Ortaköy Mosque

Ortaköy Mosque (Turkish:Ortaköy Camii), officially the Büyük Mecidiye Camii (Grand Imperial Mosque of Sultan Abdülmecid) in Beşiktaş, Istanbul, Turkey, is situated at the waterside of the Ortaköy pier square, one of the most popular locations on the Bosphorus.

History

On this site, a masjid commissioned by the son-in-law of Vizier Ibrahim Pasha used to stand. Built in 1721, it was ruined during the Patrona Halil Uprising. The current mosque, which was erected in its place, was ordered by the Ottoman sultan Abdülmecid and built between 1854 and 1856, on the ruins of the Cantemir Palace. Its architects were Armenian father and son Garabet Amira Balyan and Nigoğayos Balyan (who also designed the nearby Dolmabahçe Palace and the Dolmabahçe Mosque), who designed it in the Neo-Baroque style.

Features

It consists of a two-story "sultan apartment" which has a "U shaped" plan, a main venue with a square plan which is covered with one dome. The "sliced facades" with mounting columns are "enriched" by carvings as well as relief, giving the mosque a "dynamic appearance". There are two rows of windows providing the main venue a "good illumination".

The mosque is "pint-sized" in comparison to other mosques "on the other side of the golden horn". The mosque was built in Neo-baroque style. In the interior of the mosque, there are wide, "high bay windows" which refract its reflection in water as well as daylight. There are also several panels of calligraphy by Abdülmecid I himself.

Text imported from Wikipedia article "Ortaköy Mosque" and modified on July 23, 2019 according to the CC-BY-SA 4.0 International license.