Ortaköy Mosque

Ortaköy Mosque, officially the Büyük Mecidiye Camii, stands on the waterfront square of Ortaköy in the Beşiktaş district of Istanbul, right at the edge of the Bosphorus. The first Bosphorus Bridge, now called the 15 July Martyrs Bridge, crosses the strait just behind it, and the view of the mosque against the bridge is one of the best known images of the city.

The mosque was commissioned by Sultan Abdulmejid I and built between 1854 and 1856. The architects were Garabet Balyan and his son Nigoğayos Balyan, members of the Armenian family of architects who also designed Dolmabahçe Palace. An earlier small mosque, built on the site in 1720, was ruined in the Patrona Halil uprising of 1731.

The design blends Ottoman forms with European neo-Baroque decoration. A single dome rises over a square prayer hall, and two slender minarets stand at the front corners. Large arched windows on all sides fill the interior with light reflected from the water, and the walls are decorated with pink mosaic and carved stone. Inside are calligraphy panels attributed to Sultan Abdulmejid himself.

The building has been restored several times, most recently in a major project that reopened it in 2014. The square around it is lined with cafes, and the area is known for kumpir stalls selling stuffed baked potatoes and for its weekend craft stalls.

The mosque is open to visitors outside prayer times and entry is free. Visitors remove their shoes, and women cover their hair.

The building has had a hard life. The 1894 Istanbul earthquake damaged it, and the original fluted minarets were replaced with plainer masonry ones with balconies shaped like Corinthian capitals. By the 1960s the building was leaning and the brick dome was close to collapse, so the dome was rebuilt in concrete and the mosque reopened in 1969. A minor fire followed in 1984. The last restoration, run by the General Directorate of Foundations over three years at a cost of almost 7 million lira, ended with a reopening on 6 June 2014.

Alongside the prayer hall stands a two-storey U-shaped imperial apartment used by the sultan. Inside, the mihrab and minbar are of marble and porphyry, and trompe-l'oeil paintings cover the dome.