Bajrakli Mosque

As the chief mosque in town, found today in Gospodar Jevremova Street 11, it got its name from the banner (barjak) that was used to sign the other mosques when the prayer was starting. It is the endowment building of Sultan Suleiman II, the only remaining mosque out of many that once stood across Belgrade. Built between 1660 and 1688, this is a one-room structure with a square base and a dome resting on an octagonal drum. There are two windows on each side of the large walls and one on every side of the octagonal drum, ending in spiked arches. The minaret has a sheferet (balcony) with a modest profile on the lower side. The building was made of stone and the minaret of brick. Throughout its history, it was devastated or changed function many times. In the Austro-Hungarian wars of 1717–1739, it was turned into a Catholic church. In 1739, it was restored as a mosque. Mihajlo Obrenović is mentioned as its restorer in 1860. When the Turks were driven out of Belgrade during the Serbian–Turkish wars (1876–1878), the mosque was abandoned and its restoration for religious purposes was undertaken by King Aleksandar Obrenović in 1893–94. It suffered new damage in World War II, and was restored again in 1945. Conservation works with static restoration of the minaret were done in 1961, after the establishment of the Belgrade City Institute for the Protection of Cultural Monuments. The last time it was damaged was in March 2004, during nationalist demonstrations. The interior of the mosque was devastated, and the surrounding residential space was caught in a fire. The damage was repaired in 2004–05. The project of restoration was done under the supervision of the Belgrade City Institute for the Protection of Cultural Monuments.