Saturday, September 8, 2018

PİYALE PAŞA (TERSANE) MOSQUE COMPLEX

Kasımpaşa, Beyoğlu - Istanbul - Turkey

GPS : 41°02'41.0"N 28°57'57.0"E / 41.044722, 28.965833



PHOTOGRAPHS ALBUM

The Piyale Pasha Mosque also known as the Tersane Camii (literally: Arsenal Mosque), is an Ottoman mosque located in the Kasımpaşa neighborhood of Beyoğlu district in Istanbul, Turkey. The complex was constructed on the site of a former dockyard.

Vizier and Grand Admiral Mehmet Piyale Pasa (1553-1577), who was married to Gevherhan Sultan, daughter of Sultan Selim II  (1524-1574), was originally Croatian and his father was a shoemaker. A six domed, Piyale Pasha (Shipyard) Mosque was built for Admiral Piyale Pasha in 1573 by Ottoman imperial architect Mimar Sinan. The mosque was built between 1565 and 1573. In 1890, some buildings of the mosque and the foundation were renewed.

Piyale Paşa Mosque was built by Architect Sinan in the Kasımpaşa district of Beyoglu county in 1573. The complex is composed of a mosque, a Sıbyan Mektebi (Ottoman elementary - primary school), a bath, a fountain, a tekke (dervish lodge), a tomb, and an arasta (Ottoman bazaar). Today, only the mosque and the tomb have survived to the present day.

The six domes, each approximately nine meters in diameter, are carried by two tapered granite piers in the center of the prayer hall. They rest on the qibla and along the sides of the entrance walls. Pendentives enable the transition from the round dome to the rectilinear walls. The use of these piers in the central space could have resulted in a loss of spatial integrity, but the slenderness of the piers balances their placement. This same slenderness appears in the slim walls, which are buttressed along the qibla. The tapering buttresses along the qibla wall support the lateral thrust of the domes.

Unlike other mosques designed by Sinan that have a large central dome, the Piyale Pasha Mosque is constructed with six identical domes, arranged as two rows of three, each with a diameter of about 9 m (30 ft). The domes are supported in the center of the prayer hall by a pair of slender granite pillars. The minaret is placed in the centre of the anti-qibla wall. It was rebuilt in the middle of the 19th century.

However, the wall thickness increases dramatically opposite the mihrab, in the middle of the entrance wall where the minaret stands. The minaret is placed in the centre of the anti-qibla wall. The window gaps of the mosque are designed as a tri-serial which have a great impact on the skylight of the mosque. The stained-glass in the windows of the qibla wall is not original.

The mosque was built on an area measuring 55 x 45 m. Several the walls of the complex are constructed from cut stones, whereas other parts are built from rubble stones. The ceiling of the harim (sanctum sanctorum) of the mosque, spanning an area of 30.50 x 19.70 m, is covered by 6 domes, each of a diameter of 9 meters. Both the dome composing the ceiling structure and the arched roof are made of brick. The weight of the dome, supported by pendentives, is distributed between two granite columns and piers.

This same slenderness appears in the slim walls, which are buttressed along the qibla. The tapering buttresses along the qibla wall support the lateral thrust of the domes. However, the wall thickness increases dramatically opposite the mihrab, in the middle of the entrance wall where the minaret stands.

This platform is supported by pointed arches that rest on six slender columns. The sequential layout of the muezzin's platform and the minaret strengthens the emphasis on the qibla axis. However, the exterior expression is in turn weakened by the unusual location of the minaret and unresolved issues of proportion. The northeastern and northwestern corners of the entrance wall are articulated with rectangular stair shafts which lead to the side platforms as well as the upper porticos.

Another exceptional aspect of the Piyale Pasa Mosque is the double-story porticos, which consist of cross vaults carried by rectangular columns at the base with galleries above. Ninety marble columns carried the gallery roof; today, most of these columns, along with the roof, have disappeared. The mosque's fenestration pattern of four rows of different aperture sizes is also unlike that present in Sinan's other works.

The use of granite columns instead of elephant feet pillars, which bears the central dome similar to earlier mosques, is a different example in itself. The columns in the courtyard must belong to a madrasah and a lodge are no longer. On the tile ribbon, inside the mosque, Sura of Fatiha is written.

The unusual design approach found in this mosques prompts two different conclusions: it may one of Sinan's more experimental designs, or it could have been designed by another architect, possibly working under Sinan's supervision. As the mosque is not mentioned in memoir's of Sinan's work, evidence points to the latter.

