Sehzedabası Mosgue

Sehzedabası Mosgue

Süleyman the Magnificent built this square-shaped mosque between 1543 and 1548 as a memorial to his son Mehmet, who died of smallpox in 1543 at the age of 22. It was the first important mosque to be designed by Mimar Sinan and has a lovely garden setting, two double-balconied minarets and attractive exterior decoration. Inside, the central dome is supported by four semidomes (one on each side of the square).

Sehzedabası Mosgue, among the many important people buried in tile-encrusted tombs on the mosque’s eastern side are Prince Mehmet, his brothers and sisters and two of Süleyman’s grand vezirs: Rüstem Paşa and İbrahim Paşa. Other still-surviving parts of the külliye include a partially demolished medrese and a tabhane (inn for travelling dervishes) that is now used as a laboratory by the neighbouring Vefa Lycée.