Large numbers of Tirana residents, regardless of their beliefs, and many foreign tourists were lured by curiosity to visit and see the new Mosque and its interior decorations just a day after it was inaugurated in a ceremony on Thursday in the presence of Prime Minister Edi Rama and the visiting Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

Construction of the Great Mosque of Tirana or Namazgah Mosque was long awaited by Muslim believers, who will now have the right space for the Eid prayers available after performing the prayer at Tirana’s main square to date.

A handwritten copy of the Holy Quran of much bigger size than usual is displayed at entrance of the Mosque complex. The interior features typical core colors of Islamic architecture.

The mosque’s design was inspired by Classical Ottoman architecture. It has four minarets, each 50 meters high, while the central dome has a height of 30 meters. The first floor of the mosque includes a cultural center and other facilities

The mosque has been constructed on a 10,000-square-meter parcel of land near Albania’s parliament building. It has a capacity for up to 8,000 people to pray inside the mosque and 2,000 on the outside; totaling at 10,000 people.

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Addressing the inauguration ceremony on Thursday, PM Rama stated that Tirana’s Chief Mufti Bilal Teqja has been assigned to lead the new Namazgah Mosque.

“Gratitude to the President of the Republic of Türkiye, my friend who is always welcome to Albania, to this small house of ours with so many homes, for your brotherly commitment to meet the prayer of the Albanian Muslim community, becoming the voice of their call to the Turkish Muslim community that generously and fraternally gave the Albanian Muslim community the necessary means for the construction of this great mosque, which will witness your gesture for generations and will tell everyone about inextricable relation between our two nations,” PM Rama said in his remarks.

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Muslim Community said via a post on the social media that Prime Minister Edi Rama and the visiting Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan will attend the inauguration ceremony.

Tirana Mufti Gazment Teqja will represent Albanian Muslim Community during the ceremony. Teqja will also serve as the head of board of a joint foundation that will manage the newly-built Namazgah Mosque in Tirana.

“Inauguration of the Namazgah Mosque is a a long-standing dream of the Albanian people, which became possible thanks to the generosity of the brother Turkish people and the insistence of the President of the Republic of Türkiye, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. Furthermore, the Great Mosque of Namazgah would not have become a reality without the great administrative and financial support from the Albanian Government, which, thanks to the will of Prime Minister Edi Rama, paved the way for the consolidation of our ownership over the Namazgah land,” Muslim Community said in its statement.

The mosque will be not only a religious site, but also a significant new landmark in the heart of the Albanian capital.

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