Bajrakli Mosque

The mosque dates from the Ottoman period. Sources differ on the date: the City of Belgrade gives around 1575, while other accounts link the present building to an endowment of Sultan Suleiman II in the late 17th century. It was first known as the Čohadži mosque, after its founder Hajji Ali, a cloth merchant. During the Austrian occupation of 1717 to 1739 it was used as a Roman Catholic church, and it returned to Islamic worship when the Ottomans came back; it was renovated in 1741, when it was also known as Hussein-bey's mosque.

Its present name comes from the late 18th century, when a flag (bajrak) was raised on its minaret to signal the start of prayer at the same moment in all the city's mosques. In 1868 Prince Mihailo Obrenović ordered its renovation so that Islamic services could continue, and it became the main city mosque. It was placed under state protection as a cultural monument in 1946 and declared a cultural property of great importance in 1979. The interior was damaged by fire in 2004 and later restored, and in 2012 a new building for a madrasa and the Belgrade Muftiate was added beside it.

The mosque is the seat of the Islamic Community in Belgrade and serves as the main place of worship for the city's Muslims, with Friday prayers and the Eid prayers drawing the largest congregations. Its survival through centuries of changing rule makes it a symbol of the long-standing, if often overlooked, Islamic presence in the Serbian capital.