Momin Mosque, Mathbaria

In 1913 Momin Uddin Akon, a villager of Burirchar in Mathbaria, set out to build a mosque close to home. He first made bricks, then switched to timber so it would match the wooden houses around it. About two dozen craftsmen, many from the Swarupkathi area, spent some seven years fitting the panels together without nails, carving and painting leaves, flowers, pineapples and Arabic calligraphy in natural colours. The prayer hall is small, room for only about thirty people. The Department of Archaeology listed it as a protected monument in 2003, and it remains one of the finest pieces of wooden religious architecture in the country.

How to get there

From Pirojpur take a bus to Mathbaria, then an auto or motorbike to Burirchar village.

Good to know

It is a working mosque and fragile: dress modestly, take off shoes, avoid prayer times and don't touch the painted panels.

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