HIDAYET MOSQUE

We are in Eminönü, one of the places that make Istanbul what it is, with its crowds, cultural diversity and witnessing history. We are looking at the Hidayet Mosque, which was built in wood in 1814.

Before the mosque was built, there were boathouses and bachelor rooms on this street. This area, which was under the control of the Janissaries and called Melek Girmez Street by the public, was later demolished by Sultan Mahmud II and the mosque built in its place was given the name 'hidayet', meaning 'right path', in order to make the neighborhood forget its bad reputation.

The mosque is described as an orientalist experiment in a mixed style, without adhering to a specific style. The Hidayet Mosque, which was built as a two-story building, has two large windows on its east and west facades and 21 windows on its dome. The mosque, which has a single-balcony minaret, was rebuilt in masonry by Alexandre Vallaury in 1887 by Abdülhamid II. On the first floor, which is accessed by stairs, there is a narthex and a domed harim. The mosque, which has everything found in sultan mosques, has undergone some repairs later.

The mosque, which has the date of construction and the repairs it has undergone, was repaired again in 1983 and again in 2008, in the inscription on the wide eaves courtyard door in the Western ornamental style.