Sultan Abdul Mecit built Dolmabahce Palace in 1856. As its designers he employed Karabet Balyan and his son Nikogos, members of the great family of Armenian architects who lined the Bosphorus with many of their creations during the 19th century.
One of the most worthwhile detours along the city walls is the Kara Ahmet Pasa Mosque, which is also known as Gazi Ahmet Pasa. This lovely building, with its peaceful leafy courtyard and graceful proportions, is one of the imperial architect Sinan’s lesser known achievements, which he built in 1554 for Kara Ahmet Pasa, a [...]
This much-admired mosque is also known locally as Yavuz Sultan Mosque: Yavuz, “the Grim”, being the nickname the infamous Selim acquired. It is idyllic in a rather offbeat way, which does seem at odds with Selim’s barbaric reputation.
A spacious outer courtyard surrounds this vast Baroque mosque, the third major structure on this site. The first was the Church of the Holy Apostles, the burial place of most of the Byzantine emperors. Most of what you see today was the work of Mehmet Tahir A?a, the chief imperial architect under Mustafa III. Many [...]
The name of the oldest and most beautiful synagogue in Istanbul is a corruption of Ohrid, the name of a town in the former Yugoslavia from which its congregation came.