The Yakovalı Hasan Paşa Mosque ( hu, Jakováli Hasszán dzsámija, tr, Yakovalı Hasan Paşa Camii) is a late 16th-century mosque in

Pécs Pécs ( , ; hr, Pečuh; german: Fünfkirchen, ; also known by other #Name, alternative names) is List of cities and towns of Hungary#Largest cities in Hungary, the fifth largest city in Hungary, on the slopes of the Mecsek mountains in the countr ...

, southern

Hungary Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia a ...

. It was constructed when the region was part of the Turkish

Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire, * ; is an archaic version. The definite article forms and were synonymous * and el, Оθωμανική Αυτοκρατορία, Othōmanikē Avtokratoria, label=none * info page on book at Martin Luther University) ...

, around the same time as the main mosque of Pécs, the

Mosque of Pasha Qasim The Downtown Candlemas Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary ( hu, Belvárosi Gyertyaszentelő Boldogasszony-templom), formerly known as the Mosque of Pasha Qasim ( hu, Gázi Kászim pasa dzsámija, tr, Gazi Kasım Paşa Camii) is a Roman Catholic ...

(which has since been consecrated as a cathedral). It was named after the local government official who commissioned the mosque, Yakovalı Hasan Paşa (Hasan Paşa of

Gjakova Gjakova, ) and Đakovica ( sr-Cyrl, Ђаковица, ) is the seventh largest city of Kosovo and seat of Gjakova Municipality and Gjakova District. The city has 40,827 inhabitants, while the municipality has 94,556 inhabitants. Geographicall ...

). It is thus one of the oldest mosques existing in Hungary today. The mosque is still active as a Muslim place of worship, and also houses a small exhibition centre for Turkish handicraft and historical artifacts documenting Hungary's Ottoman past.

History

The mosque was built some decades after the Ottoman conquest of central Hungary. Its architect and exact date of construction are unknown. It was in use for more than a century before being presumably abandoned from late 1686 when Pécs was captured by Austrian forces, after which it served as a

hospital A hospital is a health care institution providing patient treatment with specialized health science and auxiliary healthcare staff and medical equipment. The best-known type of hospital is the general hospital, which typically has an emerge ...

. Between 1702 and 1732, it was converted into a Catholic chapel by the Bishop Wilhelm Franz von Nesselrode. During this time, the

minaret A minaret (; ar, منارة, translit=manāra, or ar, مِئْذَنة, translit=miʾḏana, links=no; tr, minare; fa, گل‌دسته, translit=goldaste) is a type of tower typically built into or adjacent to mosques. Minarets are generall ...

was turned into a

bell tower A bell tower is a tower that contains one or more bells, or that is designed to hold bells even if it has none. Such a tower commonly serves as part of a Christian church, and will contain church bells, but there are also many secular bell tower ...

, with the ruined

spire A spire is a tall, slender, pointed structure on top of a roof of a building or tower, especially at the summit of church steeples. A spire may have a square, circular, or polygonal plan, with a roughly conical or pyramidal shape. Spires are ...

being replaced with a belfry. Its interior was decorated with

Baroque The Baroque (, ; ) is a style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th century until the 1750s. In the territories of the Spanish and Portuguese empires including t ...

carvings which were then in fashion. The mosque was first restored in the 1960s, when the minaret was repaired and the Baroque ornamentation removed to restore the mosque to its original condition. A second restoration was conducted in the 2000s, in time for Pécs's designation as the European Capital for Culture in 2010 (along with

Istanbul Istanbul ( , ; tr, İstanbul ), formerly known as Constantinople ( grc-gre, Κωνσταντινούπολις; la, Constantinopolis), is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, serving as the country's economic, ...

and

Essen Essen (; Latin: ''Assindia'') is the central and, after Dortmund, second-largest city of the Ruhr, the largest urban area in Germany. Its population of makes it the fourth-largest city of North Rhine-Westphalia after Cologne, Düsseldorf and D ...

). The mosque is open to the public on designated days except Mondays and Friday services from 2.30 to 3.30 pm.