Unlike Sinan's other mosques, where the spatial and structural composition develop around a single central dome, the Piyale Pasa Mosque is a six-domed structure in which the identical domes are arranged in two rows of three. The prayer hall measures about thirty and a half meters by twenty meters, with additional bays on both ends of the domed bays.

The unusual design approach found in this mosques prompts two different conclusions: it may one of Sinan's more experimental designs, or it could have been designed by another architect, possibly working under Sinan's supervision. As the mosque is not mentioned in memoir's of Sinan's work, evidence points to the latter.

The two entrances of the mosque are placed on either side of the minaret, and both entrances have two windows on their sides. This symmetrical approach works well on both the exterior and the interior, given the three-bay structure of the mosque, which embodies a strong middle axis and two identical wings. The muezzin's platform, located just behind the minaret wall, has a better placement than is usually found in single-domed structures.

This platform is supported by pointed arches that rest on six slender columns. The sequential layout of the muezzin's platform and the minaret strengthens the emphasis on the qibla axis. However, the exterior expression is in turn weakened by the unusual location of the minaret and unresolved issues of proportion.

The northeastern and northwestern corners of the entrance wall are articulated with rectangular stair shafts which lead to the side platforms as well as the upper porticos. Another exceptional aspect of the Piyale Pasa Mosque is the double-story porticos, which consist of cross vaults carried by rectangular columns at the base with galleries above. Ninety marble columns carried the gallery roof; today, most of these columns, along with the roof, have disappeared.

The niche of the mosque overlaid Iznik tiles with a plant motif and a ceramic ring with a Qur’anic verse on an arc-shape frame which supports the dome adorning the architectural aesthetics of the mosque. The script of the ceramic ring was written by calligrapher Çerkez Hasan Çelebi. Despite the decoration of the mihrab (niche), the pulpit of the mosque is highly ordinary.

A number of identical Iznik tiled lunette panels that are now on display in different museums including the Musée du Louvre in Paris, the Museu Calouste Gulbenkian in Lisbon and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London are believed to have been removed from the Piyale Pasha Mosque in the 19th century. The panels would have been placed above the lower row of windows. Two tiles from another lunette panel and a pair of tiles that probably came from the mihrab were sold at auction by Christie's in 2004.

The mosque's fenestration pattern of four rows of different aperture sizes is also unlike that present in Sinan's other works. The walls of the mosque are made of cut stone and rough stone, while the domes and vaults are brick. The minbar is marble. Remarkable blue Iznik tiles with white inscriptions, crafted by Cerkez Hasan Çelebi, encircle the prayer hall between the second and third rows of windows. The inscription under the copper-covered crown of the minaret dates the restoration of the minaret to the end of the eighteen century.

An inscription of the Fatiha verse of the Koran is to be found on the band of tiles that circles the interior. Around three walls of the interior are a row of Iznik tiles with inscriptions in a white thuluth script on a cobalt-blue background. The interior walls are now whitewashed but they were originally decorated.

The minaret of the mosque is made of cut limestone and only has a single sherefe (minaret balcony) which peculiarly rises from the level of the niche. Alluding to the marine identity of the Grand Admiral Piyale Pasha, the minaret reminds one of a mast, rising above the deck of a ship. Despite some stolen pieces, the mihrap inside has retained its magnificence.

It was rebuilt in the middle of the 19th century. After a recent restoration project which was completed in 2007, the mosque has been opened to public again.

Tomb
Piyale Pasha died on 21 January 1578 and is buried at the Piyale Pasha Mosque in Istanbul which he had built in his final years. In the plain tomb, which is constructed on an octagonal plan in which the builder of the complex, Piyale Paşa, is burried, there are a total of 13 different graves, including three sarcophaguses and ten marble graves in the tomb. The domed octagonal mausoleum to the northwest of the mosque contains the tomb of Piyale Pasha together with those of his sons and daughters.

In the octagonal tomb built with küfeki stone, lie the marble sarcophagi of Piyale Pasha and his family. The domed octagonal mausoleum to the northwest of the mosque contains the tomb of Piyale Pasha together with those of his sons and daughters. Altogether there are thirteen sarcophagi. His wife, Gevherhan Sultan (daughter of Sultan Selim II), remarried and is entombed in Sultan Selim II's mausoleum next to Hagia Sophia.

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