Yeni Mosque

Faits

• Built between 1597 and 1663, with some years of interruption during the construction, the Yeni (New) Mosque hovers over the harbor at Eminonu overlooking the incoming ferryboats to the old part of the city. The intermittent construction was lead by three different architects, Mimar Davut Aga, Dalgic Mehmet Aga, and Mustafa Aga, who finally completed the construction during the reign of Sultan Mehmet IV. The mosque was originally commissioned by Sultan Mehmet III in memory of his mother Safiye Sultan, wife of Sultan Murad III. Today its domes and arches shelter hundreds of pigeons who make this area their home. Intricate lznik tiles decorate the sultan's balcony. The kulliye comprises a mosque, an elementary school, a fountain, a hunkar pavilion (the Sultan's lodgings), and a mausoleum yard. Among these buildings, only the elementary school did not descend to the present. The outer yard had to be demolished due to the need for widening the road. The inner yard, with its 18 columns, its beautiful fountain and its three gates, is still well preserved.