Jan 20 - 2016
The Mosque of Zatriq village in the municipality of Rahovec has been treated as part of Cultural Emergency Response program, financed by Prince Claus Fund for Culture and Development in partnership with CHwB in Kosovo and community of the village.
The mosque of Zatriq village was subject of destruction of the last war (1999). A bomb damaged the entrance of the building, thus a new- not original door was put that affected the authenticity of the heritage. Now that the interventions are completed, the Islamic Community (the owner of the building) will adapt the not functional part of the building into a youth center of the Islamic community. After the discussions with the imam of the mosque, it seems that the community lacks a space for teaching Islamic religion. It seems that they use the functional area for both praying and teaching. As such, they proposed that the damaged half of the mosque, after treatment to be used as a teaching class, library and office of the mosque.
The intervention works in the exterior as well as the interior of the building have started on the 9th of November 2015 and were completed on the 22nd of December 2015.
All the roof tiles and the planks under the cover, including various space debris of the roof were removed and transported to landfill sites. The loose layers of the roof construction were cleaned, and several beams at certain points were reinforced. Only a small part of beams (the rotten ones) were replaced. Above the main roof construction, were put timber planks and hydro insulation. The roof was covered with tiles similar to traditional ones. Along with roof works, was rebuilt the chimney, which was in a very bad condition. The plastic material of the roof canopy was removed and replaced with timber boards. In the canopy, were fixed the profiled lintels and front decorated boards.
Most of the minaret was cleaned from the existing cement plaster, which covered and damaged the original structure of the minaret. Afterwards, the stone structure was cleaned, specifically the joints. The existing metal sheet from the top of minaret was removed, it was then replaced with the new timber construction covered then with new lead layer.
The timber floor of the building was treated. The floor area before entering to Mejtep and the one before entering the praying room was laid with stone slates. The drainage was installed around the perimeter of the mosque. In addition to that, the access to the building from the road is paved with same stones slates. According to the project, in the part of Mejtep were distributed the electrical installations. At the hall of Mejtep, was installed the water pipe and a water tub was placed for ablution (wudu).
All existing PVC and aluminum windows of the mosque (lately added, not the original ones) including rotten timber ones were replaced with new timber windows. Even most of the doors were replaced with new timber ones. All doors and windows were treated with anti-parasitic preparations.
Interior walls and joints in the ground floor in the hall of Mejtep and in the first floor were treated with lime mortar. The window silts were also treated with lime mortar. All the interior walls were painted in white.
Damaged steps of the staircase of Minbar were replaced with new timber boards and were then treated with anti-parasitic preparations. The staircase of mejtep were treated, all the missing or damaged steps were replaced with new ones, same as the original.
The mosque of Zatriq has served the community to build their knowledge in religion as well as other subjects. It was also a meeting place for people regardless of age and gender. The Islamic Community can once again reuse the Mejtep area.