The key facts

  • The 16th-century mosque, which served ailing palace gardeners, disappeared by the 1950s–1960s due to road works carried out in 1956–1960.
  • Fatih Mayor Mehmet Ergun Turan: it was the only mosque directly behind the sea walls, and its restoration is funded by donors.
  • Eight mosques have been restored, and work is under way on ten more.

A mosque that vanished from Istanbul's skyline is returning

The Bostancilar Tabhanesi Mosque, also known as the Yedekciler Mosque, which disappeared from Istanbul's skyline about 70 years ago, is being restored in the Sarayburnu area. It was built during the reign of the Ottoman Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent for ailing palace gardeners and stood outside the sea walls of Topkapi Palace, between Sarayburnu and Ahirkapi. In the 1950s it was demolished during the construction of a coastal road. The work is being carried out by the Fatih district municipality, which aims to return a site of historical and cultural heritage to the city.

The fate of the building and the context of its loss

For centuries the mosque served as a place of worship and was part of everyday life around the Ottoman palace. Its history illustrates the fate of historic buildings lost during Istanbul's modernization. Urban development projects of 1956–1960, which altered the shoreline and the urban fabric of Sarayburnu, irreversibly transformed not only the district's transport network but also its historic silhouette. According to academic research, the mosque is listed among the structures that vanished from the coastline during that period; their former locations have been established from historical photographs.

Comment from the Mayor of Fatih

Fatih Mayor Mehmet Ergun Turan told Anadolu that the Bostancilar Tabhanesi was the only mosque located directly behind Istanbul's sea walls. According to him, for those arriving from Uskudar or by sea, it was the first mosque whose minaret came into view. The building began to deteriorate in the 1930s, the minaret was demolished in the 1940s, and by the 1950s–1960s, when the coastal road was being built, the mosque had completely disappeared. 'Today we are glad to return this mosque to Istanbul's silhouette, perhaps after almost 100 years. We have its photographs in numerous documents, its location is marked on maps, and it appears in engravings,' the agency quoted Turan as saying.

Funding and the scale of the program

Turan emphasized that the municipality seeks to restore all lost monuments of its ancestors' heritage. According to him, none of the mosques being restored is built with public funds — the work is financed by donors. To date, the restoration of eight mosques has been completed, and ten more similar projects are in progress.