Üç Serefeli Mosque / Üç Serefeli Camii - Edirne (North Turkey) - Mosques on Waymarking.com

Üç Serefeli Mosque (Üç Serefeli Camii), decorated by four distinct minarets and large courtyard, belongs among the most beautiful mosques in Turkey and is also one of Edirne city landmarks.

This mosque is one of the 3 famous and stunning mosques in Edirne. This mosque is easily recognizable, having four distinctive minarets that all have very different designs, uncommon during the 15th century, one of which has three balconies. The minarets are richly decorated with stalactite carving, reeding and spiral motifs. Separate spiral staircases cleverly intertwined lead up to each of the three balconies in the first and the tallest minaret, which gives the mosque its name; Üç Serefeli, meaning Three Balconied.

The Mosque was built between 1437-1447, during Sultan Murat II era, in a design halfway between the Seljuk Turkish-style mosques and the truly Ottoman style, which would later reach its pinnacle in Istanbul. It is a transitional building between the earlier square-like structures such as the Eski Cami and the classical style epitomized by the works of Mimar Sinan 100 years later. In the Seljuk style, smaller domes are mounted on square rooms, whereas here in this unique design the 24 m-wide dome is mounted on a hexagonal drum and supported by two walls and two massive hexagonal pillars. The mosque has larger dome, 24 m, than very famous mosques in Istanbul, covering an area larger than the diameter of a rectangular area. The mosque, as a novelty, has a rectangular structure. The designs under the domes and central sadirvan in the partially covered courtyard, another innovation that came to be standard, are fantastic. Üç Serefeli Mosque is a pioneer monumental structure for the next mosques with these characteristics.

All four of the minarets of the mosque, located at the four corners of the open court, are unique with different heights, balconies and different shapes and spiral motifs in painting decorated. Gives its name to a mosque, the first and the main minaret with three balconies was considered the tallest until the minarets of Selimiye were built. The minaret, having a height of 67.6 m, was decorated with a zigzag pattern in red and white stone. It is an early example of the use of separate staircases to access the different balconies; 3 different exiting ways to the 3 balconies. The west, north and east minarets are designed, respectively, with spiral, fluted and diamond patterns and have single balconies except for the northwest minaret with two balconies.