Ferhadija ( Ferhad Pasa Mosque )

Ferhat-Pasha Mosque (Bosnian: Ferhat-pašina džamija, Turkish: Ferhad Paşa Camii), more widely known as Ferhadija Mosque, was a central building in the city of Banja Luka and one of the greatest achievements of Bosnia and Herzegovina’s 16th century Ottoman and Islamic architecture.
Commissioned by the Bosnian Sanjak-bey Ferhat-paša Sokolović the mosque was built in 1579, [1] and its classical Ottoman architecture was by an unknown apprentice of Mimar Sinan. The mosque complex included three small adjacent mausoleums containing the tombs of Ferhat-paša Sokolović, his granddaughter Safi-kaduna, and his ensign; also a central fountain – the Shaderwan (stone) Fountain – with a smaller fountain at the corner of a wrought iron fence; and a cemetery. Later a Sahat-Kula (clock tower) was added.
In common with most buildings of this type in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the mosque was on a modest scale: 18 meters (59 ft) wide, 14 meters (46 ft) long and 18 meters (59 ft) high at the top of the main dome. The minaret was 43 m (141 ft) high.
Ferhadija was listed as a Bosnia and Herzegovina cultural heritage site in 1950. It was subsequently protected by UNESCO until its destruction in 1993. Today the site, with the mosque's remains, is listed as a national monument of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The mosque was one of 16 destroyed in the city of Banja Luka during the Bosnian War in 1992-1995.
The Republika Srpska authorities ordered the demolition of the entire Ferhadija and Arnaudija mosque complexes, which stood approximately 800 m (2,625 ft) apart. Both mosques were destroyed in the same night within 15 minutes of each other. (It has been noted that the almost simultaneous destruction of the Ferhadija and Arnaudija mosques required large quantities of explosives and extensive coordination. Many believe that this would not have been possible without the involvement of Banja Luka and Republika Srpska authorities.)
The Serb militia blew up the Ferhadija Mosque on the night of 6-7 May, 1993. May 6 is the date of the Serbian Othodox holiday of Đurđevdan (Saint George’s day). The minaret survived the first explosion, but was then razed to the ground.
Most of the debris was taken to the city dump; some stone, and ornamental details, were crushed by the Serbs for use as landfill. The leveled site was turned into a parking lot. Several weeks after the destruction of Ferhadija the nearby Sahat Kula, one of the oldest clock towers in Europe, was also destroyed.
At the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia a Serb leader from Banja Luka, Radoslav Brđanin, was convicted for his part in organizing the destruction of Muslim property including mosques, and also in the ethnic cleansing of non-Serbs. He was sentenced to a single prison term of 32 years.
The Brđanin case proved that the destruction of the mosques was orchestrated as part of the ethnic cleansing campaign. In addition, the Bosnian side in the Bosnian genocide case at the International Court of Justice has cited the destruction of Ferhadija Mosque as one of the elements of ethnic cleansing and genocide employed by the RS authorities during the Bosnian War.