The painted ceiling
Shallow wooden domes with calligraphy.
Jocelyn Erskine-Kellie — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Arianit — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Psittacuso — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Pudelek — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Arianit — CC BY-SA 4.0
The King Mosque (Xhamia e Mbretit), also called the Sultan's Mosque, stands at the foot of the street that climbs to Berat Castle, in the Mangalem quarter. Founded under Sultan Bayezid II, traditionally in 1492, it has been a protected cultural monument since 1948 and, with the Halveti Tekke beside it, forms part of the Medieval Centre, the lower town's Ottoman religious complex. Most of the present building dates from 1832–33. Ottoman cannon had almost destroyed the first mosque during the 1830–31 campaign against rebellious Albanian beys, and the Grand Vizier who led it, Reşid Mehmed Pasha, had it rebuilt in the older local style. In 1967, when the communist regime banned religion, the portico was altered and the minaret pulled down; both were later restored. Turkey's TİKA agency funded a restoration from 2018. The prayer hall has a painted wooden ceiling set with shallow domes, decorated with geometric patterns and calligraphy, above a frieze of the 99 names of God. A decorated wooden gallery for women overlooks the hall, and an arcaded portico on stone columns fronts it. A small Ottoman cemetery lies before the entrance, and a few steps north-east stands the Halveti Tekke, a Sufi lodge built in 1782 by Ahmet Kurt Pasha. An active mosque, it usually opens to visitors only briefly after prayers, guides say; allow 20 to 40 minutes. From here a steep cobbled street climbs to Berat Castle, about 750 m north-west as the crow flies. Mangalem's tiered houses rise about 200 m west, and Gorica Bridge is about 700 m away.
Shallow wooden domes with calligraphy.
A frieze of God's names below the ceiling.
A Sufi lodge of 1782 next door.
Foot of the castle road, Mangalem quarter, Berat
Mangalem QuarterThe historic quarter on the slope below Berat Castle, where white Ottoman houses2 minutes walk4.7
Gorica BridgeGorica Bridge spans the Osum in Berat, linking Mangalem, the old quarter at the 9 minutes walk
Berat CastleA castle on a rocky hill on the right bank of the Osum, 214 m above the town of 9 minutes walk4.8Its Albanian name, Xhamia e Mbretit, means the King's Mosque; like its other name, the Sultan's Mosque, it recalls its founder, the Ottoman sultan Bayezid II, who reigned from 1481 to 1512.
Damp-proofing work on the foundations uncovered human remains along the mosque's south side and about 1.5 m² of a three-coloured floor mosaic, some 77 cm below the courtyard. An archaeologist of Berat's regional culture directorate tentatively placed it in late antiquity, the 5th or 6th century.