Sehadet Mosque
Sehadet Mosque
This mosque was built by Sultan Murad I (the Sovereign) in 1366. Various sources state that this mosque was called “Shehadet Mosque”, after Murad I (the Sovereign) fell in Kosovo in 1389. As it is situated inside the citadel, it is also called “Kale”, or “Citadel” Mosque. Likewise, it is also mentioned as "Saray Mosque”, or “Palace” Mosque, because of its location facing “Bey Saray” Palace. This structure, as it is built on the opposite side of the palace, emphasizes the traditional combination of a palace and a place of worship during the Ottoman empire.
When it was initially built, this mosque was a copy of “Ulu Mosque”. It was built with the same ground plan as the mosque of Murad I in Plovdiv.
This mosque was destroyed in the 1855 Bursa earthquake, and left in this state for a long period. After long years of renovation, it was reopened for worshipping in 1892.
The current structure is, compared to the original one, scaled down in the proportion of two thirds. Furthermore, the mosque’s south wall, which was supported by means of raking shores added in the 17th century, remained from the initial mosque.
The structure’s plastered frontage (north façade) with its two Ionic columns and capitals, and its side walls were rebuilt in the 19th century, in Gothic style being wide-spread in Europe during that period.
There is a single minaret made of hewn stones at the mosque’s northeast, and a portico for latecomers covered with four small domes at its north. The structure has three doors, one each in eastern, western, and northern direction. Over its east door, there is a marble epitaph board written with “nesih” letters. It is known that this epitaph board of 1337 was the one of “Orhan” Masjid built by Orhan Gazi, situated behind the Clock Tower at Tophane, but destroyed in the 1855 earthquake.
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