Around the Gazimestan

The tomb of the “Bayraktarlar”, the flag bearers of Sultan Murad I who presumably died with him during the Battle of Kosovo on 15 June 1389. The türbe (mausoleum) is an octagonal building 3.5 metres high and covered by a lead dome. Rebuilt in 1791 and 1864, then renovated in 2015 by the Turkish development agency Tika, it houses the coffins of two “flag bearers”; the flag bearer himself would be called Gazi Mestan and has given his name to the whole area, about 80 metres south east of the memorial. As this soldier was an important member of a Sufi brotherhood (religious order of the mystical current of Islam), the site later became a place of pilgrimage, always maintained by the dervishes of Pristina. It has been the subject of several desecrations since the Kosovo war (1998-1999), the last time in 2017.