Research Article Numerical Study to Assess the Structural Behavior of the Bajrakli Mosque (Western Kosovo) Huseyin Bilgin 1 and Faton Ramadani 2 1 Department of Civil Engineering, EPOKA University, Tirana, Albania 2 JV Trema Engineering 2 Sh.p.k and Strabag AG, Pristina, Kosovo Correspondence should be addressed to Huseyin Bilgin; hbilgin@epoka.edu.al Received 28 August 2021; Revised 3 November 2021; Accepted 26 November 2021; Published 15 December 2021 Academic Editor: Tan-Trung BUI Copyright © 2021 Huseyin Bilgin and Faton Ramadani. is is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Cultural heritage is one of most significant concerns in modern societies carrying different social and historical values. Among the stock of cultural heritage, historical monuments are one of the greatest contributors to the values in many aspects. Due to several factors, such structures have gone through changes causing structural deficiencies. e aim of this study is to provide a clear insight of the cause and impacts of structural deficiencies through visual inspections and computational methods. As a rep- resentative model, Bajrakli Mosque located in western of Kosovo is selected as a case study. During visual inspections, some cracks are found along the structural elements of the mosque. A possible cause of the structural cracks may be the stress concentration through the regions of the structure. In order to provide a better understanding, two different loadings are considered to examine the structural behavior of the mosque. e first loading covers the analysis due to gravity loads, whereas the second one defines the dynamic loading due to ground shakings defined by the earthquake spectrum using finite element analysis in SAP2000. By means of these analyses, the performance of the building is examined. As a result, important data are obtained for identifying the critical regions of the structure. e maximum displacement of the structure is found to be 7.1 mm and 8.0mm in combination of self- weight and earthquake load in X and Y direction, respectively. Moreover, the regions showing highest values of stress con- centration are found through the small domes, through the openings of main dome and connections with arches, and around the openings of the walls. 1. Introduction Determining the seismic response of existing structures is a very important issue for the evaluation of their seismic vulnerability and is gaining importance for historical monumental buildings, especially if they are characterized by complex geometrical layouts, such as in the case of historical mosques. Reconnaissance studies carried out after earthquakes have proven how sensitive mosques are to horizontal earthquake forces [1–7]. Monumental buildings such as mosques, churches, castles, city walls, and clock towers constructed in many parts of the world are the main motifs of historical masonry structures [1, 8]. ey represent an important part of Balkan cultural heritage, particularly prone to damage and sus- ceptible to partial or total collapse under earthquake loads as testified by some of the recent earthquakes (Macedonia Earthquake in 1963; Banja Luka, Bosnia, and Herzegovina in 1969; Friuli, Italy in 1976; Coast of Montenegro in 1979; Durres, Albania in 2019) in the region [4, 9–11]. ese structures are one of the most important com- ponents of our cultural diversity reflecting the history of humanity. us, preservation and restoration of these structures is an important engineering concern and task for us to ensure the sustainable development and protection of our cultural resources to pass them onto future generations [12, 13]. Specific material characteristics (highly inelastic re- sponse and small tensile strength), lack of proper connec- tions between various elements, presence of thrusting elements, and particular configuration of these buildings that are characterized by open plan layouts with slender Hindawi Advances in Civil Engineering Volume 2021, Article ID 4620916, 17 pages https://doi.org/10.1155/2021/4620916