Rum Mehmet Paşa Mosque
- Changes after its construction
- During the restoration carried out in 1950, the narthex was covered with a wooden roof.
- In the 1953 restoration, the five-domed narthex was reorganized; wavy eaves were added to the minaret, facade and dome.
- Reinforced concrete tensioners imitating wood were added. The other structures of the complex, the madrasah, the bathhouse and the soup kitchen, have not survived to the present day; only the mosque and the tomb remain standing.
- Prominent Features
- A mosque with an inverted T plan and a tabhane (a charitable institution established to distribute hot food to the poor and madrasah students); the central dome is supported by a half dome towards the mihrab. It has an original design with Ottoman and Byzantine influences.
- The transition to the dome is provided by an alternating stone and brickwork and pendentives.
- The balcony and the cube section are decorated with muqarnas (stalactites), and it has a cylindrical and thick body.
- Baroque period hand-carved works; muqarnas details on the squinches and mihrab.
- It is accepted that Rum Mehmed Pasha is buried in the octagonal tomb located in the southwest of the mosque.
- This mosque is one of the rare examples of early Ottoman architecture in Üsküdar.
