Late Ottoman / Baroque
Ortaköy Mosque / Büyük Mecidiye Mosque
1853–1854 · Beşiktaş / Ortaköy
Late-Ottoman neo-Baroque Bosphorus-waterfront mosque by the Balyan dynasty — square prayer hall with twin slender minarets, trompe-l'œil dome painting introduced under Abdülmecid I, and calligraphic panels by the sultan himself.
- Dome
- 12.25 m
- Minarets
- 2
- Built
- 1853–1854
- Architect
- Balyan family
- Patron
- Sultan Abdülmecid I
- District
- Beşiktaş / Ortaköy
History
The Ortaköy Mosque, formally Büyük Mecidiye Camii (Great Mosque of Sultan Abdülmecid), stands on the European-side waterfront of the Bosphorus at the Ortaköy pier square in Beşiktaş. It was commissioned by Sultan Abdülmecid I on the site of a small mosque built in 1720. It was completed in 1854. The architects were Garabet Amira Balyan and his son Nigoğayos Balyan — Armenian court architects who at the same time were designing the neighbouring Dolmabahçe Palace. Some of the calligraphic panels in the interior were written by Sultan Abdülmecid I himself, who was trained as a calligrapher. The mosque has undergone numerous repairs, the most comprehensive being the General Directorate of Foundations restoration in 2011–2014. Since the 1973 opening of the Bosphorus Bridge, Ortaköy's silhouette framing the bridge has become one of Istanbul's iconic views.
Architecture
The building combines two distinct parts: a two-storey U-shaped imperial pavilion (hünkâr kasrı) in front of the entrance, and a square prayer hall 12.25 × 12.25 m covered by a single dome. The style is Ottoman neo-Baroque with eclectic neoclassical elements typical of the Tanzimat era and the Balyans' work: tall arched windows flood the interior with daylight, while the exterior is richly stone-carved. The dome interior is decorated with trompe-l'œil painting — a technique first introduced into Ottoman architecture during the reign of Abdülmecid I. Two slender ashlar minarets carry balconies with Corinthian-derived capitals. The mihrab and minbar are of marble, and the walls below the dome are finished in pink stone-effect plaster. In the 1960s the failing dome was rebuilt in reinforced concrete. Within the mainstream account, authorship is shared between Garabet Amira Balyan and his son Nigoğos, as at Dolmabahçe. Archival work by Selman Can challenges the Balyans' role altogether: reading the mosque's cost registers, he casts them as contractors and names Seyyid Abdülhalim Efendi as the architect. The question remains open.
Photographs
