Late Ottoman / Baroque
Yıldız Hamidiye Mosque
1884–1886 · Beşiktaş / Yıldız
Abdülhamid II’s court mosque by Yıldız Palace (1884–86): a neo-Gothic façade and the site of the 1905 selamlık bombing.
- Minarets
- 1
- Built
- 1884–1886
- Architect
- Sarkis Balyan
- Patron
- Sultan Abdülhamid II
- District
- Beşiktaş / Yıldız
History
The Yıldız Hamidiye Mosque was built by Sultan Abdülhamid II in 1884–1886, next to the Yıldız Palace complex in Beşiktaş. It was the court mosque where the sultan performed the Friday selamlık — the ceremonial procession to prayer. On 21 July 1905, a famous attack took place in front of the mosque: a bomb in a cart was set to kill the sultan as he left Friday prayers. Abdülhamid II survived — he had stopped to talk with the Sheikh-ul-Islam — but 26 people were killed and 58 wounded. It reopened in 2017 after a restoration.
Architecture
The building is rectangular in plan and in an eclectic late-Ottoman style: an outer neo-Gothic façade combines with Eastern, Moorish-Andalusian motifs inside — the mosque has no single 'pure' style. It has a single minaret. Its appearance reflects the taste of Abdülhamid II's court for blending Western and Eastern forms; beside the mosque is a two-storey imperial pavilion linked to the selamlık ceremony.
Photographs
