Atik Valide Mosque
Good to know
- Best time to go
- April–June, September–October
- Accessibility
- limited
- Coordinates
- Open in maps
Crowning a hill in the Üsküdar district on the Asian side, this expansive complex was designed by Mimar Sinan for Nurbanu Sultan, mother of Murad III, and finished around 1583. One of the architect's largest surviving works, it preserves a nearly complete Ottoman social foundation with medreses, a hospital, hospice, soup kitchen and bathhouse around the mosque. The prayer hall is decorated with fine İznik tiles and a painted wooden gallery. Its untouristed setting shows how such charitable complexes once anchored neighbourhoods.
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