Göğceli Mosque ( tr, Göğceli Camii) is a historic log mosque situated inside the Göğceli Cemetery in
Çarşamba, Samsun, northern Turkey. Built during the
Seljuk Empire period in the 1200s, the log mosque was constructed without the use of nails.
Mosque building
Göğceli Mosque is situated inside the cemetery of the same name at Hasbahçe neighborhood in the
Çarşamba district of
Samsun Province.
According to a research carried out on the wood samples taken from the building in 1990,
it was built during the second reign of
Seljuk Sultan of Rûm Kaykhusraw I
Kaykhusraw I ( 1ca, كَیخُسرو or Ghiyāth ad-Dīn Kaykhusraw ibn Kilij Arslān; fa, غياث الدين كيخسرو بن قلج ارسلان), the eleventh and youngest son of Kilij Arslan II, was Seljuk Sultan of Rûm. He succeeded his ...
() in 1206.
In 1335, the portico underwent a restoration.
The single-storey mosque was constructed forming the walls with single-piece
planks stacked without the use of nails.
The wall planks are interlocked at edges by double-notch joint technique.
Woods of
elm,
ash tree
''Fraxinus'' (), commonly called ash, is a genus of flowering plants in the olive and lilac family, Oleaceae. It contains 45–65 species of usually medium to large trees, mostly deciduous, though a number of subtropical species are evergree ...
and
chestnut
The chestnuts are the deciduous trees and shrubs in the genus ''Castanea'', in the beech family Fagaceae. They are native to temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere.
The name also refers to the edible nuts they produce.
The unrelat ...
were used on walls, columns, column capitals,
joists,
rafters and
ridge-post framing Ridge-post framing is an old type of timber framing.
The ridge board of their roof is not carried by king posts based on tie beams, but the ridge posts are based on the ground work. The German term for this construction is ''Firstständerhaus''. ...
. The planks of the walls are thick, wide and around long. The building measures × from the outside. It is high above the ground. The opening under the elevated floor enables ventilation and prevents moisture and decay of the structure.
Thanks to the wedges under the building on the ground, it has survived earthquakes.
The wooden structure can be completely moved from its place to another.
The mosque underwent an extensive restoration in 2007.
Interior
The building's covered area is . Forged iron nails were used only in the connection of the column capitals to the beams and in the additions made to the rafters extending towards the portico sections for women. The roof, the northern part of which is slightly curved, is a three-shouldered roof. The roof is carried by wooden walls and
struts. The roof of the women's section is supported by six columns.
The ornaments, dated to early and classical
Ottoman Empire period,
are colored with vegetal paint.
The mosque, still in use, has a capacity for 300 people.
The cemetery around the mosque is known as the cemetery of strangers.
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gogceli Mosque
Buildings and structures in Samsun Province
Çarşamba District
Indigenous architecture
Log buildings and structures
Religious buildings and structures completed in 1206
Seljuk mosques in Turkey