Ortakoy Mosque

Ortakoy Mosque was built around 1854 or 1856 with the request of Ottoman Sultan Abdülmecid I to Armenian architects Garabet and Nikogos Balyan. Garabet-Nikogos Balyan is at the same time the architect of Dolmabahçe Palace and the Dolmabahçe Mosque. The mosque has one single dome and Balyans designed the mosque in a mixture of contemporary European Revivalist trends with the earlier Ottoman Baroque style. It gets damaged by the earthquake in 1894 and a minor fire that occurred in 1984 but was repaired. It has an ornate, stone-carved decoration, which is a unique feature of it and distinguishes it from other mosques. Today, it is one of the iconic sites of Istanbul.