Turbe Mausoleum

The Turbe Mausoleum is a small but historically significant Ottoman-era memorial in central Bihać. Built in 1878 by the Austro-Hungarian administration shortly after the occupation of Bosnia, it commemorates the Bosnian defenders who died resisting the Habsburg advance. The structure is a turbe — a domed mausoleum typical of Ottoman funerary architecture — and its construction by the incoming authorities says something about the complex relationship between the new occupiers and the society they were governing.

The mausoleum is a designated national monument of Bosnia and Herzegovina. It stands in the old town area, close to the Captain's Tower, and can be seen in a few minutes as part of a walking tour of Bihać's historic centre.

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A story
The Turbe Mausoleum was built in 1878 to honour the Bosnian defenders killed fighting the Austro-Hungarian army as it occupied the region. The Ottoman defenders of Bihać resisted the Habsburg advance with unusual tenacity; when the town finally fell, the occupying authorities chose to memorialise their opponents rather than erase them. It is a rare example of a conqueror building a monument to the people they defeated.