Zağnos Pasha Mosque: An Ottoman Mosque in Balıkesir
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 4.8
- Popularity
- Medium
- Country
- Turkey
- Primary era
- Medieval
- External website
- Open
- Eras represented
- Medieval, Modern
- Civilizations
- Ottoman
- Site type
- Religious
- Remains
- Mosque
On this page13 sections
History
Zağnos Pasha Mosque is a fifteenth-century Ottoman mosque in Balıkesir, Türkiye, built in 1461 or possibly a few years earlier by Zağnos Pasha, an Albanian-born grand vizier and military commander who served Mehmed II. A grand vizier was the Ottoman sultan’s highest-ranking minister and chief executive official. The mosque is regarded as Balıkesir’s largest mosque and one of the city’s symbols, and it remains active.
Foundation and külliye
Zağnos Pasha founded the mosque during the reign of Mehmed II, also known as Mehmed the Conqueror, the sultan associated with the conquest of Constantinople in 1453 and the expansion and centralization of the Ottoman state. Tradition holds that 48 men assigned by Mehmed II built the mosque in six weeks. It was said to have opened for worship during a large ceremony on 3 March 1461.
The mosque formed the center of a külliye, a religious and charitable complex organized around a mosque. Its associated buildings included Zağnos Pasha’s tomb, a timekeeper’s office, and a bathhouse, while a bedesten, an imaret, and a bazaar were also formerly part of the complex. A bedesten was a covered commercial building for valuable goods, and an imaret was a charitable public kitchen. Zağnos Pasha’s son, Mehmed Bey, established a school in the courtyard.
Earthquakes and rebuilding
The mosque was damaged by earthquakes, including a late-nineteenth-century earthquake in Balıkesir, and remained closed for a period. Repairs after the 1577 earthquake were carried out through the efforts of an architect named Mahmud Agha. The mosque was later rebuilt on the foundations of the earlier structure in the early twentieth century. An inscription dates this rebuilding to 1902–04 and gives 1904 as the completion year.
The present building differs from the original mosque. The school in the courtyard was destroyed in the 1897 earthquake, while the bathhouse survives in its original form among the principal buildings of the former complex.
The mosque during the national struggle
Zağnos Pasha Mosque became a setting for important events during the Turkish War of Independence. On 23 January 1920, Mehmet Akif Ersoy delivered a sermon there, encouraging the population to support the struggle. Mehmet Akif Ersoy was an Ottoman-Turkish poet and public intellectual closely associated with the Turkish national movement.
On 7 February 1923, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk visited Balıkesir and delivered the speech known as the Balıkesir Sermon from the mosque’s minbar after a midday mawlid recitation. A mawlid is a devotional recitation commemorating the birth of the Prophet Muhammad. Atatürk led the Turkish national movement and later became the founder and first president of the Republic of Turkey. The mosque’s wider setting was reorganized through plaza works in 2021, intended to reveal its silhouette.
Remains
Zağnos Pasha Mosque has a square plan and is built from regularly cut ashlar stone blocks. Its roof composition centers on a dome carried by four piers, with four corner domes and semicircular vaults between them. Three covered porches stand before the north, east, and west entrances, while the tomb, timekeeper’s office, fountains, sundial, and bathhouse occupy or adjoin the wider complex.
Mosque building and minaret
Prayer hall and entrances
The prayer hall is reached through three separate entrances on the north, east, and west sides. Each doorway has a double-leaf wooden door with carved or otherwise worked decoration. A porch protects each entrance, creating a three-sided arrangement around the building. The porches have wooden ceilings or lead-covered wooden roofs supported by two square marble columns. The mosque has no entrance hall of the type known as a narthex.
Dome and minaret
The central dome rests on four piers and is surrounded by four smaller corner domes, with semicircular vaults filling the spaces between them. A single Baroque minaret rises at the northwestern corner. Baroque architecture uses curving and ornate forms. The minaret is made of cut stone and was built by Hacı Hafız Efendi of the Arabacıoğulları family. It is also identified as his donation.
Original minbar doorway
The doorway of the original minbar is the only surviving element of the first mosque. The minbar also preserves the association with Atatürk’s 1923 address, which was delivered from it during his visit to Balıkesir.
Courtyard and associated structures
Tomb and timekeeper’s office
Zağnos Pasha’s tomb stands immediately outside the mosque. Beside the base of the minaret is the timekeeper’s office, a building used to regulate prayer times.
Courtyard fountains
Two fountains stand in the courtyard. The northern fountain is a twelve-sided marble structure supplied with water from Pasha Bath. The western fountain was made during the mosque’s rebuilding and has relief-decorated panels around its faucets, distinguishing it from the northern fountain. A third marble fountain with a pentagonal plan stands outside the northwestern corner of the courtyard.
Sundial and bathhouse
A sundial occupies the southern part of the courtyard. It is mounted on a table set on a small, thick pillar. The bathhouse, which was one of the principal buildings of the former külliye, survives in its original form.
