Fatih Camii

Fatih Camii Review

This complex of mosque, religious schools, and other pious buildings was the largest in the whole Ottoman empire, and is still the focus of Fatih, Istanbul's most conservative neighborhood. The original mosque, which was destroyed by an earthquake in 1766, was built in 1463 by Mehmet the conqueror on the site of the demolished Church of the Twelve Apostles, the burial church of Byzantine emperors from Constantine on. The 18th-century replacement is pleasant but unexceptional, though it remains culturally one of the most important mosques in the city. Behind it is the reconstructed tomb of Fatih himself and his wife Gülbahar, sometimes said to be a French princess sent to marry the Byzantine emperor.