Gulbahar Hatun Mosque

About Gulbahar Hatun Mosque

Mosque in Trabzon, northeastern Turkey

The Gülbahar Hatun Mosque is one of the oldest purpose-built Ottoman mosques in Trabzon, standing in the Ortahisar quarter west of the old citadel. It was founded in 1514 by Prince Selim, then governor of Trabzon and later Sultan Selim I, in honour of his mother Gülbahar Hatun (1453–1505), who began life as a slave girl and became the consort of Bayezid II and mother of Selim; she lived in Trabzon during her son's governorship, and her octagonal tomb stands beside the mosque. The mosque was repaired in 1883. It follows the early Ottoman single-domed type, with a small forecourt, a portico of five domes carried on columns and a single minaret, and formed the centre of a complex that once included a madrasa, a public kitchen and a bathhouse, of which little survives. A small park and a traditional neighbourhood of old Trabzon houses surround it today. The site holds special meaning for lovers of Ottoman history, as it is tied to the childhood of Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent, born in Trabzon in 1494 during his father Selim's governorship, and to the grandmother whose name the mosque bears.

Where:

Trabzon, Türkiye