The Aladza mosque in Foca in eastern Bosnia, a masterpiece of Ottoman architecture which is on the UNESCO World Heritage List, was reopened with a ceremonial event attended by thousands of people on Saturday after it was rebuilt following its destruction in 1992.

Husein effendi Corbo, who served as the last imam at the mosque before it was blown up, said he has been hoping for 27 years that Aladza would reopen to serve Muslims in Foca, a town which is now in Republika Srpska, Bosnia’s Serb-dominated entity.

“For nearly 19 years, I was going to Aladza every single day, as I worked as the imam there from 1973, and when I received the news that it had been completely destroyed… it was one of the worst days in my life,” Corbo told BIRN.

“Today, my heart is full of happiness with the hope that Aladza will become a central point for all believers in this area and once again become a real pearl, as it once used to be,” he said.

The Aladza mosque was built between 1550 and 1551, and because of its architecture, structural proportions, and engraved and painted geometric and floral decoration, it was also known as the ‘painted mosque’.

Its painted ornamentation is in a typical Ottoman classical architectural style, and as it was the first mosque of its kind in the country, its design was emulated by many others that were built afterwards.

This is also one of the reasons why the Yugoslav authorities put it under state protection in 1950.

But on August 2, 1992, during the first year of the war, the mosque was blown up by Bosnian Serb troops – one of many mosques in the country that were destroyed.