Mosque

Gül Mosque

It is recorded that it was converted into a mosque in 1490.
It was damaged in the earthquake of 1509 and protected temporarily with a wooden roof.
During the life of Mimar Sinan, flat domes, windows and side facade arrangements were made in accordance with Turkish architectural style.
It was damaged by the Golden Horn fires such as the 1633 Cibalikapı fire.
Its minaret was renovated after the 1766 Istanbul earthquake.
During the reign of Mahmud II, a Sultan’s Lodge was added and the interior decorations were completed in the 19th century.
During the restorations carried out in the 2000s, the exterior was scraped (cleaning the paint or rust from the surface with a scraper) and the stone walls were exposed.

It is said that the building was a church built in the name of Hagia Theodosia or Hagia Euphemia during the Byzantine period.
It is a Byzantine structure with a closed cross plan and three apses. It has four main arches and flat, octagonal drum domes from the Turkish period.
To the right of the minbar is a tomb attributed to one of Jesus’ apostles. It is said that “Gül Baba” or the last Byzantine emperor Constantine XI is buried here.
According to one tradition, the church was decorated with roses on May 29, the feast day of Saint Theodosia, in 1453. When the Turks entered the city during the conquest of Istanbul and found the building adorned with roses when they converted it into a mosque, they named it the ‘Rose Mosque’ (Gül Camii). However, since it can be thought that the Byzantine people could not have been bothered with decorating a church at that time, the accuracy of this story is debatable. According to another view, the mosque was named after a person called ‘Gülbaba’ whose tomb was believed to be inside. There are also different stories about the origin of the name of the building.
There are no Byzantine decorations on the interior walls. They are decorated with 19th century hand-drawn embroidery and “Seal of Solomon” motifs.
Near the mosque is a primary school donated by Adile Sultan, the daughter of Mahmud II.