Izmail Mosque: A Former Ottoman Mosque in Ukraine
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 4.3
- Popularity
- Very Low
- Country
- Ukraine
- Primary era
- Early Modern
- Eras represented
- Medieval, Early Modern
- Civilizations
- Ottoman
- Site type
- Religious
- Remains
- Mosque
On this page8 sections
History
Izmail Mosque is a former Ottoman Sunni mosque in Izmail, Ukraine, built within the Turkish fortress of Izmail between the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Its medieval Ottoman architecture belongs to the period when the Ottoman Empire, the state that ruled much of southeastern Europe, Anatolia, and the Middle East for several centuries, was at its greatest development. The building is described as the only surviving Ottoman part of the fortress and as a unique Ukrainian example of this architectural tradition.
Ottoman foundation and the 1790 assault
Construction began in the fifteenth century, and the mosque was completed in the sixteenth century. It served the Ottoman Sunni community within the fortress until the assault of 1790, when Russian forces attacked Izmail. Turkish defenders held their last position in the mosque during the fighting.
Conversion and restoration
After Russian forces commanded by Alexander Suvorov, a prominent Russian military commander, captured the fortress in 1790, the building was converted into the Holy Cross Exaltation Church in 1810. During the nineteenth century, the minaret was dismantled and the gallery was covered with a pitched roof.
Restoration carried out from 1971 to 1973 reinstated lost architectural details and restored the gallery roof. On 9 May 1973, the building opened as the setting for the diorama Storming of the Izmail Fortress, a three-dimensional historical scene depicting the assault. Today, Izmail Mosque forms part of the Izmail Military-Historical Museum Complex and houses the diorama. It is protected as a monument of urban planning and architecture of national significance and is included in Ukraine’s national monument register.
Remains
Layout and construction
The mosque is a square, domed building made from limestone blocks. A gallery runs along its northern side, while the remains of the minaret stand on the eastern side. The main volume and the attached gallery create the principal surviving architectural arrangement.
Main mosque
The square central space changes into an octagonal base through pointed squinches, structural devices that transform a square room into an octagonal support for a dome. A flat hemispherical dome covers the building and rests at the corners on pendentives, curved triangular surfaces that support a dome above a square space. The windows are arranged in two levels, with rectangular openings below and pointed-arched openings above. On the northern side, the entrance is centered on the building’s axis and framed by a decorative casing.
Inside, the walls and dome are plastered. A carved stone mihrab survives in the southern wall. The mihrab is a niche that indicates the direction of prayer toward Mecca and preserves the building’s principal Islamic religious feature.
Northern gallery
The northern gallery has arches carried on marble columns. Its central section is covered by a dome, while the two side sections have semicircular vaults resting on transverse arches. The gallery roof was restored during the 1971–1973 intervention after its nineteenth-century pitched form had replaced the earlier architectural detail.
Eastern minaret remains
Remains of the minaret survive on the eastern side of the mosque. The minaret itself was dismantled during the nineteenth century, leaving this fragment as part of the building’s Ottoman architectural remains.
