Lead Mosque

The Lead Mosque, also known as the Mehmet Pasha Bushati Mosque, is a first-class historical mosque and cultural site in Shkodra. It is Albania’s most exquisite historic structure and the biggest Ottoman mosque, built in 1773/1774. According to Jusuf Tabakut’s chronicle, the mosque was constructed using stones hauled from the Black Stone by people using a chain method (hand in hand), and the surpluses were used to build the legs of the Kirit bridge.

It was given the name Lead because the mosque’s domes were coated with layers of lead under Ottoman control. People began taking the bullet to sell it as time passed and the area was abandoned. The military authorities maintained this destructive conduct throughout the Austro-Hungarian occupation, eliminating the last bullet.

The splendor of Istanbul’s sultan mosques clearly influenced this piece. The sole example of its sort in Albania, the entry is via a vast courtyard with space inside the walls of 12.50 x 13.80 m, making it one of the few mosques to break the imperial privilege of employing this aspect. The prayer hall is just in front of the inner courtyard. The prayer hall seems from the outside to be a low block supported by a very tall octagonal drum on which a semicircular dome is mounted. The hall looks to be a tall and large room from the inside, despite its small size of 9.15 m2.