A Village Mosque in Kosovo: Rogovo Hasan Aga Mosque
Abstract
The traces of Ottoman architecture can be seen in various geographies such as Middle East, Africa, and Europe as well as in Anatolia. Balkan Peninsula, like others, is one of the places where countless valuable works of architecture were left from the Ottoman period which took around five centuries. Kosovo remained under the Ottoman rule from 1389 until the 1912-1913 Balkan wars and it houses many examples of religious and civil architecture that have survived to the present day from that period. The fact that the Muslim population is more concentrated in Kosovo compared to other Balkan countries has been effective in the preservation of these architectural works.
Hasan Aga Mosque is situated in the village of Rogovo, which is 15 km from the city of Gjakova, located in the western part of the Republic of Kosovo. The mosque is a part of a complex, consisting of madrasah, school, soup kitchen, hammam and tower house buildings. Mosque dates to 1580-81 according to its inscription written by the Skopje poet Valihi, and it was built by the grand vizier Yemişçi Hasan Pasha, who is known to be of Albanian origin.
Today, the building consists of a rectangular-planned prayer hall with a minaret on the north end of the western façade, and a last prayer hall to the north, which consists of a closed section that is wider than the harim, and a porch in front of it. The harim, which has a transverse rectangular plan, is covered with a dome in the middle and two-barrel vaults on both sides extending from east to west. The dome rests on the main walls in the north and the south, and on the walls carrying the vaults in the east and the west.
An early monumental mosque of central dome rising on a hexagonal infrastructure in Ottoman architecture is Edirne Üç Şerefeli Mosque, dated to 1477. Sinan Pasha (1555) and Atik Valide (1586) mosques in Istanbul are among the contemporary examples of the Rogovo Hasan Aga Mosque in Anatolia, with their central domed plans on a hexagonal scheme and spaces enlarged on both sides of this dome. Kara Ahmed Pasha (1555) and Kadırga Sokollu (1571) mosques are similar with their central domes in hexagonal scheme.
Architectural works built by the Ottoman rulers, supported by rich foundations in the Balkans and Kosovo are mostly located in the city centers. These mosques in city centers of Kosovo are usually single-domed square buildings with a portico to the north. Despite the structures with a vertical rectangular plan, flat wooden ceilings, and wooden domes, covered with hipped roofs, were built by the local people and local craftsmen, mostly in villages far from the local authority, as well as the city centers.
Hasan Aga Mosque in Rogova village of Gjakova with its central domed plan scheme rising on a hexagonal structure is unique both because it is the only representative of its contemporaries in the capital of the empire in Kosovo but also it is in a village far from the center. It is possible to explain this situation with the desire to serve and develop the Rogovo village where the founder of the building, Hasan Aga, known by the nickname “Yemişçi” and a grand vizier of Albanian origin, was born and grew up.
Keywords
Kosova’da Bir Köy Camisi: Rugova Hasan Ağa Camisi
Abstract
Osmanlı mimarisi ve sanatının izleri, Anadolu’nun yanı sıra devletin hüküm sürdüğü Ortadoğu, Afrika, Avrupa gibi farklı coğrafyalarda da görülmektedir. Balkan toprakları da tıpkı diğerleri gibi, Osmanlı’nın yaklaşık beş yüzyıl boyunca süren hakimiyeti esnasında sayısız eserin bırakıldığı yerlerden biridir. Yakova merkez ve köylerindeki günümüze ulaşmış mimari eserleriyle ve 1999 Kosova Savaşı’nda aldığı ağır hasara rağmen hala daha canlılığını koruyan çarşılarıyla Türk şehir dokusunu günümüze taşıyan merkezlerin başında gelir. Balkan coğrafyasındaki savaş, istila, doğal afetler gibi yaşanmış olan olumsuzluklar nedeniyle yapıların büyük çoğunluğu yok olmuş; varlığını sürdürenler ise, geçirdikleri onarımlarla günümüze ulaşmışlardır. Yakova’nın Rugova köyünde kitabesine göre 1580 yılına tarihlenen Hasan Ağa Camii de geçirdiği onarımlarla günümüze ulaşmış yapılardan biridir. Makalede cami mimari ve süsleme özellikleri ile tanıtılarak, hazırlanan rölöve ve restitüston planıyla da inşa evreleri tartışılıp değerlendirilmiştir. Kosova’nın merkezden uzak köylerinde camilerin hemen hepsi, Anadolu’da da yaygın bir şekilde görüldüğü gibi, dikine dikdörtgen planlı düz ahşap tavanlı ve ahşap kubbeli olarak inşa edilmişlerdir. Rugova köyünde yer alan Hasan Ağa Camii; merkezi plan şemasına sahip harimi ile diğer köy camilerinden ayrılmakta ve merkezdeki yapılarla da boy ölçüşmektedir.
Keywords
Çalışmamız Ege Üniversitesi Bilimsel Araştırma Projeleri Koordinasyon Birimi tarafından 17-TDAE-002 proje numarasıyla Genel Araştırma Projesi olarak desteklenmiştir. Projeye destek veren Ege Üniversitesi Rektörlüğü ve Bilimsel Araştırma Projeleri Şube Müdürlüğü’ne teşekkür ederiz.
