One of the most important monuments of the city of Durrës is the Fatih mosque, the oldest object of Islamic worship in this city and the third oldest mosque in Albania, after Berat and Korça.
It was built in 1502-1503 on the ruins of a basilica.
This mosque stands out for its colors, architecture, and interior decorations. From the ruins of the basilica on which it was built, a few brick walls have been preserved, partly the northern arcade and the western wall rebuilt with the Cloisonnage technique, which belongs to the c. XIII-XIV. Built in a unique style, the upper part consists of a tiled roof and not a dome, as we are used to seeing in other mosques.
In 1967, the minaret of the mosque was demolished by the communist system and it was turned into a temporary warehouse until 1973, the year in which it received the status of Monument of Cultural Heritage.
It is interesting to think that for centuries Muslim believers have been praying in the premises of this mosque, which fortunately has withstood time as well as the system of the communist dictatorship, when the activity of all religious institutions was banned by law.
The location of the Fatih Mosque near the shores of the Adriatic Sea and the Byzantine Wall, the largest Amphitheater in the Balkans and the Ethnographic Museum, gives it a special value in a complex of monuments quite attractive to the many visitors to the city of Durrës.
