
The award that came from the Aga Khan Development Network listed this mosque as one of the most valuable modern mosques built in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The network stated that:
The mosque serves as a religious and intellectual centre for its community. Its geometrically simple plan encloses a complex, slope-ceilinged, skylit volume, pure, abstract, sparsely ornamented and painted white. The archetypal Bosnian mosque has a simple square plan crowned by a cupola and entered by means of a small porch. The White Mosque’s plan conforms to the archetype, but its roof is a freely deformed quarter of a cupola, pierced by five skylights, themselves composed of segments of quarter cupolas. The effect is one of confrontation between the elementary plan and the sophisticated hierarchy of roof cones. The principal symbolic elements, mihrab, minbar, minaret and fountains, have a fresh folk art character subtly enhanced by the avant-garde geometries of their setting.
Zlatko Ugljen has also been commended for “masterfully assimilat[ing] modern influences, especially Le Corbusier’s Ronchamp Cathedral, and traditional Ottomanforms and elements”.Šerefudinova Bijela džamija u Visokom ima veliku važnost za grad i okolinu. Prvi put je izgrađena 1477.godine a sadašnji izgled je nakon potpune rekonstrukcije dobila 1980. Godine. Zbog njene upadljivosti, stvaralaštva, originalnosti i novih pristupa u gradnji, 1983. godine, dobila je prestižnu Aga Khanovu nagradu za arhitekturu. Također, 2007. godine, Bijela džamija je dobila još jedno priznanje od mađarskih arhitekta koji su ocijenili da je među tri najbolje dizajnirana sakralna prostora u Europi.
Poznata je činjenica da su najstarije džamije u Visokom Pertačka i Šerefudinova (“Čaršijska”). Podijeljena su mišljenja o tome koja je od njih starija, ali to istovremeno navodi na zaključak da su otprilike približne starosti. Pošto nažalost nigdje nema pisanih dokaza o tome ko je i kada podizao visočke džamije, to se ni za jednu sigurno ne zna datum gradnje niti njen hajir-sahibija.
Džamija se sastoji iz pet funkcionalnih dijelova:
- Pristupni prostor i dvorište
- Glavni unutrašnji prostor
- Produženje glavnog prostora
- Groblje
- Minaret
Središnji dio džamije je napravljen za molitvu i ostale vjerske aktivnosti kao što su razgovori i hutbe. Molitva se vrši u produženom dijelu. Produženi dio se sastoji od malog auditorija i ureda. Tradicionalno, kod bosanskih džamija, groblje služi kao tampon između džamije i ostalih zgrada u blizini, ali kod ove džamije groblje je izolirano. Zlatko Ugljen je iskoristio tradicionalni raspored bosanskih džamija koje se sastoje od dvorišta koje vodi do kvadratnog prostora za molitvu, iznad kojeg se uzdiže kupola. Razlika je u neobičnom rasporedu ovog koncepta, gdje veliki stakleni paneli čine džamiju još bolje uklopljenom sa ostatkom. Pet krovnih prozora simbolizuju pet glavnih islamskih principa, i u isto vrijeme bacaju svjetlost na najbitnije prostore u unutrašnjosti. Jugoistočna fasada kupole je usmjerena prema Kabi. Fontane, govornice i drugi ukrasni elementi su jednostavni, kao i kaligrafija u unutrašnjosti koja je napravljena tako da je lahko čitljiva. Unutrašnjost i vanjština su obojeni u bijelo, dok je bež boja korištena za pod, a zelena za nekolicinu metalnih elemenata, kao što su cijevi i ramovi.