Description of the attraction
The Bayazid Mosque in Bursa, built by the architect Yakub Shah or Hayreddin Pasha in 1500-1506 by order of the son of Mehmed the Conqueror Sultan Bayezid II (reign: 1481-1512) is an ancient, but at the same time, bright and original, impressive building that gives an idea of the architectural style of the Ottomans of the Middle Ages, although not distinguished by the grace of the Green Mosque and not so lavishly decorated.
It is the oldest surviving Sultan's mosque in the city, built in a transitional style from early Ottoman to classical, heavily influenced by the architecture of Hagia Sophia. It is one of the largest in Istanbul and has two minarets decorated with brick ornaments. It is located in the old part of the city of Istanbul on Beyazit Square (the current name of the square is Freedom Square or Hurriyet Meidani). Not far from the mosque are the Beyazit Grand Bazaar Gate and the main gate of Istanbul University. The dome diameter is 17 meters. The minarets are decorated with brick ornaments.
The mosque reflects the fashion for the construction of domed structures. Of particular interest is the rectangular front yard with arches. The entrance to the mosque is decorated with a gate decorated with rich and luxurious stalactite-like ornaments and inscriptions, which reflects the influence of the Seljuk in the architecture of the building. 25 domes rest on 20 antique columns made of red porphyry and pink granite. The dome is 17 meters in diameter.
The architectural feature of the Bayazid Mosque is the combination of the styles of the original Bursa mosques and those erected in the late Ottoman period. On the eastern and western parts of the ceremonial dome, there are semi-domes supported by four massive columns with stalactite pommel in the form of an elephant foot and two columns of porphyry marble. During the construction of the complex, columns made of marble, granite, porphyry and other building elements borrowed from the ancient (380-393) Byzantine forum of Theodosius were widely used.
The first interesting feature of the mosque is that the minarets are at a distance of about one hundred meters from each other. The second feature is that this mosque, like most of the mosques built in the early Ottoman period, was originally created to accommodate merchants, pilgrims and wandering dervishes.
Unlike the mosques of the Seljuk epoch, the pool (or as the Turks call it - Shadrivan) is moved outside the premises into the courtyard. The color harmony of the arcade around the courtyard and the marble pavements are noteworthy. On both sides of the mosque there are built-in sherefe (balcony, on the minaret from which the muezzin calls to prayer), which is located at an altitude of 87 m. There are eight red stripes on the minarets, which give the building of the mosque a special flavor.
It should be noted that the trees from the construction sites were not removed by Turkish builders, so several cypress trees still grow in the courtyard of the Bayazid mosque, giving a very picturesque look to the entire ensemble.
The plan of this building is very interesting. To the right and to the left of the entrance to the premises of the mosque, you can see 2 wings, which form a kind of vestibule with arcades with sharp arches. Standing at the extreme point of one of these porches, you can admire the grandiose spectacle, which is a long vaulted gallery in the form of a 25-domed portico and reminiscent of the monastery refectory of the Middle Ages. Ottoman architects covered the dome of the mosque with lead slabs, and a golden crescent was erected on the spire. Despite the fact that the mosque is one of the funeral ones, the tomb or “turbé” is located behind the mosque.
Four small domes were located on each of the side naves, which were separated by columns. Around all the domes and half-domes, ornaments were depicted resembling patterns on fabrics, similar to the motifs of patterns applied to the tents of nomadic yuryuk, the ancestors of the Ottomans. The elevation of Mahfil Hünkar, intended for the ruler-Hünkar, was performed in a very graceful manner. In the mausoleum, which is an octagonal turba made of rough unhewn stone, behind the mosque, next to the tomb of Sultan Bayazid, Seljuk Khatun rests. A very famous person of the tanzimata period, the Great Reshid Pasha, was buried in the third turba in 1857.
The complex, located on Bayazid Square to the west of Kapala Charshi, includes the Bayazid Mosque itself, an imaret (a canteen where ministers, students, the sick and the poor), a hospital, a school, a madrasah, a hamam (Turkish bath) and a caravanserai.
The caravanserai and imaret, which was considered a charitable institution in the Ottoman Empire, now belong to the city library, and the madrasah, located to the west of the mosque, now houses a calligraphy museum. Among several mausoleums located on the south side of the mosque, there is also the mausoleum of the founder of the mosque, Sultan Bayezid II.
The Bayazid Mosque now houses the eponymous medical museum. To the north of the Bayazid Mosque is the complex of the old university, which became the first Turkish higher educational institution at the end of the 19th century.