Architecture

Yakovalı Hasan Paşa Mosque has a relatively simple structure, with a square base surmounted by a typical Turkish dome and

ogee An ogee ( ) is the name given to objects, elements, and curves—often seen in architecture and building trades—that have been variously described as serpentine-, extended S-, or sigmoid-shaped. Ogees consist of a "double curve", the combinatio ...

windows. As with all mosques, it is orientated towards

Mecca Mecca (; officially Makkah al-Mukarramah, commonly shortened to Makkah ()) is a city and administrative center of the Mecca Province of Saudi Arabia, and the Holiest sites in Islam, holiest city in Islam. It is inland from Jeddah on the Red ...

and thus has a northwest–southeast axis. The minaret is 22.5 m high. A flight of stairs leads to the top of the minaret, but due to stability concerns the entrance is sealed off to visitors. The balcony was once adorned with a stone railing. On religious holidays the minaret used to be lit up with

oil lamp An oil lamp is a lamp used to produce light continuously for a period of time using an oil-based fuel source. The use of oil lamps began thousands of years ago and continues to this day, although their use is less common in modern times. Th ...

s (see also

mahya lights Mahya lights are decorative lights which are strung up between the minarets of Turkish mosques to form illuminated words or pictures on festive occasions such as Eid al-Fitr (''Ramazan Bayramı''), Eid al-Adha (''Kurban Bayramı''), on Kandil nig ...

). There was once a foyer on the northwest side of the mosque, part of a larger complex which included a tekke and

madrassa Madrasa (, also , ; Arabic: مدرسة , pl. , ) is the Arabic word for any type of educational institution, secular or religious (of any religion), whether for elementary instruction or higher learning. The word is variously transliterated '' ...

. A statue of the Ottoman chronicler

İbrahim Peçevi İbrahim Peçevi or Peçuyli İbrahim Efendi or ''(in Bosnian)'' Ibrahim Alajbegović Pečevija (1572–1650) (Ottoman Turkish: پچویلی ابراهیم افندى ) was an Ottoman Bosnian historian-chronicler of the Ottoman Empire. Life He ...

(Ibrahim of Pécs), by Turkish sculptor

Metin Yurdanur Metin Yurdanur (born 1951) is a sculptor based in Turkey, who was awarded the title State Artist of Turkey. Early years Yurdanur was born in 1951 in Sivrihisar town of Eskişehir Province in Turkey. He spent his childhood until high school in ...

, was unveiled before the mosque in 2016.Bronze Statue of İbrahim Peçevi.
Özgür Proje (in Turkish). Retrieved 19 May 2020

Gallery

File:Pécs Osmanische Moschee Innen 3.JPG, Main prayer hall. The

mihrab Mihrab ( ar, محراب, ', pl. ') is a niche in the wall of a mosque that indicates the ''qibla'', the direction of the Kaaba in Mecca towards which Muslims should face when praying. The wall in which a ''mihrab'' appears is thus the "qibla w ...

, where the

imam Imam (; ar, إمام '; plural: ') is an Islamic leadership position. For Sunni Muslims, Imam is most commonly used as the title of a worship leader of a mosque. In this context, imams may lead Islamic worship services, lead prayers, ser ...

leads congregational prayers, is in the centre File:Pécs Osmanische Moschee Innen 2.JPG, Another view of the prayer hall, with

prayer rug A prayer rug or prayer mat is a piece of fabric, sometimes a pile carpet, used by Muslims, some Christians and some Baha'i during prayer. In Islam, a prayer mat is placed between the ground and the worshipper for cleanliness during the various ...

s. The small wooden structure near the corner is a ''kürsü'' or loge for delivering lectures other than Friday sermons at the minbar, and is typical of Turkish mosques File:Pécs Osmanische Moschee Innen Minbar.JPG, The

minbar A minbar (; sometimes romanized as ''mimber'') is a pulpit in a mosque where the imam (leader of prayers) stands to deliver sermons (, ''khutbah''). It is also used in other similar contexts, such as in a Hussainiya where the speaker sits and le ...

or pulpit File:Pécs Osmanische Moschee Innen Kuppel.JPG, Interior of the dome File:Hungary pecs - jakovali2.jpg,

Koran The Quran (, ; Standard Arabic: , Quranic Arabic: , , 'the recitation'), also romanized Qur'an or Koran, is the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be a revelation from God. It is organized in 114 chapters (pl.: , sing.: ...

with stand File:Yakovali Hassan mosque, museum 1.jpg, Exhibition corner File:Yakovali Hassan mosque side.jpg, Wall of the mosque with windows

References

External links

Budapest.com: The Mosque and Minaret of Yakovali Hassan

Irány Pécs (Visit Pécs): The Mosque of Pasha Yakovali Hassan

History

Architecture

Gallery

References

External links

Further reading