Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
mosque at the Edirne Gate. Of the other buildings of the külliye the
medrese is to the north, a pretty building of the rectangular type,
now used as a clinic; the primary school is behind the mosque built
on sharply rising ground so that it has very picturesque supporting
arches; it is now a children's library. On leaving the mosque terrace
one finds at the foot of the steps the very handsome baroque fountain
of Ahmet III, dated 1726.
Passing the fountain and entering the main street of Üsküdar we
soon come on the left to a supermarket housed in the remains of
an ancient hamam. The owner calls it Sinan Hamam Çarşısı, thus
ascribing the bath to Sinan; this is probably not so though it certainly
belongs to his time. It was a double hamam, but the main entrance
chambers were destroyed when the street was widened.
A little farther on is an ancient and curious mosque built by
Nişancı Kara Davut Paşa towards the end of the fifteenth century. It
is a broad, shallow room divided into three sections by arches, each
section having a dome, an arrangement unique in Istanbul.
YENİ VALİDE CAMİİ
Across the street and opening into the square is the large complex of
Yeni Valide Camii, built between 1708 and 1710 by Ahmet III and
dedicated to his mother the Valide Rabia Gülnüş Ümmetullah. At the
corner is the Valide's charming open türbe like a large aviary, and next
to it a grand sebil. On entering by the gate from the square one sees a
very attractive wooden façade, a later addition, which is the entrance
to the imperial loge. The mosque itself is in the classical style at its
very last gasp and before the baroque influence had come to liven it
up; it is a variation of the octagon-in-square theme; the tiles are late
and insipid. Walking through the outer courtyard one comes to the
main gate, over which is the mektep, and outside the gate stands the
large imaret with a later, fully baroque, çeşme at the corner.
ŞEMSİ PAŞA CAMİİ
Taking the street opposite the main gate and turning left, then right,
one reaches the precincts of one of Sinan's most delightful smaller
külliyes, that of Şemsi Paşa, which attracts the attention as one
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