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©Emma Shaw/Lonely Planet

Blagaj Tekke

Bosnia & Hercegovina


Forming Blagaj's signature attraction, the centrepiece of this complex of traditional stone-roofed buildings is a very pretty half-timbered dervish house with wobbly rug-covered floors, carved doorways, curious niches and a bathroom with star-shaped coloured glass set into the ceiling. The dervishes follow a mystical strand of Islam in which the peaceful contemplation of nature plays a part, hence the tekke's idyllic positioning above the cave mouth from which the Buna River's surreally blue-green waters flow forth.

The tekke's last sheikh died in 1923 and dervish spirituality was suppressed following WWII. The Blagaj Tekke is now once again a venue for Zikr praise-chanting three nights a week.


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